156 
REVIEWS. 
(we quote the words of the authoress) “may in some measure be con¬ 
sidered a kind of resume of natural knowledge.” As such, it cannot 
fail to prove interesting to those who feel proud of the success which 
Mrs. Somerville’s has achieved, seeing that she undoubtedly occupies the 
foremost place among the female scientific writers of our day. 
For the general getting up of the work the publisher’s name will be 
in itself a sufficient guarantee, and in the present instance we must 
admit that he has produced a volume well fitted to lie on the drawing¬ 
room tables of the great, there to be often looked at with admiration, 
but never to be read. As such, we recommend it; but we would 
warn the earnest student seeking after truth, and hoping to find it in 
the volume of Mrs. Somerville, to beware ere he accepts as true, state¬ 
ments conveyed in unscientific language, and too often gathered at se¬ 
cond-hand. Every compilation must, of necessity, be erroneous: no 
scissors can supply the place of the pen. 
On the Recent Eoraminifera oe Great Britain. By William Crawford 
Williamson, E.R.S., Professor of Natural History in Owen’s College, 
Manchester. 4to, pp. 100, with seven Plates. Printed for the Mem¬ 
bers of the Ray Society. 1858. 
We are too thankful to see on our table another volume of the Ray 
Society’s publications to quarrel at the period of the year at which it 
makes its appearance; and indeed, seeing Mr. Williamson’s “Eorami- 
nifera” has not haunted us nearly as long as Professor Allman’s “ Po- 
lyzoa,” it might be as well for us not to find fault with the exact date of 
publication, but proceed forthwith to examine the production which, 
through the medium of the Ray Society, has been given to the world. 
We are told in the introductory notice that this thin quarto is to be 
regarded as a monograph of the “ Recent British Eoraminifera,” and that 
one that is yet to come, and which shall review the “various modifications 
of their structure, their zoological affinities, and their geological history,” 
—one which shall, in fact, be the “entire history of the Eoraminifera,”— 
is to act as an Introduction to this. We have often heard of Prefaces 
that were longer than the volume they prefaced. We will have seen 
one when this “ Introduction” makes its appearance. 
The author, in his attempts to classify these minute organisms, was 
perplexed by the fact, that it is almost impossible to determine what 
amount of variation is compatible with specific unity. “Even among 
the higher animals it is a question hard to be decided; but among such 
lowly creatures as Eoraminifera, it is one very much more puzzling.” 
The author does not believe in the absence of specific distinctions; but, 
in language which for excessive clearness we have never seen surpassed, 
says :—“But we have hitherto failed to detect the real specific peculia¬ 
rities, or even to ascertain in what part of the living organism they are 
