596 The Paiceontograpliical Society , [October, 
stand in the very foremost rank of science, and the plates 
are simply magnificent. The explanation lies in the faCt, 
firstly, that no money is paid to the authors for their contri- 
butions, the work being entirely a labour of love on their 
part ; and secondly, that the Society possesses in the Rev. 
Thos. Wiltshire a Secretary whose business qualifications 
are on a par with his high scientific acquirements. 
The new volume opens with the final part of an account 
of the beautiful fossil ferns found in such profusion in the 
Eocene days of Bournemouth ; next, Dr. Wright concludes his 
description of the 124 species of sea-urchins which occur in 
the chalk of Britain ; the same palseontologist continues his 
account of the Ammonites of the Lias ; Dr. Davidson gives 
another instalment of his grand work on the Brachiopod 
shells ; and Mr. S. V. Wood adds a short supplement to his 
father’s classical description of the shells which occur in the 
“ crag ” of Norfolk and Suffolk. A remarkable feature in 
this volume is the account given by the Rev. N. Glass, of 
Manchester, of the manner in which he has succeeded in 
working out, for Mr. Davidson, the internal “ processes ” 
and “ spirals ” which occur in the interior of Brachiopod 
shells. Thos. Davidson, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., has been a 
great mainstay of the Palseontographical Society ; he has 
devoted his life to the study of the Brachiopoda ; he has 
drawn for the Society, with his own hand, on the stone, 
8549 figures of these shells, besides writing 1785 accom- 
panying pages of letterpress. Naturally his enthusiasm has 
communicated itself to others, for Dr. Davidson is ever 
ready to help the most humble student of geology. In the 
Rev. Norman Glass Mr. Davidson has found a coadjutor of 
unwearied patience and exquisite skill. In fossil shells we 
have, of course, only the hard parts of the animals pre- 
served ; now Brachiopod shells have internal “ hard parts,” 
in the shape of complicated spirals or projections, to which, 
during the life of the inhabitant of the shell, the soft parts 
were attached. These “ spirals ” still exist in the fossil 
shells, but, being completely enveloped by the hard, stony 
matter which fills the shell, their shape, and position were 
almost unknown until, in 18 77, Mr. Glass discovered a 
means of laying them bare. He selects such shells as are 
filled with semi-transparent “ spar,” and by diligent scraping 
with the point of a penknife, aided by occasionally immersing 
the shell in dilute hydrochloric acid, he has made many most 
beautiful preparations, enabling Dr. Davidson to separate 
species that had previously been confounded on account of 
their external similarity, and even to establish several new 
genera, 
