Reviews — Zittel' s and Schimper's Palaeontology. 1 85 



Haly sites, Aidopora, etc., to the Alcyonaria, and still less so if that 

 reference places them in the Tubiporidce. At the same time, it is 

 quite unreasonable to expect that any writer of a systematic treatise 

 on Palaeontology should, now-a-clays, possess an equal, detailed, 

 personal knowledge of all the departments of the science, and with 

 this consideration in one's mind, it is impossible to refuse high 

 commendation to the section of his work which Professor Zittel has 

 devoted to the Corals. What has been said above as to the Corals 

 will apply with equal cogency to the portion of the volume which 

 deals with the Hijdrozoa. The general treatment of the subject is 

 excellent ; and even an ill-natured critic would find it difficult to 

 detect otber fault than that the author, in accepting the results of the 

 latest investigations, does not, perhaps, sufficiently indicate to the 

 student that these investigations have by no means always received 

 the general endorsement of other high authorities in the same field. 

 For instance, it can hardly be said that Parheria has been proved to 

 be really of calcareous composition, and of Hydrozoal affinities. It 

 is probable, at any rate, that well-known names could still be cited 

 in support of an entirely opposite view; and in cases which no 

 one but a specialist can decide, it would seem advisable to indicate 

 that divergences of opinion still exist, and that the question ought 

 to be looked upon by the student as one not yet finally solved. 

 Again, the reference of the Stromatoporoids to the Hydrocorallince, 

 in close association with Millepora, might have been more clearly 

 indicated as a purely provisional arrangement, rendered unavoidable 

 by the absolute necessity of placing extinct groups somewhere in the 

 zoological series. No one, probably, would be more ready than the 

 accomplished author to admit that, in spite of what has been done 

 of late years, the entire subject of the structure and affinities of 

 these obscure and difficult fossils has yet to be worked out to a fully 

 satisfactory conclusion ; and it would perhaps have been better if 

 this admission had been explicitly made. 



Upon these and many other points of a like nature, wide differences 

 of opinion will, and ought, to exist for a long time to come ; and it 

 is not altogether unreasonable to think that these differences might 

 with advantage have been more fully recognized in the work before 

 us. No impartial critic, however, can refuse his tribute of admira- 

 tion in dealing with the work as a whole. It is only as a whole 

 that a treatise of this kind ought to be judged, and from this point 

 of view it would be difficult to award too great praise to the manner 

 in which Professor Zittel has so far carried out his portion of the 

 work. It will be, when completed, incontestably, the best systematic 

 treatise on Palaeontology, of its kind, in existence ; and no palaeon- 

 tological or zoological student can afford to be without it, if he 

 should wish to enter upon any serious investigation into his subject. 

 From a patriotic point of view, one can only regret that the time 

 has not yet come at which it would be possible to induce any British 

 publisher, with any reasonable expectation of pecuniary profit, to 

 undertake the publication of a similar work. H. A. N. 



