686 Analyses of Books . [November, 
sent for identification, and here published for the first time, or 
else an acknowledged quotation from some periodical or book 
where the description is to be found. 
To criticise the collection as works of art would be unfair, as 
they are put forward with no claim to that distinction, but are 
rather to be looked upon as notes taken by the side of the micro- 
scope, a state in which an observer’s thoughts seldom or never 
reach the outer world. Natural-history papers would often gain 
much if the author could put his own work upon the stone, al- 
though the result might in some respects compare unfavourably 
with the work of the professional lithographer ; yet a greater 
amount of truth would reach the reader, as, in spite of the 
greatest care on the part of the copyist, errors of interpretation 
are inevitable, and high artistic finish is a poor compensation for 
want of scientific accuracy. 
The series, now to be had apart from the distribution of speci- 
mens at a merely nominal price, will prove of great value to 
those microscopists who study living aquatic forms, especially 
where access to works of reference is difficult, and will be useful 
in identifying the results of their pond and shore expeditions. 
The Geological Record for 1878. An Account of Works on 
Geology, Mineralogy, and Palaeontology published during 
the Year, with Supplements for 1874 to 1877. Edited by 
W. Whittaker, R.A., F.G.S., and W. H, Dalton, F.G.S. 
London : Taylor and Francis. 
The delay in the appearance of this volume need not surprise 
us if we consider the great and growing mass of journals, trans- 
actions, and independent works which the editors have to 
search through. The sections for America and the Arctic 
Regions, after being long waited for, have not been sent in by 
the sub-editor of that department, and consequently the volume 
has been issued without them. 
As regards the first division of the work, viz., Stratigraphical 
and Descriptive Geology, we cannot help being struck with the 
small space taken up by researches in Asia, Africa, and Austra- 
lia, as compared with the British Isles and the European 
continent. This is, of course, no fault of Mr. Whittaker or of 
his sub-editors. What has not been done cannot be recorded. 
But why has so little been done ? Why is least done where 
most remains to be done ? 
The section on Physical Geology contains brief summaries of 
many of the more important memoirs indexed. Thus we have an 
abstract of Sir G. Airy’s paper on the probable condition of the 
