464 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
fossils havo been found; but Miocene lignites arc abundant in Italy. At 
Sarzanello in Piedmont, six and a half feet of Miocene coal occurs. This is 
used iu tlic Sardinian steam-navy. At Castiani, in the Marcmme, good lignite, 
three feet four inches t hick, is worked ; and at Monte Bamboli, also in Tuscany, 
one bed four feet two inches, and another two feet thick, have long been iuuse. 
— [Abstract of paper by W. P. Jcrvis, Esq.]. 
REVIEWS. 
On the Oiigbi of Species hy Means of Natural Selection ; or the Preservation of 
Favoured Species in the Strugcjle for Life. By Chables Dakwin, M.A. 
Loudon : John Murray. ISGO. 
We could scarcely let this year pass away without some notice of a book 
■which at least will make ISGO remarkable in the annals of natural history 
science. TVTiatever opinion may be entertained of the speculations on the 
origin of species sketched out by Mr. Darwin iu his introductory work to the 
fuller and more explicit one he announces for some future day, there is no 
doubt that in its entirety his theory is one which for many years to come must 
receive the earnest attention of the scientific world ; for whether the law of 
the necessity of organic variation and development as dependant on external 
circumstances attendant on the general " struggle for life" be universal iu 
application or not, Mr. Darwin has at any rate opened out a new vein of re- 
flection and investigation which must be followed out until the new theory be 
either disproved or proved from its first causes to its final results. 
Nor must we be pi-evented from the true examination of its value and merit 
by any previous prejudices, nor deterred by the objections and abuse of those 
■who are ever ready to at t aek new opinions on the old aud ridiculous grounds 
of a real or pretended dread of an antagonism to Holy Scripture, as if the 
Word was not based on the sure foundations of truth. " I must express my 
detestation of the theory," says one opponent, " because of its unfiinching 
materialism ; because it denotes the demoralized understandings of its advo- 
cates. Look, too, at their credulity. Why Darwin actually believes that a 
white bear, by being confined to the slops of the Polar Sea might be turned 
into a whale ; that a lemur might be turned into a bat ; that a three-toed tapir 
might be the great-grandfather of a horse ; or the progeny of an ass may have 
gone back to a buffalo." Such, however, are mere verbosities, baseless asser- 
tions, unwarranted attributions of irreligiou and gross ironical misrepresenta- 
tions of an author's writings, too transparent not to be seen through by the 
■well-versed student of Nature. There is, however, a speciousness of appear- 
ance in the positiveness of diction of this style of attack which misleads the 
unreflecting as the flame allures miwary moths, and which often causes such 
inflated pomposities to be mistaken for acknowledged facts. Time was, and 
not so long since, either, Avhcn fossils were enigmas even to the learned ; when 
thoughtful and sapient men discussed ■with heat of temper and with angry 
tones whether such organic remains of past creations embedded in the soil were 
