Ixxxil - PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
During the past year also we have to record the appearance of a 
new work by Prof. Ansted, entitled ‘The Ancient World,’ m which 
the author chiefly occupies himself with views founded on the organic 
remains discovered in rocks of different ages; these views communi- 
cated in a simple form, and more especially intended for the use of 
the general reader. 
To our colleague, the Professor of Chemistry at Oxford, Dr. Dau- 
beny, we are indebted for a second edition of his ‘ Description of 
Active and Extinct Volcanos, of Earthquakes and of Thermal Springs,’ 
published a few weeks since. When we consider how important a 
correct knowledge of volcanic action now is, even when we study the 
detrital deposits of the oldest accumulations, facts observed giving 
rise to the inference that even in such early geological times, ashes 
and lapilli were showered into the atmosphere and falling into the 
water became mingled with mud or other deposits effected round 
the dry land and im the seas of the period, this work, wherein the 
whole subject is brought up to the knowledge of the day, by one 
so competent, cannot fail to be most acceptable to geologists. The 
work is so much altered that there is scarcely a chapter which re- 
mains as in the former edition. A new classification of felspathic 
rocks is given, founded upon the analytical researches of Abich, 
Gmelin, Rose and others. There.is a sketch of the Lago di Lugano, 
with a new theory of dolomitization. We have descriptions of the 
thermal waters of San Filippo, of the Lagunes of Volterra, and of 
the Alban Hills, near Rome. The observations on Rocca Monfina 
are new, and chiefly from his own investigations, as also those on 
Mount Vultur and the Lago di Ansanto. Additions are made to the 
notice of Vesuvius, the result of two visits to that voleano, subse- 
quently to the publication of the first edition. His former theory 
respecting the Dead Sea is much modified, and a far more com- 
plete account of the volcanos of the American continent is given. 
Two entirely new chapters are dedicated to a sketch of the phe- 
nomena of earthquakes, compiled from various sources, and the 
like number to an account of those of thermal springs, to an ex- 
tended tabular view of their physical and chemical phenomena, and 
to statements, chiefly his own, considered to afford proofs of their 
volcanic origin. A much fuller account of the chemical theory of 
volcanos, as suggested by Davy and developed by himself, is given 
than is elsewhere to be found, and additional information m sup- 
port of that view is brought forward. New proofs of the truth of 
the chemical theory are considered to be derived from Grove’s re- 
searches respecting the repulsive force of heat annulling strong 
chemical attraction, from his own observations on the gases of vol- 
canos and of thermal springs, from Pilla’s notices of flames issuing 
from craters, and from the gradually increasing proportion of bases 
found in voleanic as compared with granitic rocks. Respecting the 
great heat which in the opimion of many of us produced the con- 
dition of the matter composing the earth that enabled it to take 
the form it now possesses, and which, diminishing by radiation into 
the surrounding planetary place, finally left a solid crust to be abraded 
