42 Reviews—R. Etheridge, Jun —Paleozoic Conchology. 
Geikie would ever have ventured upon it. That he has not wholly 
succeeded is due to the inherent impossibility of this double task : 
we doubt if any other living authority could have accomplished so 
much and succeeded so well. 
Dr. Geikie is not only an enthusiastic physical geologist, but he 
is also a born artist,.a man of brilliant imagination, a master of 
English, and a thorough man of the world. Many of his sympathies 
lie with the earnest student burning to pierce to the heart of things, 
but his normal view of the science is that of an artist, a discipli- 
narian, and an educated man of society. His instincts of order and 
artistic feeling are extraordinary. In his hands the most hetero- 
genous materials group themselves into the most orderly arrange- 
ment, and are explained with charming clearness and beauty of 
description. He instinctively seizes at once upon some central idea 
of classification, and groups his facts around it stage by stage. His 
arrangement is not always natural, but it is always plausible, and it 
is always certain to lead to a symmetrical and picturesque effect. 
Unlike the ordinary compiler of geological text-books, he is not 
content to hide away the purely speculative parts of his science in 
an obscure corner. He boldly places them in the fore-front of his 
work, lights them up with all the glow of his own imagination, and 
compels the attention and sympathy of all those who take an interest 
in the speculative philosophy of the time. Under his rule the 
heterogeneous facts and conclusions of the science are marshalled 
together into a vast army, in which all degrees of subordination have 
their regulated place, an army deliberately intended to overwhelm 
all doubt and opposition, and to win for their leader the awe and 
respect of all those who dwell within and around the borderland of | 
his science. 
(To be continued.) 
IJ.—Tue Patmozorc Concuonocy oF Scornanp. Opsntne ADDRESS 
DELIVERED BEFORE THE RoyAaL PuyYSsICAL Society or EDINBURGH. 
16th November, 1881. By R. ErueripGs, jun., President of the 
Society. (Edinburgh, 1882.) 
HIS address is mainly devoted to the general consideration of the 
present state of the fossil conchology of the older rocks of 
Scotland. Even in this restricted sense, it is an important contribu- 
tion, for the intimate acquaintance of the author with the Paleozoic 
invertebrata of this country and of Australia fully qualified him to 
prepare this excellent resumé. It is not, however, a mere compila- 
tion, but a valuable compendium of facts, carefully selected, and 
critically examined, with many suggestive observations bearing on 
one branch, and that probably the most important of Paleontology, 
that is, Fossil Conchology, for ‘‘of all life groups used by the 
geologist to assist him in working out the successive epochs of the 
earth’s history, none, perhaps, have played so important a part, or 
yielded so satisfactory and valuable results, as the Mollusca.” 
The Paleozoic Conchology of Scotland is restricted as far as at 
present known to the Silurian and Carboniferous rocks, for no shells 
