Nicholson's Palæontology

Abstract

IT is a great pity that there should be any demand for a Student's Manual of Palæontology. The separation of the study of extinct forms of life from that of recent animals, which is implied in the term Palæontology, and which is unfortunately largely maintained in practical science, is much to be deplored. In nearly all great museums, as in the British Museum, the fossil series of animal remains are preserved and displayed in different parts of the museum from that in which the recent ones repose and are studied and taken care of by a separate staff of officials. The extinct corals, for example, are in the hands of one set of naturalists and the recent corals in the hands of another, the most closely allied or even identical species are widely separated from one another, and considerable labour and trouble are caused to any observer who wishes to bring them together for comparison. There are necessary gaps enough in the various zoological series from the imperfection of the geological record; in museum collections they should be rendered as small as possible.

A Manual of Palæontology, for the Use of Students. With a General Introduction on the Principles of Palæontology.

By H. Alleyne Nicholson, Professor of Natural History in the University of St. Andrew's. Second Edition. (W. Blackwood and Sons, 1879.)