388 The American Geologist. December, rjoi 
years as the American standard for those rocks. There is no 
doubt that numerous errors will be committed in the first an- 
nouncements by the various surveys, and by the partial investi- 
gators, necessitating^ modifications when they shall be discov- 
ered. It is to be hoped that all will be as ready to admit 
changes in their interpretations when convinced of error, as 
is Prof. Van Hise. At a future occasion the writer will perhaps 
call attention more in detail to the efi:ect of these modifications. 
N. ir. w. 
REVIEW OF RECENT GEOLOGICAL 
LITERATURE, 
A Treatise on Zoology. Edited by E. Ray Lankester. Part III. 
The Echinodcrma, by F. A. Bather, assisted by J. W. Gregory and 
E. S. Goodrich. (A. and C. Black, London, igoo. pp. i-viii, 1-344.) 
The student of zoology, if he wishes an elementary text-book, finds 
as great difficulty in making his selection as he does in buying a new 
bicycle or tj^pewriter. Apparently the more advanced student will not 
be thus hampered by an embarrassment of riches, for it is doubtful 
whether any work aims as high and attains as much as the volume 
under review. 
The average worker who has added somewhat to his primary 
zoological training finds it a dreary and often fruitless performance 
to extract the new facts of science or the present state of knowledge 
on any particular topic from the almost endless collection of "element- 
ary" text-books, no matter how valuable they may be in fulfilling their 
true function. It is almost equally tiresome to sift out the same in- 
formation from the great mass of technical papers on particular 
things. The present volume supplies in a large degree this deficiencj' 
for the Echinoderma, and is a most welcome addition to general 
zoological literature. The entire series is planned to include ten 
parts, of which this is the third. Each of the larger groups of an- 
imals is to be described by a separate author after a definite model, in 
order to secure uniformity both in scope and method. 
The general systematic survey of the phylum Echinoderma, with its 
seven classes, is quite full and comprehensive and includes the main 
facts of ontogeny, phylogeny, anatomy, and classification. The orders 
and families are all clearly defined and most of the prominent genera 
are reviewed and mentioned. One of the striking features of this 
volume is the fullness with which the fossil forms arc treated, thus 
