In the " Library of Natural History Romance " (F.
Warne and Co., 6s.) we have Shell Life, by Edward Step, "an Introduction to the British Mollusca." Mr. Step tells us that he has described six hundred and fifty out of the total seven hundred and fifty British molluscs. The subject has the advantage that the material from which it may be studied is close at hand. There is the snail, for instance; that is everywhere, and from the common " garden" variety we may go on to acquaint ourselves -,.eh a great number of his more or less distant kinsfolk. Some (,f these are particularly interesting. There is the Dwarfed Limnaea, for instance. The eggs of the liver fluke (the most fatal disease that attacks sheep) when hatched out from the excrement of sheep find their habitat in this snail, and this only. If it is absent, they perish ; if present, they live and probably originate a fresh outbreak of the disease. Could the Dwarfed Limnaea be exterminated the disease of liver fluke would be stamped out. How many farmers know this ?
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