129 



IV, NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



I. Die Organisation der Trilobiten aus ihren lebenden ver- 

 wandten entwickelt ; nebst einer systematischen Uebersicht alter 

 zeither beschriebenen Arten. Von Hermann Burmeister, &c. 

 &c. Mit 6 Kupfertafeln. Berlin, 1843.* 



The European reputation of M. Burmeister, who is known as one 

 of the most philosophical of all living Naturalists of the articulated 

 tribes, would be sufficient to render any work prepared by him in- 

 teresting and valuable, even if it related to a subject of less obscurity 

 and difficulty than that he has now undertaken, namely, a descrip- 

 tion of the structure and analogies of the Trilobites. The pro- 

 bability that a complete English translation will soon appear f, 

 renders unnecessary any very extended notice of this valuable work. 



The introductory part of Dr. Burmeister's book is chiefly oc- 

 cupied with a history of the literature of Trilobites ; and his re- 

 searches, if one may judge by a list of upwards of a hundred 

 memoirs on the subject, can hardly fail of being tolerably complete. 

 His first chapter includes an account of the general external struc- 

 ture of the Trilobite, as deduced from the examination of the 

 fossils. He considers, that since the remains of Trilobites are 

 confined to the shell and casts of the shell, no soft part of the body 

 either is or could be preserved, and that all the parts under the 

 shell, of at least all those actually covered by it, are exhibited in 

 the casts ; while, on the other hand, those parts probably once ex- 

 siting, but which we miss in the casts, were not covered with a 

 hard horny or shelly armour, and for that reason were not pre- 

 served. When, therefore, we find that the whole of the under 

 part of the body, with whatever may have been attached, is absent 

 in these fragments, it follows that these parts must have been 

 soft and merely covered with skin, not by any means that they did 

 not exist. 



In the minute anatomical description of these singular crea- 



* " The organisation of Trilobites, developed by means of their analogies 

 with existing species, together with a systematic notice of all the species hitherto 

 described ; " with six copper plates. 



f This translation will be one of the early volumes printed by the Ray 

 Society, recently established (on the principle of the Camden, Parker, Sydenham, 

 and other publishing societies) for the purpose of providing the subscribers 

 with such valuable works on Natural History as are not likely to be undertaken 

 by any publisher. 



VOL. I. K 



