REVIEWS. 
27 
ralist; the works which were then in his hands were totally inadequate as 
helps in this particular pursuit; but, thanks to the beautiful book whose 
title stands at the head of the present notice, the difficulty has been almost 
entirely removed. Of Mr. Smith’s work, only the first volume has as yet 
appeared—it is to be completed in two—and we anxiously look forward to 
the publication of the second, what we have as yet had affording an earnest 
of what we have still to expect. 
It is proposed to figure and describe every species of British Diatom. 
The figures contained in the volume now before us are admirable examples of 
accurate natural history drawings ; they are from the pencil of Mr. Tuffen 
West, and indicate something more than the qualities of a mere draughtsman 
in the artist. It is quite evident that he understood and appreciated his 
subject, and that he is himself not destitute of the observing and discri¬ 
minating powers of a naturalist. Our author’s descriptions are excellent— 
free from that vagueness which is too common in systematic works, dis¬ 
gusting the young inquirer with a confused mass of unintelligible diagnoses 
and convertible characters. 
The present volume is preceded by an introduction, in which the author 
enters into numerous important and interesting details concerning the habits 
and general appearance of the Diatomacese, their structure, movements, and 
other physiological phenomena. 
There are, however, one or two points in which we cannot agree with 
him ; we cannot, for example, assent to his opinion where he attributes to 
the siliceous cases of the Diatomacese a composition out of cellular tissue as 
the true explanation of the various markings which they present. To us 
it appears, that we may just as well attribute to a similar cause the sculpture 
on the pollen granule of the flowering plants. The Diatom, as well as 
the pollen granule, is simply and essentially an unicellular organism ; all its 
structural peculiarities and physiological phenomena connect themselves 
with this fact; and to attribute to any portion of it a mullicellular structure 
is, certainly, opposed to our own observation, and appears to us contradicted 
by general analogy. 
This criticism, however, is not intended, in any degree, to detract from 
the general usefulness and value of the “Synopsis of the British Diato- 
maceaa”—a work which has long been called for by the students of one of 
the most charming departments of microscopical research. We believe 
that Mr. Smith’s Synopsis has already given a decided stimulus to the study 
of the Diatomacese in this country, and that many facts of value in science 
have, even now, resulted from it; and we cannot conclude the present 
notice without congratulating the microscopic student on the fact, that Mr. 
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