But when we go back beyond the age of polished stone-implements there is a complete break,-a period unrepresented, ex. cepting by physical changes in the appearance of the country, and by the deposition of clays and gravels, beneath which the relics of the earlier people and the remains of the extinct animals lie buried.

The evidence of the completeness of the break, and of the importance of the interval that separate palæolithic and neolithic man, is to be found in these volumes, and in Prof. Rupert Jones's edition of the "Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ." The reindeer is absent from the lake dwellings. The dog and the sheep are found in the earliest settlements, and both were unknown to the cave dwellers. The latter knew nothing of agriculture, of stockkeeping, or of weaving, and yet in the figures of the animals that they have left behind them-engraved on horn and ivorythey show a phase of art culture to which the lake dwellers never attained.

Had these different races ever come in contact as enemies, we ought to have found amongst the remains of the pile settlements some trophies taken from the people they displaced. Tusks of the brown bear and of the wild boar, perforated so that they might be worn as ornaments, are not uncommon, and show that they would have carefully preserved the proofs of their victories over nobler foes if they had ever encountered them. But there are none, and this—considered in connection with the other facts mentioned, and with the physical evidence that a long time intervened between the two peoples and faunasindicates that they never met in Central Europe. As the evidence now stands it seems to warrant the conclusion that palæolithic man and the extinct animals were destroyed in Northern and Central Europe by some physical catastrophe, and that, after a long interval, neolithic man migrated northward from the shores of the Mediterranean and from the Iberian peninsula, and found the land unoccupied excepting by species of wild animals that had escaped extirpation, and which, notwithstanding the persecution to which they have been subjected since, still exist amongst us.

The questions touched upon in this review are only a few of those suggested in reading through Mr. Lee's most valuable work. It should be in the hands of every student of anthropology. The letterpress extends to 725 pages, and there are no less than 206 plates, with admirable figures of the lake dwellings and of the multitudinous objects found in them.

VOL. VIII. (N.S.)

2 D

Acadian Geology. The Geological Structure, Organic Remains, and Mineral Resources of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward's Island. By J. W. DAWSON, F.R.S. London: Macmillan and Co.

WE have here the pleasure of meeting with Principal Dawson not as the scarcely-candid anti-Evolutionist zealot, prone to "high-falutin" language, and to bringing against opponents charges of intellectual and even moral obliquity, but as the earnest and successful worker in geological research. In this field he has made his mark, and, even though the evidence in favour of the organic nature of his Eozoon is not increasing, he has an indisputable claim to the gratitude of the scientific world.

The work before us is full of important observations, and brings us face to face with some most interesting questions, at which we regret that want of space allows us to take merely a passing glance.

Is Nova Scotia, with the adjacent parts of the Dominion, subsiding? We have heard it maintained that the harbour of Halifax was being gradually upheaved, and must at no very distant date become useless. But Prof. Cook, in a paper here referred to, gives a summary of indications of modern subsidence observed on the coasts of New England and New York, and estimates the average rate of sinking, as now in progress, at 2 feet per century. In some parts of Nova Scotia the tides are found to rise higher than formerly, and the reclaimed marshes an exceedingly fruitful tract-are exposed to some peril.

A question of wider interest is the existence of a former Glacial epoch as the cause of certain geological phenomena observed both in Europe and America. The existence of such a period "when the whole of the northern parts of Europe and North America are imagined to have been covered th glaciers, or rather with an universal glacier like that of Greenland, but on an enormously larger scale," the author considers improbable, whether considered "in a mechanical, meteorological, or geological point of view." He contends that floating ice and the Arctic currents have been the grand agents in the distribution of erratic blocks, and in the production of scratched and polished rock-surfaces. He suggests that, as the country was gradually subsiding, blocks imbedded in ice were driven against the base of the hills. As the land continued to sink, the ice-fields of successive years gradually pushed them higher, until the summits of the hills were submerged so deeply that the ice could no longer take up the blocks. Concerning Prof. Frankland's hypothesis of a higher temperature of the sea conjointly with a lower temperature of the land, Dr. Dawson remarks that such an "inversion of the usual state of things is unwarranted by the

doctrine of the secular cooling of the earth; it is contradicted by the fossils of the period, which show that the seas were colder than at present, and if it existed it could not produce the effects required, unless a preternatural arrest were at the same time laid on the winds which spread the temperature of the sea over the land."

The author has "failed to find, even in our higher mountains, any distinct signs of glacier action, though the action of the ocean-breakers is visible almost to their summits; and though I have observed in Canada and Nova Scotia many old seabeaches, gravel-ridges, and lake-margins, I have seen nothing that could fairly be regarded as the work of glaciers." He holds that while a great and marked climatic revolution has occurred in Europe, the evidences of such a change are very much slighter in America, where the causes of the coldness of the post-pliocene seas to some extent still remain. The author, in the following passage, admits substantially the existence of a former epoch of intense cold :-" In the Tertiary era there was much dry land in the northern hemisphere, and multitudes of large animals now extinct inhabited it, apparently under a climate milder than at present. Great changes, however, took place in the relative positions of land and water, inducing very important changes of climate, which finally became of an almost arctic character over all the present temperate regions. The greater part of Northern Europe and Asia appear to have subsided beneath the waters of the boulder-bearing semi-arctic ocean." It would almost seem that Dr. Dawson attributes the climatic deterioration to a decrease of land in the higher latitudes, taking thus a view opposite to that of Lyell. We fear that the very foundations for a thorough settlement of the glacial question stand in need of careful revision.

In closing this interesting and instructive volume we can only pronounce it indispensable to every geologist.

A Manual of Zoology for the Use of Students. By H. ALLEYNE NICHOLSON, M.D., D.Sc., &c. Fifth Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood and Sons.

WHEN a scientific work has, like the volume before us, reached its fifth edition, and has met with the general approval of the highest authorities, the task of the critic is greatly simplified. There are indeed points on which issue might be joined, and there also topics on which somewhat fuller information might be desirable. Thus, we cannot pronounce the common British centipede harmless, having received from one a bite decidedly more severe than the sting of the wasp. The bite of the viper,

as far as we are aware, proves mortal, not merely to children and debilitated persons, but to about 20 per cent of the sufferers. Nor, in presence of the facts recorded by Dr. Coues, can we pronounce the skunk, "when unmolested, perfectly harmless." Passing from facts to matters of opinion, we must protest against the exaggerated view taken by the author of the interval between man and the anthropoid apes. Not satisfied with giving to the former, as did Cuvier, the rank of a separate order, Dr. Nicholson even questions whether the human species "should not have the value of a distinct sub-kingdom, whilst there can be little hesitation in giving Man, at any rate, a class to himself." As a deficiency, we may point out that the information given concerning the sense-organs of the vertebrate animals is somewhat meagre.

But passing over what to us, at least, appear as shortcomings, we hold that it would be difficult indeed to find a work which gives, in so brief a compass, so luminous and philosophical a view of the whole animal kingdom. To any earnest student entering upon the science of Biology the "General Introduction'' alone must be a boon of the highest order.

A Key to Organic Materia Medica, &c. By Dr. JOHN MUTer, M.A., F.C.S., Director of the South London School of Pharmacy. Second Edition. London: Simpkin and Marshall. 1878.

THE book before us is another proof that the training of pharmacists is becoming daily more thoroughly scientific. The first edition of this work appeared about four years ago, and was intended principally as a guide for the students frequenting Dr. Muter's School of Pharmacy, at Kennington Cross. The present issue, however, has been so enlarged and improved that it has become available for study to all classes of pharmaceutical students, whether under Dr. Muter's tuition or not. The products described are given in their botanical and zoological order, beginning with Aconite and ending with Castoreum; the source, method of gathering, description, uses, chemistry, and pharmacology of each being described in succinct but sufficiently detailed terms. Dr. Muter is evidently alive to the fact that most pharmaceutical students of necessity consume large quantities of midnight oil, for his book is printed in large clear type. In the Appendix is given an account of Dr. Muter's method of mounting, observing, measuring, and classifying the starches, which will be found equally useful to the vegetable physiologist and the pharmacist. The Index is a model of its kind, and is due to the pen of Mr. Joseph Ince, who deserves for it a vote of thanks from the Index Society.

Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India. Palæontologia Indica, being Figures and Descriptions of the Organic Remains procured during the progress of the Geological Survey of India. Indian Tertiary and Post Tertiary Vertebrata. Vol. i., 2. Ser. x., 2.-Molar Teeth and other remains of Mammalia, by R. LYDEKKER, B.A. Calcutta: Geological Survey Office. London: Trübner and Co.

THE remains here described and figured belong to Rhinoceros palæindicus, R. sivalensis, R. platyrhinus, R. iravadicus (a new species), R. planidens, and Acerotherium Perimense. If we include both extinct and living forms the total number of species of Rhinocerotes found in South-Eastern Asia is fifteen, whilst there is evidence of three further species from Burma, Attock, and Sind respectively. Of ruminants we find a description of Vishnutherium iravadicum, or at least of its teeth and a fragment of its jaw. Till the entire skull is obtained it will be difficult to say whether this extinct form was most nearly allied to Sivatherium or to Camelopardalis. Of this latter genus there is a figure and description of the remains of C. sivalensis. Next follow Bramatherium Perimense, Camelus sivalensis (a specific name which we fear occurs too often), and Dorcatherium majus and minus (two new species). Cervus latidens was the largest of the Cervidae of Siwalik, its teeth equalling in size those of the Irish elk. The other Cervidæ are C. triplidens and C. simplicidens. The teeth of Listriodon pentapotamia might be mistaken for the lower molars of Tapirus were it not for their square form. Dinotherium pentapotamia is distinguished from the European species by its much smaller size. The teeth of Sanitherium Schlagintweitii are distinguished from those of Sus by the greater simplicity and distinctness of the main tubercles; by the hinder lobe being relatively larger and taller; and by the plane of wear being more oblique. Tetraconodon magnum, a hippopotamoid animal, is characterised by the abnormal development of its pre-molar teeth, which are considerably larger than the two molars.

The edentate animal, Manis Sindiensis, had the same general organisation as the living species. Amphycyon palæindicus, a carnivorous animal approximating to the ursine group, was nearly as large as the polar bear.

Ser. ii., 2, contains descriptions and illustrations of a number of fossil plants discovered in the Jurassic (Lias) formation of the Rajmahal Hills. This flora has a mesozoic character; it is much more numerous than that from Kach, both in species and specimens. Its chief types of the Rajmahal flora are in the class of Cycadeaceæ and some genera of ferns.