4^2 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



THE NEW MONOGRAPH. 



J. W. Taylor. — A Monograph of the Land and Freshwater MoUusca of 

 the British Isles, Part I. (Leeds, pp. 64, i plate, 138 illustrations in 

 text). Price 6/-, or by subscription 5/-, free by post, 5/3. 



A GREAT deal has happened to some of us since this monograph was first 

 publicly proposed in 1SS3, and it is much to be deplored that some of those 

 who took considerable interest in the work have not lived to see its publica- 

 tion. However, Mr. Scudder was twenty years preparing his great treatise 

 on the Butterflies of New England, so perhaps we ought to be very grateful 

 for the appearance of Part I. of the Monograph in a little more than ten years 

 from the publicly announced commencement of its preparation. 



Those who have taken part in the controversies of the day, cannot fail 

 to look with interest for the publication of those parts of the monograph 

 treating of the various species and varieties in detail. Here will be found 

 the results of ten years' deliberation on hundreds of knotty points concerning 

 which great diversities of opinion prevail, and the conclusions arrived at 

 cannot fail to be interesting, whether we agree with them or not. The 

 IDresent part, however, does not stir up the fires of controversy to any great 

 extent, dealing almost entirely with fundamental and well-known facts. 



If the practised conchologist is possibly a litlle impatient at finding more 

 interesting matters temporarily shelved for what he regards as common- 

 places, the amateur will assuredly be grateful ; and as the chief value of the 

 book, perhaps, will be its power of attracting new students and stimulating 

 beginners, it cannot be said that the space thus given up is wasted. It is 

 undoubtedly one of the greatest misfortunes that science has to contend with, 

 that great and serious obstacles are commonly placed in the way of the 

 beginner. Many naturalists continually forget that all are not so well- 

 informed as themselves, and drift into a style which is simply bewildering to 

 any but the old hands. This ii most conspicuously illustrated, perhaps, in 

 synopses of families, genera, and species, which though seeming satisfactory 

 to their authors, are frequently even misleading to beginners. 



It is therefore satisfactory to welcome a book which begins at the 

 beginning ; and at the risk of thrashing a considerable amount of old straw, 

 aims to be almost entirely self-explanatory, like a sort of Euclid of Conchology. 

 Most especially to be commended is the abundance of illustration, whereby 

 space in description may be saved, and everything made much easier to 

 understand than would be possible by the most carefully chosen words. It 

 is more especially this feature in Mr. W. G. Binney's Manual of American 

 Land Shells which makes that work so admirable a guide to the North 

 American species, combined as it is with an extremely lucid text. 



The list of terms used in describing, while not so full as that given by 

 Dr. Westerlund in his Fundamenta Malacologka (1892, p. 1 19), is probably 

 sufficient for ordinary purposes. In order to test this, I gave the 

 work to a student who had not any special knowledge of mollusca, and 

 requested her to describe, with its help, a Cydotus from Jamaica. The 



J.C. vii., Oct. 1894. 



