Miscellanies. 387 



dates the botanists, by receiving their works in exchange, or else spe- 

 cimens of rare plants : and he receives subscriptions for the remain- 

 der of his botanical and zoological publications. 



9. Wonders of Geology, in two Vols. 12mo., with numerous plates 

 and wood cuts ; by Gideon Mantell, LL. D., F. R. S., M. G. S., &c., 

 &-C. — This new work we have, within a few days, received from the 

 respected author, and as the present No. of the Journal is near finish- 

 ing, we hasten to give it a passing notice. Dr. Mantell's earlier 

 works, among which were. Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex, 

 4to., with 42 plates, that on Tilgate Forest, 4to,, with plates, The 

 Geology of the South East of England, 8vo., with numerous plates 

 and cuts, and many memoirs and tracts, were published when the au- 

 thor resided in his native town of Lewes, seven miles from Brighton. 

 By his great industry and zeal, he redeemed, from the cares of an 

 extensive and laborious practice in surgery, time enough to produce 

 these fine works, which rank with the very first on the science of 

 geology, and have raised the reputation of their author to a high stand- 

 ard, giving him both an European and a transatlantic fame. Dr. 

 Mantell, during his residence at Lewes, collected a splendid, and in a 

 great measure an unique museum,, the most remarkable ornaments of 

 which were the astonishing fossil bones and other reliquiae of his own 

 region, discovered chiefly by himself and his family. Of this museum 

 we gave an account at page 162, Vol. 23, of this Journal. 



A few years since, Dr. Mantell removed to Brighton, and there estab- 

 lished his museum in appropriate apartments. It soon became a 

 nucleus, around which clustered the Sussex Scientific and Literary 

 Institution, and in its rooms were held instructive and entertaining 

 conversaziones. On these occasions and in connexion with the mu- 

 seum, many interesting objects of nature and art were exhibited and 

 described by Dr. Mantell and his friends, and thus a hope was con- 

 ceived and cherished (we wish we could say, it has h&Qxi fully sustain- 

 ed) that a permanent elevation might be given to the fashionable crowd 

 which revolve around the court and the throne, during its temporary 

 pilgrimages to this favorite point on the chalky shores of Albion.* In 

 these efforts Dr. Mantell was, primus inter pares, (if indeed a compeer 

 he had,) among many associates in science and literature, most of them 

 his personal friends, who adorned those coteries, so novel, in a city 

 devoted to the splendors of the court and the fashionable amusements 

 of the high and noble gentry who revolve in its orbit. 



* Fifty-five miles south of London on the Channel coast, 



