400 The American Geologist. June, i89s 
THE GENERIC EVOLUTION OF THE PALEOZOIC 
BRACHIOPODA. 
By Agnes Crane, Brighton, England. 
It is a time-honored saying that "a prophet is not without honor save 
in his own country," but the name and fame of professor James Hall, 
LL.D., director of the State museum of Natural History of New York 
and its veteran state geologist, are well known in Canada and the United 
States and have long been recognized and appreciated among the geolo- 
gists and invertebrate paleontologists of Europe. The highest recogni- 
tion in geological circles was accorded him nearly a quarter of a century 
ago, when he was awarded the Wollaston Medal of the Geological So- 
ciety of London, the year after Barrande, and a year before Charles 
Darwin received it. His arduous life-long researches have resulted in 
the production of the fine series of monographs of "The Paleontology 
of New York," of which Vol. VIII, Part I, Brachiopoda,* by James 
Hall, assisted by John M. Clarke,has recently made its appearance, with 
an unusually interesting text and the well-executed plates for which the 
series has been remarkable. As a fossil brachiopodist professor Hall 
ranks with his eminent contemporaries, the late Dr. Thomas Davidson, 
F.R.S., and Joachim Barrande of Prague. In one respect he may be 
said to take higher position as a philosophical investigator, inasmuch 
that he kept free from prejudice with regard to the theory of evolution 
as applied to the class Brachiopoda at a time when, owing to the condi- 
tion of our knowledge of the group, it was not possible to adduce actual 
proofs of the logical postulate in that direction. 
Times and methods have changed indeed since the celebrated Bohe- 
mian paleontologist definitely proclaimed that the evidence of the 
Cephalopodaf and of the Brachiopoda:!: was opposed to the truth of the 
theory of evolution, and Dr. Davidson, in answer to a personal appeal 
from Darwin, replied that he was unable todetect direct evidence of the 
passage of one genus into another.? 
There has been a marked advance in the philosophical treatment of 
this important group of ancient and persistent organisms during the 
last decade, and to this progress American scientists have contributed 
largely. Mr. W. H. Dall has differentiated and described some new 
genera and species of the recent forms of interest and value. Professors 
^Natural History of New York. Paleontology, vol. viii. (Geological 
Survey of the State of New York.) "An Introduction to the Study of the 
Genera of Paleozoic Brachiopoda." Part I. By James Hall, state 
geologist and paleontologist, assisted by John M. Clarke. Albany, 1893. 
fCephalopodes, Etudes G6n6rales par Joachim Barrande, Prague, 1877, 
p. 224. 
tBrachiopodes, Etudes Locales, Ibid., 1879,p.206. 
g"What is a Brachiopod?" by Thomas Davidson, F. R. S., Geological 
Magazine, Decade II., vol. iv, 1877. 
