232 Recent Literature. 
advantage of this and increased their price beyond what was fair 
and reasonable, and now the French government has met them 
with a decree, authorizing the State to acquire by expropriation the 
land on which these monuments are situated, principally in the 
Commune of Carnac, Department of Morlehan. | 
Many of the monuments have already been acquired ; have been 
restored to their original condition, surrounded by a fence, where 
practicable, for the necessary preservation. This has been done 
under the supervision of M. Felix Gaillard, archeologist of 
Plouharnel. 
Those to be added under the decree, above mentioned, will be 
the great alignments of Menec, of Kermario and of Kerlescan ; 
the great tumulus of Saint-Michel, that of Moustier, of Crucuny 
and of Kerlescan. Also six Menhirs and six Dolmens. 
It is believed that under the operation of this law the present 
proprietors will yield, and that the State will acquire, by purchase, 
all the monuments of this kind within the commune. When 
these are restored and put in proper condition, this commune will 
be one of the most attractive in all France, and the American 
tourist, interested in prehistoric archeology, will feel it as much a 
necessity to visit it as to visit Paris.—T. W. 
RECENT LITERATURE. | 
A Review or Mr. LYDEKKER’S ARRANGEMENT OF THE 
Mesozorc MAmMaALtIA (Cat. Foss. Mamm., British Museum, Part 
V., 1887).—Mr. Lydekker places all the Mesozoic mammalia 
among the Marsupialia, not admitting that there is sufficient weight 
in the close analogy between the dentition of the Stylodontide and 
Chrysochloridz to support a reference of this family to the Insec- 
tivora. The genera included under the sub-order Multituberculata 
of Cope are provisionally embraced in the Diprotodontia (p. 195,) 
while all the remaining forms with numerous small incisors are 
placed with the Polyprotodontia. I agree with the author that the 
systematic position of the Multituberculata forms, such as Plagiau- 
lax, Tritylodon and Polymastodon must be left, in a measure, pro- 
visional until additional material is obtained ; but at present, in my 
opinion, the balance of evidence necessitates their separation from 
the Diprotodonts. The most striking feature of both these groups 
is the hypertrophy of a pair of incisors in each jaw; but, so far as 
a close comparison of these incisors in the fossil and recent forms is 
