Ixiv 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



published volume (the ninth) of the Menioires de la Societe Lmnc- 

 eniie de Normandie, a work in which not a few geological notices of 

 interest may be found. It is indeed remarkable that the two genera in 

 question, the one until lately regarded as characteristically and pecu- 

 liarly palaeozoic, and the other as principally cretaceous, should have 

 their epochs of cessation and commencement thus as it were m 

 contact. 



One of the distinctive features of our science during the year just 

 past, is the moncgra])h of Nummulites by Vicomte dWrchiac, con- 

 stituting a portion of the " Description des Animaux Fossiles du 

 Groupe Nummulitique de I'lnde." For some time geologists have 

 looked forward anxiously to the appearance of this treatise, the fruit 

 of careful and conscientious researches, conducted amid abundant 

 materials, and guided by the wise, logical and truth-seeking spirit, so 

 characteristic of its illustrious author. They have not been disap- 

 pointed ; the result of his labours is the production of a most valu- 

 able memoir, illustrated by figures of the highest excellence. Every 

 natural group of organized beings, whether existing or extinct, would 

 seem to have its epoch of elucidation, a point of maximum in the 

 history of its study, and the accumulation of facts towards that 

 history. When the time comes, the man is present for the work ; 

 but the right moment is ever preceded by long series of preliminary 

 labours, necessarily more or less imperfect, but not the less essential 

 for the eventual right and full understanding of the subject. We are 

 apt to forget when all is made clear to us, apparently as if in a 

 moment, how we have been progressing step by step towards that 

 hill-top from whence we are enabled to command a full and fair 

 view, and how every movement, though not always a straight one, 

 summit-wards, was requisite for the attainment of an eventual posi- 

 tion, even though what we sought to see was hidden from us during 

 our upward course. The so-called " discoverer " is too apt to attri- 

 bute to his own individual eftorts what is really but the fruit of time, 

 and the produce of the less fortunate labours of his predecessors. 

 This is not a fault of M. d'Archiac ; conscientiously and carefully 

 does he analyse and assign due credit to the essays of those who have 

 gone before him in the difficult and curious study to which his 

 monograph is devoted. Not fewer than 200 volumes, papers, or 

 separate notes upon Nummulites (the work of 128 authors) are 

 analysed in his treatise. First in the list is the ancient and venerable 

 name of Strabo ; among the latest are our countrymen Carpenter, 

 Carter, and Williamson, who have independently striven with, re- 

 markable ability and success to elucidate the structure of recent and 

 extinct Khizopoda, attracted to the study by the same mysterious 

 but fortunate impulse that has simultaneously directed the attention 

 of D'Archiac, Rutimeyer, and numerous continental observers to the 

 same interesting subject. 



The author describes and figures 52 species of true Nummulites. 

 Of these 20 are entirely new. But these numbers give no idea of 

 the laborious task performed in sifting and rectifying synonymes, 

 reconciling species in duplicate, and abolishing useless names. The 



