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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



The British Tunicata ; an unfinished Monograph by the late 

 Joshua Alder and the late Albany Hancock. Edited by 

 John Hopkinson, with a history of the work by Canon 

 A. M. Norman. Eay Society. 



This is indeed a posthumous publication, but a very welcome 

 one nevertheless. Between 1855 and 1860 Mr. Alder, at the 

 request of Dr. Gray, undertook to prepare a " Catalogue of 

 British Tunicata," to form a British Museum publication. 

 When, however, the work was written by 1863, the Museum 

 grant for the publication of these catalogues had been with- 

 drawn, and consequently it could not appear as originally in- 

 tended. It was now arranged that Aider, with Albany Hancock, 

 should prepare a more elaborate monograph for publication by 

 the Bay Society, but the first named died in 1867, and Hancock 

 only survived him till 1873, the work being still incomplete. 

 Then Prof. Huxley was consulted, who agreed to do what he 

 could in the matter of completing the work, but from various 

 causes he was compelled to relinquish the task. The MSS. and 

 drawings were placed under the care of the Committee of the 

 Newcastle Natural History Society, where they remained until 

 last year, when the work, having again been accepted by the 

 Piay Society, it was, at the request of Canon Norman, forwarded 

 for publication ; for, as that authority states, the value of the 

 monograph consists, among other points, in supplying full de- 

 scriptions with illustrations of the Tunicata of our fauna as 

 known up to the time of the death of the authors. Much sympa- 

 thetic and valuable work has been expended by the editor, Mr. 

 Hopkinson, in preparing the manuscript for the press, and this 

 somewhat small book is another witness to the sound work of the 

 Ray Society in making such publications possible for the use of 

 zoologists. 



The introduction is a very instructive and interesting com- 

 position. As regards the disputed position of the Tunicata in 



