Bibliographical Notices. 391 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. Rare and Remarkable Animals of Scotland, represented from living Subjects ; with Practical Observations on their Nature. By Sir John Graham Dalyell, Bart. Volume second, containing fifty-six coloured Plates. London: John Van Voorst, 1848. 4to. We have to apologize to our readers for our dilatoriness in intro-ducing to their notice this second volume of a very remarkable work, whose speedy appearance we hail with much pleasure. The volume is equal to the first in its bulk and fair proportions, but scarcely equal in the interest and marvellousness of its histories ; and indeed the author has been anticipated, if we mistake not, in the publication of his most curious discoveries, although certainly not in the finding of them. He has been long in the possession of a knowledge of cer-tain phaenomena touching the lives of these inferior animals, which, subsequently ascertained by younger investigators less patient of their gestation, got speedy air and publicity ; and hence discoveries which are original in themselves and of singular interest, appear as second-hand and wanting in effect on their now publication. In illustration and proof of this we may instance the discovery of the me-tamorphosis of the compound and solitary Tunicata — their oviparous character — the tadpole similitude of their larvse — their locomotive power and subsequent fixation — the difiiuence of each larva on the foreign object to be its future residence — and its gradual mutation to the parent form. This discovery is here fully explained and illus-trated from personal observation, and we know that it has been long the author's own ; but naturalists have become familiar with it, not through his works, but through the popular writings of Milne-Edwards, translated and transferred into every work compiled to meet the demand for elementary books on zoology. The first chapter treats of " Foliaceous Zoophytes," or Flustra, At the very outset Sir John tells us that each polype, in the multi-tudinous polypidom, lives " solely for itself, independent of the life, the death, and the circumstances of its nearest neighbour. Among the multitudes restricted to limited space, we discover no reciprocal bond or connexion, nor any common channel of communication be-tween them ; neither any internal pith or medullary substance per-vading the polyparium." (p. 1.) But subsequently he arrives at the sounder conclusion that, though no connexion or communication between the cells of the Flustra can be discovered, " there is a strong presumption of some imperceptible channel or medium traversing the leaf, whereby portions with new hydrse are generated from the older parts." (p. 13.) The polypidom holding in its en-tirety myriads of individuals begins always with one only cell ; and this, to secure a broader foundation for the future colony, is always horizontal, while those which pullulate from it are, and must neces-sarily be, vertical. The original dies and consolidates, and so do its immediate successors, after producing others above them, which are ejected from their living progenitors in regulated ordination,
Rare and remarkable animals of Scotland, represented from living subjects; with practical observations on their nature. By Sir John Graham Dalyell, Bart. Volume second, containing fifty-six coloured Plates. London: John Van Voorst, 1848. 4to
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