A RETROSPECT. v 



Dr. Wright's numerous professional occupations not permitting bim to enter upon 

 this branch of the subject, he has asked me to take it upon myself, and it is with very 

 great pleasure that I embrace the occasion of co-operating, in however feeble a degree, 

 in a great and beautiful work, brought so happily to a conclusion by my learned 

 friend. 



Commencing with an enumeration of the many works written on the Eossil Echinides, 

 I think we shall proceed with more method if they be grouped by countries and by 

 regions, taking into consideration, not the nationality of the authors, but the Echinitic 

 fauna upon which they have made their observations.^ 



The study of the Eossil Echinides of Great Britain appears during late years to be 

 concentrated in the general Monograph by Dr. Wright, and I find myself able to cite 

 only one paper, that by Mr. Keeping (1), ' On the Genus Pehmechinus, a new Section 

 established for the Ilemipedina corallina, Wright,' the coronal plates of which appear to 

 have been in some measure imbricated, resembling those in Asthenosoma . 



Erance has contributed a great number of works on Echinology, of which most are 

 due to the indefatigable zeal and untiring industry of M. Gustave Cotteau, of Auxerre ; 

 and it is important to mention above all a work of the first order, the ' Echinides 

 de la Paleontologie Erangaise' (2), the pubhcation of which is still being actively 

 carried on. 



The ' fichinides Cretaces,' commenced by d'Orbigny and continued by M. Cotteau, is 

 now completed. Two volumes of the ' Elchinides Jurassiques ' have already appeared. 

 They comprise the Echinides irrcpdiers, the family of the Cidarid^, and those of the 

 Saleniad^ ; those of the Diadematid^e will soon follow. Three other very important 

 works of M. Cotteau, commenced many years ago, have been completed ; the description 

 of the Echinides of the Department of the Sarthe (3), in which he has made known the 

 Urchins, so numerous and varied, which the Jurassic and Cretaceous strata of this 

 Department contain, and the illustrations of which required sixty-five plates ; the second 

 part of the ' Echinides of the Yonne ' (4), comprising the description and figures of ninety- 

 nine species from the Terrains Cretaces ; and lastly the first series of new or little known 

 Echinides, which have successively appeared in the ' Revue et Magasin de Zoologie ' (5), 

 and in which are found valuable observations upon known species, as well as the 

 description of numerous new species, the most part derived from Erance, but also 

 from other countries. Independently of these works, as a whole, M. Cotteau has 

 pubhshed many local Monographs, which have made great steps towards an exact know- 



1 To avoid the incumbrance of notes I shall add an appendix to this essay, in which I shall give the 

 titles of the works to be identified by corresponding figures in the te.xt. I have not cited all the works in 

 which Fossil Echinides are mentioned, but only those which appear to me more specially important either 

 as general works on the subject, or those in which some discovery is recorded. To this end I have made as 

 conscientious an investigation of all the works as was in my power ; but possibly some publications may 

 have escaped my notice. If such should be the case I make an honorable amende in advance for the- 

 omission which I shall be the first to regret. 



