14 
A NEW MONOGRAPH OF BRITISH LAND 
AND FRESHWATER “gst esa 
ean nce By PW | W. D. Rogsuck, F.L. "% ON e CHAS. ASHFORD, | an 
other well-known conchologists. | Pag | Lect: | Taylor Brothers, 
competed her genes Street. | 1894. [Part 1, issued Oct. 26th, 1894 
Royal 4 pages and coloured frontispiec ac 
To review hs first number of Mr. Taylors forthcoming ‘Mono- 
graph of the Land and Freshwater Mollusca of the British Isles,’ 
which he proposes to bring out in parts, is to us a pleasure. If the 
first number be a fair sample of those which are to follow—and 
knowing the intentions of the author we feel assured it is—those 
subscribing to this work will possess, in the near future, a book on 
the mollusca of their own country which will take its stand in the 
front rank of those which treat on British conchological science. 
Of manuals which treat on British Mollusca, there are three 
distinct kinds. The primers—pbrief, specific, introductory, and 
intended for beginners; those larger works, which are chiefly 
concerned with the forms and distribution of shells; and, a third 
kind which includes those which seek to blend all that is interesting 
about molluscs, their shells and life-histories. This new monograph 
comes under the third class, for it recognises that shells and their 
makers are of equal importance, and aims to give a fair account of 
each. This is an age of life-history work, when the biologist seeks to 
complete his type, if he can, and bemoans lack of material or time if 
he cannot, and he has been as busy amongst the British mollusca as 
claewhere. Hence it was full time that English conchology should 
post- Darwinian era— 
biological work, and that a manual ‘should be prepared to keep new 
students abreast of the times, as has been done amongst nearly the 
whole of the natural groups of animals. We know of no one better 
fitted to write such a book, than the author of this Monograph. To 
the study of British Land and Freshwater Mollusca, Mr. Taylor has 
devoted the best part of a lifetime, and from years of personal 
knowledge we know how closely he has applied himself, strictly and 
specially, to the subject he has undertaken to write upon and has 
mastered, as few in Britain have, those generic and_ specific 
differences and varietal intricacies which will be the book’s chief value 
when complete 
We know that no scientific man has an equal or all-round grasp 
of the various aspects of any one subject, however small that may be 
or unlimited his time to devote to it. Here again the students of this 
monograph are fortunate, for along with the love of detail and pains- 
Naturalist, 
