REVIEWS.

ART. 1. Catalogue of Works on Natural History, lately published, with some Notice of those considered the most interesting to British Naturalists.

ANON: Popular Lectures on the Vertebrated Animals of the British Islands. Part I. On the British Mammífera; with a tabular View of them, arranged according to Blumenbach's System; a Synopsis of all the Genera and Species; and an Appendix containing a Sketch of Extinct Animals. 8vo, pp. 96. Birmingham, 1831. Wrightson, Birmingham; Baldwin, and Longman, London.

The writer of these Lectures plays with his subject, that is, he discusses it in an off-hand manner; and although in his successive treating of the various animals, one by one, he gives, in English, the technical characteristics of each species, and those of the genus, order, &c., to which it belongs, he gives also, in relation to each, either some sentimental reflection, something interesting that has to his knowledge occurred in association with it, or anecdotes and notices descriptive of the habits of the animal. This untechnical part of the book we regard more than the technical part, because the British animals are to Britons empirically known or distinguishable; but it is, we fear, far from being the fact, that each is to every Briton a centre of amiable, intellectual, and therefore highly interesting, associations. This is what it is most desirable they, and every object in creation, should be; and we admire the present manual, as being a cheap means of promoting so desirable an end, and heartily wish that the successful sale of this" Part I." may encourage the author to proceed with the remainder, which he proposes should consist of six parts: "Parts II., III., and IV., to be respectively devoted to the description of the land birds, the Grállæ or waders, and the water birds; Part V. to the amphibious animals and cartilaginous fishes; and Part VI. to the osseous or bony fishes." We cannot state the price of this richly stored pamphlet, or "Part I.;" but it cannot be high, as it has been got up in a plain, unornamented, but nevertheless clear and neat, manner.

Anon: The Minstrelsy of the Woods; or Sketches and Songs connected with the Natural History of some of the most interesting British and Foreign Birds. By the Author of "The Wild Garland," &c. 8vo, pp. 230, with 19 plates of as many species of birds. London, 1832, Harvey and Darton.

This is a charming little volume, and well adapted to the purpose for which it is said to have been written; namely, the amusement and instruction of the youthful. The author does not pretend to be a scientific ornithologist; but he is a lover of the feathered race, and has studied their habits and economy with attention. Birds may be considered as the poets of the inferior creation; hence has arisen a kind of fellowship between our author and the choristers of the woods. He has described and sung of their characters, powers, instincts, and their affections, returning song for song, in a very pleasing strain. Although the execution of the plates and portraits of the birds are not every thing we could wish, yet they are sufficiently exact for identifying the species intended, more especially if they were coloured; and this we would advise every young lady who has a copy to do for herself, as a very pleasant task. But surpassing all he has said or sung are the amiable feelings and pious train of sentiment which pervade every page of the book.-J. M.

Weatherhead, George Hume, M.D. &c. &c.: An Account of the Beulah Saline Spa, at Norwood, Surrey; containing a Description of its Medicinal Properties and Effects, of the Diseases of which it is remedial, and Directions for its Use. 8vo, pp. 38. London, Hatchard, 1832.

"The water drawn fresh from the well is beautifully transparent and sparkling. Innumerable bubbles of fixed air are seen rising to the surface, when allowed to stand. Its taste is distinctly bitter, without being at all disagreeable, leaving on the palate the peculiar flavour of its predominant saline ingredient, the sulphate of magnesia. The temperature of the water at the bottom of the well is 52° of Fahrenheit; its specific gravity 1011; and, by an analysis of its composition by Faraday and Hume, the following are the solid contents, in grains, of a quart of the water :-Sulphate of magnesia, 123; sulphate of soda and magnesia, 32; muriate of soda, 19; muriate of magnesia, 184; carbonate of lime, 15; carbonate of soda, 3: in all, 210 grains." As a means of comparison, the saline contents of a quart of the Cheltenham pure saline, as analysed by Mr. Brande, are given: they are these:Sulphate of magnesia, 22; sulphate of soda, 30; muriate of

soda, 100; sulphate of lime, 9: in all, 161 grains. This comparison, it is remarked, is exhibited, "to enable the reader to judge how much superior, as an aperient water, the Beulah spring is to that of Cheltenham."

Dr. Weatherhead's pamphlet describes, in a clear and popularly intelligible manner, the efficacy, and the reasons for the efficacy, of the Beulah saline spring, and all mild aperient saline waters, in mitigating or curing indigestion, liver and bilious complaints, jaundice, chlorosis, hypochondriasis, chronic and strumous ophthalmia, cutaneous diseases, unhealthy condition of the humours, constipation, and scrofula. Dr. Weatherhead appends to his remarks on the above subjects, which he discusses separately, very sensible "directions for drinking the waters, with remarks on diet, exercise, change of air, scene, and occupation."

Twenty-five acres of pleasure ground are attached to the Beulah Spa, and spirited exertions have been, and are being, made, to render these, in addition to the medicinal merits of the spring itself, truly deserving of the patronage of the public. Those who are already acquainted with the landscape and rural charms of the Norwood neighbourhood, will be gratified by this information of the heightening and embellishment, now in progress, of a portion of them.

ART. II. Literary Notices.

AN Introduction to the Knowledge of British Birds, for Young Persons, by R. A. Slaney, Esq. M. P., is in the press, and will soon be published.

An Introduction to Botany, by Professor Lindley, is in a forward state of preparation, and will shortly be presented to the public.

A Zoological Description of the Oceanic Inhabitants of the Arctic Regions.-Professor Dewhurst, whose interesting paper on the whale at Charing Cross we had the pleasure to insert (pp. 214-233.), proposes to publish by subscription a volume bearing the above title, consisting of a series of observations made during his voyage in Greenland, in the year 1824, and illustrated by upwards of seventy engravings. In this work, the errors of Willughby, Ray, Pennant, Scoresby, Baron Cuvier, and Count Lacépède, are to be corrected. author informs us, that owing to a severe and almost fatal illness, of five months' duration, from a dissection wound, he is unable to publish it himself. He will put it to press as soon as he can procure 100 subscribers.

The

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MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

ART. I. Natural History in foreign Countries.

FRANCE.

FOSSIL Riches of Touraine.-Sir, In that part of the ancient French province of Touraine which nearly adjoins Poitou, there exists a deposit of fossil remains; which, though not unique, is perhaps unparalleled, in extent and circumstances of peculiar interest, in natural history. This vast deposit the French call Les Falunières, which, according to M. Croïe d'Argenson, are spread over a district of country not less than twelve leagues square, measured by the French league, which consists of 2 English miles. Certain it is, that it extends from near St. Maure, and from below Bossée on the south, to beyond Meutheme on the east; and from St. Maure, by St. Cathérine de Fierbois, in a northerly direction, to above Louhans, several leagues farther north. This extraordinary deposit consists entirely of fossil shells, in different states of preservation, but mostly broken down into a fine shell sand. The thickness of the bed (which, as far as it has been examined, appears to be uniform) has not been yet ascertained, though pits have been dug in it from 8 to 10 ft. deep; at which depth the water has been invariably found too abundant to admit of farther excavation without the aid of expensive machinery, which has never yet been applied. The shells and their debris [reduced fragments] are to be met with at about 2 ft. below the surface of the ground, and seem to lie in a horizontal position, nearly corresponding with that of the surface. Intermixed with the broken shells many fossils are to be found, some entire, and others in a more or less perfect state. Among those already met with are the Østrea (rock oyster, in great variety of shapes and sizes, from half an inch to 6 in. long), Cardìta crássa, Turritélla, Ceríthium, Caryophýllia, Pécten, Annulìtes, Pectúnculus pulvinàtus, Scutella subrotunda, &c. &c., and, near St. Cathérine de Fierbois, the fossil remains of teeth and palates of fish, of all which specimens in a high state of preservation have been obtained.* * Similar specimens of the latter of these singular fossil remains have n sent me by M. de Chauchevrier, found in digging drains at his seat, distant from St. Cathérine de Fierbois.

No part of this extraordinary deposit of marine fossils approaches the sea nearer than from 130 to 150 miles; and, between, those primitive rocks intervene which geologists consider to be the oldest and the base of all other strata. The department of the Indre et Loire, which comprises the whole of the ancient Touraine, and parts of Poitou and the Orléannois, abounds with calcareous rocks, some of them mainly composed of fossil remains, and of different degrees of hardness: but in the fossils of the vast district of the Falunières there exists no principle of agglutination; so that, when exposed on the surface of the ground, they look like heaps of white sand, many of the particles of which are light enough to be moved by the wind. So striking a difference between the fossil deposit of Les Falunières, and those which surround and probably support it, is difficult to be accounted for; the fact, however, seems well worthy of distinctive notice in the geological map of France, as forming a most singular feature amidst the newer members of the terrain secondaire of Humboldt.

The value of these fossil remains as manure is better understood in England than in France: they are, however, beginning to be used in the immediate neighbourhood of Les Falunières, on the side of St. Maure, where the application of lime to the purposes of agriculture is nearly unknown: but the soil or subsoil of nearly the whole of the department being compounded, in some proportion or other, of chalk marl, limestone, or fossil remains, there is at one and the same time less occasion for it, and the less inducement to use it. Touraine

(for centuries known by the appellation of "the garden of France") offers a rich subject for the study of natural history, a subject not the less inviting for having been hitherto most unaccountably neglected. In the cabinet of natural history, over the gallery of paintings at Tours, there is a tolerable collection of the fossils of this truly extraordinary calcareous district; for which the public is chiefly indebted to the liberal donations of M. Louirette, and the recent additions made to it by M. Dujardin, the talented professor of chemistry in that city. To both those gentlemen, but most particularly to the latter, as well as to Captain Ridgeway, then resident at Tours, I am much indebted, not only for some fine specimens which I probably should not otherwise have obtained, but for assistance and encouragement in the pursuit of a science of which I previously knew little or nothing, in which I am still only a learner, but from the study of which I found an invaluable source of amusement, wonder, and delight, during a sojourn of six months in "the garden of France;" in the