Reviews — Nicholson's Tabulate Corals. 561 



tionist. Dr. Hunt has written much and well, and his ample ex- 

 periences as a geologist and a chemist entitle his opinions to respectful 

 consideration. He may be a trifle hasty, and perhaps in the 

 exigencies of the moment he is not always too particular. Thus he 

 has been at issue with many writers and speakers, himself amongst 

 the number; but we are bound to admit that in the interpretation 

 of the crystalline series above the Laurentian his recantation is com- 

 plete (p. 276), and he does not waste the time or abuse the patience 

 of his audience by vain endeavoui's to maintain a reputation for 

 infallibility. 



The dates of Dr. Hunt's views are always of importance, and we 

 find him stating in 1871 his conviction that the crystalline schists of 

 Germany, Anglesey and the Scotch Highlands will be found anterior 

 to the deposition of the Cambrian sediments. As is well known, he 

 professes to be able to correlate by their lithological characters the 

 schists of the British Isles with those on the other side of the 

 Atlantic. The andalusite-schists in Donegal may be, as he states, of 

 the type of the White Mountain series ; but when he hints rather 

 than affirms that the chiastolite schists of Skiddaw are to be referred 

 to this group — placed by Hitchcock, be it remembered, below the 

 Huronian — admiration gives place to incredulity ; since the next step 

 would be to claim the Skiddaw granite as Laurentian gneiss ! 



W. H. H. 



II. — On tiie Structure and Affinities of the "Tabulate 

 Corals " of the Paleozoic Period. With Critical Descrip- 

 tions of Illustrative Species. By H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., 

 D.Sc, etc., Professor of Natural History in the University of St. 

 Andrews. Illustrated with Engravings on Wood and fifteen 

 Lithograph Plates. Super Royal 8vo. pp. 342. (London and 

 Edinburgh, William Blackwood & Sous.) 



IT might have been thought that the various memoirs on Fossil 

 Corals which have been written by Edwards and Haime, Lind- 

 strom, and other palaeontologists, including Dr. Nicholson himself, 

 would have pretty well exhausted all that could be said on the sub- 

 ject, and rendered a fresh work almost unnecessary ; but a glance at 

 the contents of this elaborate book at once shows that it is no mere 

 recapitulation of what has already appeared in previous publications, 

 but that it contains a great amount of additional knowledge respect- 

 ing this division of Fossil Corals. This is not owing so much to the 

 description of new forms, but rather to the results obtained by the 

 examination of microscopic sections of forms already known. Whilst 

 it is true that this method of investigation involves, in the preparation 

 of thin transparent sections, a vast amount of preliminary work 

 which only those who have undertaken a similar task are capable of 

 estimating, there can be no doubt that it is only by this means that 

 reliable evidence can be obtained and satisfactory conclusions drawn 

 as to the true characters and affinities of these fossil organisms. Dr. 

 Nicholson may be said to be the first to apply to any extent the 



DECADE II. — VOL. VI. NO. XII. 36 



