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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
requires to be taken with many grains of a salt which will hardly be at the 
command of his youthful readers ; and when he proposes to give to “ black- 
lead ” the name of Eodendron, or the 11 dawn plant.” The application of the 
term 11 Lilliputian giants ” to the Foraminifera is an absurdity which we hope 
the author may have a speedy opportunity of getting rid of, with some 
others, in a new edition. The illustrations are of the ordinary character in 
elementary geological books, and neither good nor bad in their execution, 
but we would suggest that it is not desirable to figure an Ammonite from the 
Inferior oolite as a Cretaceous fossil ; and that the skeleton of the mammoth 
would look better with jointed toes in his feet than with blocks of wood, 
especially when his living outline is indicated en silhouette. On the whole, 
however, we can safely recommend Mr. Nicols’ little book as one that will 
have a most beneficial effect in opening the minds of its young readers. 
THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH.* 
T HE youthful student, after mastering the contents of Mr. Nmols’ little 
book, may, if he feels that way inclined, continue his studies in the 
same direction under the guidance of Professor Alleyne Nicholson. That 
gentleman’s “ Ancient Life-history of the Earth ” in fact covers precisely 
-the same ground as the elementary work just noticed, although of course 
the subject is treated in a much more scientific fashion, and in much greater 
detail. 
Dr. Nicholson’s book, although at the first blush it might seem to be 
merely a rechauffe of his “ Manual of Palaeontology ” served up in a new 
dish, and with a different arrangement of the parts (a sort of publication to 
which we are pretty well accustomed nowadays), is in reality a new book, 
and one which will be exceedingly useful to students, and especially to those 
who are carrying on geological and palaeontological investigations in more 
or less isolated situations. The great body of the work consists of a history 
of the different formations of the earth’s crust, as illustrated by their fossils ; 
and in preparing this, as a matter of course, the materials contained in his 
11 manual ” must have stood in him good stead ; but the stratigraphical mode 
of arrangement of these materials has compelled the author to give a general 
sketch of the characters and subdivisions of each of the great geological 
formations ; and these successive sketches, although necessarily very brief, 
convert his present work into a manual of stratigraphical geology, distin- 
guished from other works of the same nature chiefly by the great pro- 
minence given to the palaeontological side of the subject. As an introduction 
also, Dr. Nicholson has given his readers an outline of the principles of 
physical geology so far as these are necessary for the due comprehension of 
the special subject matter of his book, and this appears to be written with 
great fairness, and with a clear appreciation of those points which may be 
regarded as still sub judice. 
* 11 The Ancient Life-History of the Earth : a comprehensive outline of the 
principles and leading facts of Palaeontological Science.” By H. Alleyne 
Nicholson, M.D., D.Sc., &c. 8vo. Edinburgh and London : Blackwood. 
1877. 
