T the commencement of his volume, Mr. Jeffreys refers to the ex Forbes and Mr. Hanley, as a reason for his having undertaken the present work. No such apology was needed : naturalists who know anything of the enthusiasm of the author for his subject, and of the zeal with which, for many years, he has devoted himself to his favourite study, would have had cause for much regret if the materials thus collected had been withheld from the public, or were only to be found scattered in the many communications made by him to various scientific societies. To afford some idea of the research undertaken in preparation for the present work, we may refer to the author's account of his investigations relating to a single genus of small fresh-water bivalves : "My own cabinet contains no less than 274 parcels of Pisidia, which have been in the course of the last thirty or forty years collected from different localities and sources, and comprise many thousands of specimens. I have personally examined the types of those species which have been described by Dr. Turton, Mr. Jenyns, Mr. Alder, Dr. Bandon, and other conchologists who have published on the subject. I have collected these tiny shells in many parts of Holland, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Italy, for the sake of comparison with British forms; and I have had to refer to numerous works in many languages in order to collate the descriptions of forty-one different species which have been proposed by European writers within the last century. Of these I cannot conscientiously recognize more than six as distinct." Although the volume now published is confined to land and fresh-water shells, the Introduction, extending to 114 pages, is quite general, and affords space for the description, in a very readable form, of most of the questions interesting to conchologists. Without expressing a decided opinion on the "origin of species," Mr. Jeffreys suggests a practical method of distinguishing between species and varieties. He says: "I believe it may now be considered a well-established rule that all distinct groups of individuals, living together, and having a common feeding-ground, and which are not connected or blended with each other by insensible gradations, are primâ facie entitled to the rank of species." * British Conchology. Part I.-Land and Fresh-water Shells. By Joun GWYN JEFFREYS, F.R.S., &c. Van Voorst. 1862. Selected on this principle, the author recognizes 121 species of British land and fresh-water molluscs; the number given in the "British Mollusca" being 125. This slight reduction in the number of species accredited to our native land is, however, far more than compensated for by the acknowledgment of no less than 187 distinct varieties, all of which are named and described; whilst, of a large proportion, the localities and other circumstances of interest are recorded. The name of a new species had, until recently, something almost magical in its attractions. Collectors were deemed fortunate who could secure the prize; its absence from a cabinet was regarded as leaving an unsightly gap; whilst varieties, however curious or distinct, were counted as little more than superfluous luxuries. Thanks mainly to Mr. Darwin, this disparity is at an end, and collectors are now in a position better to appreciate the value of labours such as those of the author, and of the large increase he has made in the number of recognized objects of attention on the part of those who desire to study the land and freshwater shells of our country. In the more difficult genera Mr. Jeffreys has, we think, succeeded in presenting the species in bolder and better relief than any previous writer. For example, the genus Zonites; the descriptions of Z, nitidus, Z. alliarius, Z. purus, Z. nitidulus, Z. radiatulus, ought to leave collectors in no difficulty in identifying these snails, even without the assistance of plates. In nomenclature the author seems to us in a few instances to have needlessly increased the difficulty of the subject by the adoption of unfamiliar names, having only a questionable claim to priority; and by alterations in orthography induced by his desire to render all the generic names significant. A mere name is at all times a most fallacious guide to the determination of a species, and young collectors, to whom alone the caution need be addressed, should in no instance affix a name on account of its supposed agreement with a specimen under examination. It is far more honourable, and in every way better for scientific purposes, to attach the place, date, and, if possible, the circumstances of its capture, and to wait patiently till it can be satisfactorily identified. In the work before us, for Balea of Dr. Gray, the more recent Balia of Swainson is adopted, as nearer badius," a somewhat barbarous Latin word for "brown," which is, after all, a wholly unimportant indication. If the supposed meaning of a name is to give a clue to its orthography, we can well imagine the erudition which may hereafter be called into exercise by future conchologists pondering upon such titles as those of Dr. Gray's genera "Lottia" and "Pollia," the investigators being, after all, certain to hit upon no meaning half so pleasant as the fair originals. In one instance Mr. Jeffreys has for a well-established name, "Pupa Anglica" of Ferussac, substituted one of his own, 66 Pupa ringens Jeffreys, on the plea of having been the first to describe the species, though previously figured under the familiar name; and this whilst, on his own showing, the name Pupa ringens had been used by M. Michaud for another species of the same genus. All possible consideration will, however, doubtless be extended to the author when it is understood that the vindication of his own discoveries presents itself to him in the aspect of a "parental duty" (p. 267). In many respects the present work appears to us to be far in advance of any previous one upon the subject. Together with clear, concise, and sufficient descriptions of the characters which serve to distinguish the species, are combined so many interesting observations on the habits of the animals, that the work possesses the rare merit of combining scientific accuracy with a large amount of popular instruction. We can only give one or two brief illustrations. It is well known that certain univalves, when suddenly dislodged from floating weeds, spin a thread by which, like the spider, they are able to regain their resting-places. Mr. Jeffreys records a similar habit in Sphærium lacustre (Cyclas caliculata), which also uses its foot in ascending the sides of an aquarium, and even in creeping along, suspended from the surface of the water, just in the manner common to many gasteropods. Bivalves, with the exception, perhaps, of some species of oyster, are supposed to be purely aquatic in their habits; yet the author records, on the authority of Nilson, that Pisidium pusillum is in Sweden frequently found living between the bark and the wood of fallen trees in moist places. Helix pulchella, a minute snail common in Britain, is reported to occur in Siberia, Italy, Corsica, Madeira, North America, Cashmir, and Thibet. Some of our little wood-snails, H. aculeata and H. fusca, appear, on the Continent, to adopt habits not generally known in this country: they ascend in spring the trunks of trees, live during the summer amongst the higher branches, and in the autumn save themselves a long and laborious descending journey, by dropping with the falling leaves to their place of winter retreat. The snail has not generally found much favour in the eyes of poets; yet the author avails himself of the assistance of a friend to devote some pages to the aesthetic aspect of his subject, with especial view, as he asserts, to the gratification of his fair readers. Homer, Göethe, and "Shakspere," are cited. From the "Venus and Adonis" of the last-named a fine simile is given :— "Or as the snail whose tender horns being hit, We anticipate with pleasure the volumes on the "Marine Mollusca of Britain," by the same author, and conclude this brief notice with a word of commendation for artist and publisher. Mr. Sowerby's plates, more especially the beautiful coloured frontispiece, deserve special notice; and of Mr. Van Voorst we can only repeat what has been said a hundred times before, that what ink and paper can do to render useful reading pleasant, he has done. WASTE PRODUCTS AND UNDEVELOPED SUBSTANCES.* AT T the present period, commerce is making such demands for increased supplies of various substances, that scientific men are carefully studying the residue of every manufacture, and the special qualities of each new product. At such a time, then, a book like the one before us is of peculiar value, and we have read with much pleasure and interest this work of Mr. P. L. Simmonds on Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances, a book aptly described by the author as affording "hints for enterprise in neglected fields,"-hints which do not refer so particularly to waste materials, but serve specially as directions by which to guide the student into new fields of inquiry as regards the utilitarian applications of natural productions generally. It would be difficult to define what is "waste" in the present day, so admirably and completely are the many substances, formerly neglected and thrown away, now utilized and converted into new and valuable products. A greater field, however, for the commercial as well as scientific inquirer is that afforded by undeveloped substances. It is now, when the word "substitute is ringing like a battle-cry, that men's thoughts are directed to every variety of produce; and week after week vessels bring from different quarters of the globe woods, containing new tints for the dyer, or novel combinations of colour and figure for the cabinetmaker; fibres of a special character; seeds producing new descriptions of oils; leaves, roots, &c., of unknown medicinal power. In fact, the world has revived once more the art of the alchemist, the attempt to transmute baser materials into more precious ones; and no discovery ever made by the old chemists equalled or even approached the results which have been obtained from substances considered for ages as "waste." It is, however, only within the present century that we are seriously applying the example which nature has been teaching us ever since the first seed-time and harvest, and we have yet much to learn. There is no waste in nature; decay is but a name for the life of new and often beautiful creations. Death begins life, as well as ends it, and no agencies in nature are suffered to waste. The changes which organic life undergoes are but the links leading from one organism to another, and in this transmutation there is no waste, no loss, but perfect harmony of arrangement, by which the life ending in death becomes the death merging into a new existence. We purpose considering the subject of Waste, and afterwards inquiring into Undeveloped substances. As refuse materials, Mr. Simmonds enumerates a very interesting and lengthy list of articles, which, becoming waste, are by various manipulations changed into new and frequently very re Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances. By P. L. SIMMONDS, Hardwicke. 1862, markable products. Rags take a very prominent place in the catalogue, and really there is no material which contributes more largely to the transformation scenes of commerce than the cast-off clothing of humanity. By a variety of processes, the rags thrown away by the poorest beggar reappear in the clothing of the sailor, the labourer, or even of the gentleman; or, after passing through the sad history of St. Giles, are met with, tinted couleur de rose, in a lady's boudoir in St. James's. Few people not engaged in it are aware of the value and importance of the rag trade. Mr. Simmonds estimates that cotton and linen rags, to the amount of above £300,000, are imported annually, and that "the whole quantity used in the kingdom exceeds £1,000,000." Rags are imported from the various countries of Europe, from the northern part of Africa, from India, and from Australia, America consuming more than her own population can supply.* Linen and cotton rags are used in the manufacture of paper; woollen are converted into shoddy and mungo. An extract from an article on Yorkshire in the Westminster Review, quoted by Mr. Simmonds, gives an excellent definition of shoddy,† and an interesting list of its applications is added. It is estimated that the value of shoddy and mungo amounts to above £700,000 annually. Shoddy is another name for rag-wool, and it was probably first used for purposes of manufacture about 1813; but machines for reducing woollen rags to small particles appear to have been known in London before they were employed in Yorkshire. The shoddy trade is a large one on the Continent. At Berlin several establishments have been formed by Batley manufacturers for making rag-wool. Prussia levies a heavy export-duty on rags, but none on shoddy; hence we receive about 8,000 tons annually, við Hull, from Prussia, Denmark, &c. In the collection of products from Denmark in the International Exhibition, an interesting series of samples of shoddy were shown. It is estimated that this trade employs 600 persons in Batley alone. Old woollen rags also form an important feature in the manufacture of prussiate of potash, a chemical largely used in blue colours, in making Prussian-blue, and also cyanide of potassium, which is employed in electroplating with gold and silver. Woollen rags are also used as a manure in the Kentish hop-gardens, 23 lb. being considered equal to 100 lb. of farmyard manure. The agriculturalists of Italy have long been in the habit of planting old woollen garments at the roots of their orange-trees. *The perusal of this notice of Mr. Simmonds's book induced us to look at a "Foreign Rag Circular," published by a Liverpool firm, and we there found that, during the month of November last, 11,000 bales of rags (representing about £35,000), were exported from Liverpool and London to New York. These rags had been imported into England chiefly from Egypt, India, and Japan! This circular quoted the prices of about fifty different varieties of foreign rags, varying in value from nine shillings to forty shillings per hundred-weight, imported from Egypt, Japan, Bombay, Beyrout, Hamburg, Palermo, Leghorn, Trieste, Smyrna, Spain, and Valparaiso. There are many other places from which rags are imported. -ED. + P. 302. |