Die Foraminiferen des Septarienthones von Pietzpuhl

Abstract

SINCE the appearance of D'Orbigny's “Foraminifères Fossiles du Bassin Tertiaire de Vienne,” no work has been issued on the Foraminifera in their geological or palaeontological relations, with pretensions at all corresponding to those of the newly-published monograph, the title of which stands at the head of the present article. We do not use the word pretensions in an offensive sense, for the author is careful to apprise his readers of the limitations of the treatise; but rather to indicate the sort of impression produced by the dimensions of the book and its profuse illustration. A quarto volume containing, in addition to the letter-press, thirty-eight large plates devoted to the Foraminifera of a small division of the Tertiary system of North Germany, and confined to a very limited district, or, as we might put it, 1,192 drawings of microscopic shells from the clay of a single brickyard, ought to show in its results a very evident raison d'être to save it from the imputation of labour thrown away. We need not require the expression of new or startling philosophical views to bring such a work within the scope of things worth doing; but we may fairly expect from so large an expenditure of labour and cost, some real and definite addition to our scientific knowledge. Whilst a smaller book might pass unnoticed, or at least without critical examination, one like this cannot escape without an inquiry as to what it contains of novelty, either in observation or theory,—in facts or their arrangement; and on the reply dictated by a patient study of its contents, the verdict as to its value must depend. To frame an answer to these questions which will serve to give an idea of the work, it will be necessary to offer a few preliminary observations and to epitomise the labours of previous observers in the same field.

Die Foraminiferen des Septarienthones von Pietzpuhl

By E. von Schlicht. 4to. With 38 lithographic plates. (Berlin, 1870. London: Williams and Norgate.)