33 7 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



THE CAMBRIDGE NATURAL HISTORY. 



We should like to congratulate Dr. Harmer and Mr. A. E 

 Shipley upon the completion of their monumental work, ' The 

 Cambridge Natural History,' after sixteen years of labour. 

 In all, ten volumes have appeared ; the last, though the fourth 

 in proper order, having been delayed by the untimely death of 

 Prof. Weldon. The work has been so carefully planned, and 

 so excellently executed, that it will for many years hold its 

 place as the leading scientific ' Natural History.' 



CRUSTACEA AND ARACHNIDS.* 



Under the above title Messrs. MacMillan have issued the 

 last of the Cambridge volumes. It has been most carefully 

 compiled, and obviously each of the different sections with 

 which it deals has been in the hands of an expert. The illustra- 

 tions are also numerous and carefully selected. The section 

 devoted to Crustacea has been written by Geoffrey Smith and 

 the late W. F. R. Weldon. Mr. Henry Woods is responsible 

 for ' Trilobites,' and ' Eurypterida ' ; Mr. Cecil Warburton for 

 ' Scorpions, Spiders, Mites, Ticks, etc' ; Prof. D'Arcy W. 

 Thompson for the Pycnogonida, and Mr. A. E. Shipley for the 

 Pentastomida, the Tardigrada, and for the Introduction tO' 

 Arachnida and King Crabs. 



THE VOLCANIC ORIGIN OF COAL. 



With the above heading we are treated to a pamphlet almost 

 mediaeval in its simplicity. It has been written by Col. A. T.. 

 Eraser (late R.E.), who has been to Java and seen stratified 

 volcanic material there. This has given him an idea. Why 

 should not coal, marble, and goodness knows what else have 

 been thrown up from a volcano ? He says ' that coal should 

 be shewn to be an old volcanic product is of the utmost impor- 

 tance, because it must lead, in spite of opposition only to be 

 expected, to finding that many whole series of strata the world 

 over are after all due to seismic forces, rather than slow aqueous 

 deposition, thus simplifying the science of geology. When rocks 

 are seen of which it is difficult to assign the age, having a nonde- 

 script character, it would be safe to set them down, at least 

 provisionally, as volcanic' 



* 566 pp. 17/- net. 



1909 Oct. 1. 



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