Report of the Statu Geologist* 453 



There is at present no work in the English Language meeting 

 the modern requirements of a guide or introduction to the study 

 of the Brachiopoda in which elementary facts in regard to struc- 

 ture, function, habits and distribution of these animals, the dis- 

 tinguishing characters and systematic relations of their genera, 

 are concisely brought together in one place. The literature per- 

 taining to both recent and fossil forms is widespread and in many 

 languages, beyond the reach of most students, and sometimes 

 accessible with difficulty even to investigators. Dr. (Ehlert has 

 admirably summarized the subject in Fischer's Manual de 

 Conchyliologie (lb ST) and Prof, von Zittel has treated the group 

 still more succinctly in his "Handbuch von Palaontologie." In- 

 bringing to a summary the investigations of the palaeozoic 

 genera of the brachiopoda as expressed at length in volume VIII, 

 parts i and ii of the Palaeontology of New York, it has seemed 

 desirable to present to students an abridgment of the conclusions 

 there derived, with the addition of some introductory and more 

 general descriptive matter. The outcome of this purpose is the 

 present work which it is hoped and believed will be found ser- 

 viceable to students of both palaeontology and geology, and help 

 to nourish the growing interest in the structure and history of 

 these important animals. The work has been prepared for the 

 use of American students to whom it is cordially dedicated, 



JAMES HALL, 



State Geologist. 

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