62 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXII. 
GEOLOGY AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 
Recent Works. 
Pokorny’s Allgemeine Erdkunde is in preparation; Part I, Die Erde 
als Ganzes, thre Atmosphäre und Hydrosphare, by J. Hann, of Vienna, 
having been issued last winter ; Part II, Die feste Erdrinde und thre 
Formen, by E. Brückner, of Berne, being just received ; and Part III, 
Phlanzen- und Tierverbreitung, by A. Kirchhoff, being in preparation 
(Tempsky, Prag). The two parts now issued are distinct enlarge- 
ments of the original work. They may be characterized as concise, 
thorough, and correct. There is, unfortunately, no work in English 
that can be compared to them in these respects. A teacher or 
student wishing a trustworthy book of reference cannot do better 
than place this work by his side. 
The Library of Geographical Handbooks, edited by Professor 
Ratzel, includes no volume more noteworthy than the Kilimatologie 
by Dr. Hann, the first edition having appeared in 1883, and then at 
once taking the position of a standard work of reference. A second 
edition is now issued in three volumes (Stuttgart, Engelhorn), the 
liberal increase in size permitting the addition of new data and the 
introduction of footnote references, which were wanting and greatly | 
missed before. An earlier volume in the series was the Morphologie 
der Erdoberfläche, in two volumes, by Prof. A. Penck, of Vienna, 
which may be fairly characterized as the most important geographt- 
cal handbook of recent years. It is particularly valuable in its brief 
historical reviews of the development of various topics and in its rich 
references to sources. 
A. de Lapparent’s Legons de Géographie Physique (Paris, Masson, 
1896) deserves mention, even if somewhat belated. It is written in 
a more readable style than the books above mentioned, and should 
not be measured by comparison with them, but rather on its own 
standard of attractive presentation.» It is also notable as marking 4 
distinct advance towards a rational, genetic treatment of land forms. 
The intending scientific visitor to Europe will find it of much value- 
as a companion. 
American teachers interested in the position of general geology in 
Europe will find a thorough presentation of the science in Prof. H. 
Credner’s Elemente der Geologie which now appears in an eighth edi- 
tion, twenty-five years after its first publication (Leipzig, Engelmann). 
It is a stout volume of 797 pages, of which the last 45 are devoted 
A fifth edition of Hann, Hochstetter, and l 
