REVIEWS. 
63 
explain to the reader the conditions under which fossils are presented to his 
consideration, and the consequences to he drawn from their study. In 
successive chapters he deals with the nature of fossils and rocks, the cha- 
racters of the sedimentary rocks, their chronological succession, and the 
application of palaeontology to the elucidation of the latter, the causes of 
imperfections in the palaeontological record, and the conclusions that may 
he drawn from fossils, winding up with a chapter on the classification of 
the animal kingdom and the succession and progression of organic types. 
All these subjects, many of which are rather difficult to handle, are well 
treated; and the student who masters these chapters will approach his 
practical studies with a better intellectual foundation than can he boasted of 
by many professed palaeontologists. A full index and a good glossary of 
terms employed will add greatly to the usefulness of the book. 
We have yet to say a few words upon the way in which these volumes 
are got up. In type and paper they leave nothing to be desired, and the 
woodcut illustrations, most of which are original, and the work of Mr. 
Charles Berjeau, are really beautifully executed. The book is in fact almost 
what our neighbours across the Channel would call un ouvrage de luxe. But 
we fear that these very characters, which cannot but excite our admiration 
and approval, must raise the cost of the work to an extent which will 
practically cut it off from the use of the great majority of the students for 
whose behoof it is said to have been prepared. 
TABULATE CORALS* 
I N the preface to his Manual of Palceontology, Professor Nicholson remarks 
that he would have considerably modified the section dealing with the 
so-called 1 Tabulate Corals/ had his investigations into the structure and re- 
lationships of these fossils been completed in time. The result of these 
researches is now before us in the form of a magnificent octavo volume, 
which we have no hesitation in pronouncing the best of all the author’s 
numerous works. 
The group of Tabulate Corals ( Madreporaria Tabulatd) was founded by 
MM. Milne-Edwards and Haime in the introduction to their splendid mono- 
graph of the British Fossil Corals, published by the Palseontographical 
Society in 1850. It was established for the reception of a number of rather 
problematical stony structures, ranging in time from the Silurian period to 
the present day, and exhibiting a considerable diversity of character, but 
agreeing in having well-developed walls, and the visceral cavities of the in- 
dividual polypes divided into a series of chambers, one above the other, by 
complete diaphragms or transverse floors. Added to these characters was 
the complete absence, or rudimentary condition of the septal system, which 
was never represented by anything more than a few 1 trabeculae ’ projecting 
into the visceral chambers. The principal living forms referred to this 
* On the Structure and Affinities of the Tabulate Corals of the Paleozoic 
Period, with critical descriptions of Illustrative Species. By II. Alleyne 
Nicholson, M.D., &c. 8vo. London and Edinburgh : Blackwood and 
Sons. 1879. 
