59 ? 
Analyses of Books. 
[September, 
Papers and Proceedings and Report of the Royal Society of Tas- 
mania for 1878. Hobart Town : Mercury Office. 
The work done by the Royal Society of Tasmania, if not very 
great of quantity, is of a sound, satisfactory character. The 
papers here reproduced deal with questions which can only be 
investigated on the spot. 
Mr. R. M. Johnston contributes a valuable paper on the fresh- 
water shells of Tasmania. He has discovered one species be- 
longing to a rare genus at present confined to Cuba, but he pru- 
dently declines theorising on this faCt till our knowledge of the 
Mollusca of Tasmania and of the Australian mainland is more 
complete. As regards the distribution of fresh-water shells, he 
shows how the smaller species may easily be transported to vast 
distances by the agency of water-beetles and aquatic birds. 
Dr. Morton Allport communicates some remarks on the habits 
of the Platypus. He finds that it feeds on caddis grubs, but 
suspeCts that it may likewise devour the ova of fish. 
The Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods continues his memoirs on the 
marine shells of the Tasmanian waters. 
Mr. R. M. Johnston has studied the Tertiary and Post-tertiary 
deposits of the islands in Bass’s Straits. He considers that an 
extensive upheaval of the ocean floor in the districts of South 
Australia and Tasmania has taken place, and has continued to a 
very recent period, if it be not still going on. Local encroach- 
ments of the sea may be in perfect harmony with a slow vertical 
movement of the land upwards. He considers that the evidences 
of Australian geology are in perfeCt harmony with the theory of 
Evolution. 
The Bishop of Tasmania read a paper on “ Water-supply in 
relation to Disease,” full of forcible warning to the community. 
We beg to congratulate the Society on the work it is doing, 
and hope it will persevere in the same direction. The scope for 
its exertions is practically boundless. 
A Practical Treatise on Sea-Sickness ; its Symptoms , Nature , and 
Treatment. By G. M. Beard, M.D. New York : E. B. 
Treat. 
Dr. Beard takes here a new departure by regarding sea-sickness 
not as a mere disease of the stomach and liver, to be subdued 
by “ capsicum, calomel, and champagne,” &c., but a functional 
disease of the nervous centres. He utterly scouts the prevailing 
notion that the affedlion is in the long run beneficial to the 
system. He shows that the evil effects do not invariably cease 
