EDITORIAL NOTES. 287 



information given is a detailed and exhaustive summary of what is so far known, 

 though, as they say, there is a vast iieid in Ireland for future workers and only the 

 fringe of the subject has been touched. Complete lists of species are given for the 

 sections examined, followed by a series of extremely interesting critical notes on 

 certain families, genera and species. The authors conclude with an excursus on the 

 origin of llie Irish non-marine moUuscan fauna, and draw certain important 

 deductions — for instance, that practically all the species existed in Ireland in pre- 

 glacial times and survived the glacial period ; and that there has certainly been no 

 land connection between Great Britain and Ireland since glacial times. The paper 

 is accompanied by a folding tal)le of twent)' columns, showing the fossil and recent 

 distribution of each species. 



The recently issued part 23 of Mr. Taylor's Monograph will have been received 

 by all with very mingled feelings, owing to the notice which appears on the cover 

 that publication is suspended until the conclusion of the war. We are always 

 asking for more of this splendid work, and Mr. Taylor has our hearty sympathy in 

 the bitter disappointment which it must be to him to make this announcement. 



The present part contains 48 pages of text and 4 plates, and the figures of 

 Theba cantiana strike us as especially good. For H. granulata Alder a new genus 

 AsJifordia is proposed, dedicated to Charles Ashford — a late member of this Society 

 — and based upon anatomical peculiarities. 



The other species monographed are Hygrotnia iinibrosa Partsch, lately added by 

 Mr. Taylor to the British list, Theba cantiana Mont, and T. cartusiana Midler. 

 With the last he was inclined to unite the I^evantine Theba syriaca Ehrenb. , a 

 course which hardly commended itself to those familiar with this species, but he has 

 since reconsidered this view in an interesting article in "The Naturalist," 1918, 

 p. 25. We are not satisfied that Hygromia n?iib}Osa really occurs in Switzerland, 

 in spite of Clessin's " Verbreitung : im ganzen Gebiete." It is very strange that 

 Westerlund, an incomparably better authority than Clessin, writing two years later, 

 does not record it as Swiss at all. 



" .Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture," by J. Wilfrid Jackson 

 (University Press, Manchester: price 7/6 net). 



The publication of this interesting and well illustrated volume has been heralded 

 and announced in our advertisement columns. It is the second of an ethnological 

 series now appearing under the auspices of Manchester University and is replete 

 with information which concerns the conchologist and with references to the 

 literature consulted. 



The main body of the work is divided into four chapters : the first deals with 

 the geographical distribution of the shell purple industry and we note that Miirex 

 trjincnhis L., ]\I. brandaris L. , PiDpnra hi?7nasto7na L. and P. lapilhis L. are all 

 considered to have been used in Europe as sources of the dye. Chapter ii. deals with 

 Shell-trumpets and chapter iii. with the use of Pearls and Pearl-shell. Chapter iv. 

 gives us an exhaustive account of the use of Cowries for currency, amulets and 

 charms. One cf the most striking features which Mr. Jackson's book brings out — 

 as it is, of course, intended to do — is the universality of the usages discussed, 

 practically all over the world. We congratulate the author heartily on having 

 produced so complete and well-arranged a compendium of his subject. 



