CARBONIFEROUS BRACHIOPODA. 
253 
Through the kindness of Mr. R. Etheridge, E.R.S., I have been able to examine with 
great attention the very large series of Carboniferous Brachiopoda in the Jermyn Street 
Museum, the result of many gleanings effected during the Geological Survey of the 
Carboniferous districts of England ; but in that large collection I could not discover a 
single species now new to Great Britain, or that had not been described and illustrated 
in my Monograph. 
In several local catalogues of Carboniferous fossils we find long lists of Brachiopoda, 
such as in one for the neighbourhood of Wetton, in Staffordshire, by Mr. S. Carrington ; 
another by Mr. T. Wardle, in his ' Geology of Leek but these catalogues do not 
contain anything new, or that I had not previously had the advantage of being able to 
examine. 
A few species new to Ireland have been discovered by Prof. King and Mr. Joseph 
Wright, of Belfast. Thus, to Prof. King we owe the discovery of a new species of 
Camarophoria C. Kingii, Dav. ; to Mr. J. Wright, Athyris expcmsa, Betzia ulotrix, 
Bhynchonella trilatera, Camarophoria crumena, Mh. reflexa, Produdus proboscideus, and 
Pr. Youngianiis ; but all these were already described from England in my Monograph, 
but not known to me from Ireland at the time of publication. 
It is, of course, very difficult to estimate correctly, or even approximately, the nvimber 
of really good species that have been discovered in the Carboniferous rocks from the 
whole world, because they cannot be critically examined and compared, especially as so 
great a number of so-termed species are spread over an extensive geographical surface of 
the world; and, secondly, because it is no easy matter to determine what are really 
species, varieties, or synonyms, the variety often for one author being a species for 
another, and vice versa. 
Full credit, as well as the sincere thanks, of all geologists and palseontologists should 
be given to that veteran in science, John J. Bigsby, M.D., F.R.S., for the ability and 
truly immense trouble and perseverance he has shown in the preparation of his very 
valuable work, 'Thesaurus Devonico-Carbonarius ' (1878), the result of many years of 
patient research, in which he has carefully tabulated all the Devonian and Carboni- 
ferous species of Brachiopoda known to him up to the period of its publication. Dr. 
Bigsby informs me that from the Carboniferous rocks of Europe he has tabulated 491 
species, and from America 384, giving a total of 875 ; but that this number would have 
to be reduced by fifty as species common to both Europe and America. The number of 
Carboniferous species named in his ' Thesaurus ' would, therefore, amount to about 825. 
Moreover, since the publication of his work he has tabulated some 114 more, derived 
from other countries, and these increase the number to 939 ! 
Out of this number I find that some 143 species, and a few named varieties, have 
been described by myself from Great Britain. 
Although the total number of 939 will, no doubt, have some day to be very con- 
siderably reduced, still it will show how numerous and varied were the species of 
