IxXXViii PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



full of joy, on my return I never entered its gates without a vague 

 feeling of sadness." 



I have much pleasure in stating that four more parts of the work 

 of Major Crescenzo Montagna, entitled <Generazione della terra,' 

 to which I alluded on a former occasion, have since been published ; 

 they are written in the same moderate and careful spirit as the 

 former ones. The author has avoided all extreme and exaggerated 

 views. He adheres to the generally received opinions respecting the 

 fixity of species, and protests strongly against the doctrine of trans- 

 mutation and the Darwinian theory. In the 16th and 17th 

 chapters of the fourth book will be found some interesting consider- 

 ations respecting the appearance and disappearance of species on 

 the surface of the earth. He rejects the doctrine of great breaks in 

 the order of succession of animal life, as well as of those cataclysmal 

 paroxysms which are supposed to have caused them ; on the con- 

 trary, he finds a passage of genera, and even of species, from one 

 formation to another ; many species have survived the causes which 

 led to the destruction of others, and have continued to hve on 

 together with the newly created forms. And with regard to the 

 introduction of new and the extinction of old species, he points to 

 many causes which may have occasioned the latter phenomena ; but 

 he maintains that man in his present state of knowledge is unable 

 to understand how new forms have been brought into existence, 

 except by the will and law of the Creator. With regard to the ex- 

 tinction of species he has, however, committed one serious geogra- 

 phical error when he states (p. 335), " Quite recently, according to 

 Lyell, the extinction of the JDodo has been noticed, a bird which at 

 no very distant period was an inhabitant of the British Isles." 



He protests in the strongest language against the doctrine of 

 transformation of species, and considers the idea^that a mollusk could 

 become a fish, or a lizard a man, as worthy only of a madman, and a^ 

 giving but poor evidence of the progress of civilization at the present 

 time. 



In a subsequent passage, however, he bears testimony to Mr. Dar- 

 win's great merits in showing to what an extent the variety of species 

 does sometimes extend, and in endeavouring to get rid of the endless 

 multiplication of species which some naturalists endeavour to set up 

 on the strength of slight variations of form and markings, which are 

 really only the result of local conditions or a change of geographi- 

 cal position. 



The work is accompanied by numerous plates, dra^vn and engraved 

 by the author himself. It is, however, to be regretted that the work 

 has not been more expeditiously completed, as the last numbers 

 have not yet been published. 



In the Bulletin of the Geological Society of Prance for last year*, 

 M. Boue has published a paper giving his reasons for now modifying 

 some of his views respecting his classification of Turkish Geology, 

 published in 1840. Human knowledge, he says, advances by the 



* Bull, de la Soc. Geol. dc France, deuxieme serie, vol. xxii. p. 164. 



