80 Revieivs — Royal Italian Geological Commission. 



sometimes to be eaten away, so as to leave a sort of reticulated 

 surface standing up above the body of the spiculum, and in some of 

 the larger specimens the surfaces are dotted with minute punctures, 

 around which Mr. Parfitt has noticed a series of annulations in the 

 form of Beekite.^ 



6. List of Worhs on the Geology, Mineralogy, and Palceontology of 

 Devonshire. By William Whitaker, B.A., F.G.S. 



This list contains no less than 300 papers relating to the geology 

 of Devonshire, which must be of great service, not only to the 

 members of the Devonshire Association, most of whom, away from 

 libraries, would be ill able to hunt up the literature of their county, 

 but to all geologists in any way interested in it. Those only who 

 have had occasion to find out the different works written upon a 

 particular subject can estimate the amount of labour which this list 

 by Mr Whitaker must have necessitated. 



III. — The EoTAii Geological Commission of Italy, Bulletin, 

 No. 1-10 (in seven). 8vo. Florence, 1870. 



[R. Comitato Geologico d' Italia. Bolletino, No. 1-10.] 



THIS Commission was ordered by a royal decree of December 15, 

 1867, for the purpose of providing Italy with a geological map 

 of the country (on a scale of 3-0-0-0-0)5 ^^^ accurate sections of the 

 strata, and to insure high-class teaching in mineralogy, geology, and 

 mining. For this end, a national institution (under the Minister of 

 Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce), with its president and officers, 

 record-office, library, and museum, together with an examining 

 board, have been set a-foot ; and it will be perfected as soon as the 

 State can afford the means for carrying out in full the purposes of 

 this useful and well-promising Eoyal Commission. The members 

 at the end of 1869 were : — Igino Cocchi, Professor of Geology in 

 the Eoyal Upper Institute at Florence, President ; Bartolommeo 

 Gastaldi, Professor of Mineralogy in the School of Applied Engi- 

 neering at Turin; Felice Giordano, Engineer, Inspector of the Eoyal 

 Mining Corps ; Guiseppe Meneghini, Professor of Geology in the 

 University of Pisa ; Lodovico Pasini, Senator (since dead). By the 

 enthusiasm and good sense of devoted geologists, desirous of making 

 their favourite science useful to the State, this Geological Survej'^ has 

 been brought under the notice of the Government, and is now fairly 

 set going, just as in other countries fellow- workers had already got 

 King, Kaiser, and Eepublic to recognize and advance their labours 

 in working out the structure and developing the resources of their 

 native lands. May the progress of the Italian Survey be steady and 

 rapid, insured by Italy's new-found peace and unity ! And certainly 

 the experience of foreign Surveyors, the advanced views of modern 

 geology, and the vast accumulation of facts and theories in the 



1 Mr W. H. Bensted long ago called attention to the occurrence of bands of 

 spicula in the Kentish Ragstone Quarries at Maidstone. The workmen suffered with 

 inflnmraation in their hamls, whicli Mr. I'ensted discovered to he due to the irritation 

 caused by these fossil-sponge spicules penetrating the skin. 



