88 Reviews—Prof. de Lapparent’s Traité de Géologie. 
the title ‘publice defendit.? This dissertation was frequently not 
composed by the candidates themselves, but by one of the Professors, 
who in the disputation acted as President. It was thus an oppor- 
tunity for the Professors to get their own works printed. As a con- 
firmation of the above, there is an original letter from Linnzus to 
his friend Dr. A. Back, dated Upsala, 7 March, 1745, in which he 
says: ‘I have prepared a disputation, De coralliis Balthicis, with 30 
figures, in which I arrange most of the corals of Bromell as varieties, 
and describe many new ones.’ The contents of the treatise, more- 
over, show that it could in no wise have been composed by a young 
student of mining. The part which Fougt had in its preparation 
consisted merely in drawing the figures, and in paying the costs of 
the publication.” Gi dit Eh 
I1].—A Primer oF Puysicat Grograpny. By P. Martin Duncay, 
M.B. (Lond.), F.R.S. (London, 1882: Ward, Lock & Co.) 
HIS little book forms one of a series of Science Primers for the 
people, which the publishers have undertaken to produce at 
a very low price, while aiming to supply valuable introductions to 
the subjects of which they réspectively treat. 
In the above work Prof. Duncan has endeavoured to comprise the 
leading facts of Physical Geography, systematically arranged in nine 
chapters. The globe and its physical peculiarities, the land and sea, 
the atmosphere and the phenomena connected with it, snow and ice 
and their effects, river valleys and lakes, volcanos and their corre- 
lated phenomena, climate and the distribution of animals and plants. 
A great deal of information is given in a very limited space (128 
pages), the subject-matter of each chapter and its bearings being 
concisely described, thus forming a good elementary hand-book to 
the science. J. M. 
IV.—Traité pe Gionogiz. Par A. De Larpparent, Professeur & 
l'Institut Catholique de Paris. Fascicules 7-8. (Paris, 1883: 
F. Savy.) 
HIS excellent pee of Geology (which has been previously 
noticed in this Magazrinz, Dec. II]. Vol. 1X. p. 122) is now 
completed by the publication of the 7th and 8th parts, and forms 
a volume of 1280 pages, including an alphabetical index. 
These last two parts complete the Cretaceous rocks, which are 
followed by the description of the Tertiary and Quaternary periods. 
The third book treats of the origin and characters of the eruptive 
rocks, and of mineral and metalliferous veins. The last and con- 
cluding book contains a general account of terrestrial dislocations 
and their distribution, as well as on the theoretical considerations on 
the earth’s structure. J. M. 
