274
conclusion about rates of e x t i n c t i o n is nega-
tive that they are not affected by cosmo-
pohtamsm or provmc=ahsm on the average,
althougt terminal extract=on rate may some-
times increase as provmctahsm lessens
As Boucot notes in a postscript, h~s
whole treatise depends on the assumptions
that the fossil record of [Sdurtan and De
voman] brachtopods approximates their real
record and that the hkehhoood of their fos-
silization did not vary w i t h time Elsewhere
=n the book he has exphcltly made another
assumption that is at least equally open to
question that the population densrty of
brach=opods tended to be the same f o r all
taxa (of equivalent rank) and t h r o u g h o u t
the area of distribution of each taxon Only
thus can he j u s t i f y use o f area of d=stnbu
t~on as an approximate measure of size of
population Perhaps it wilt be m t u i t w e l y a c -
cepted that among taxa s=mdar in ways of
hfe a w~despread taxon must almost per
force be individually more abundant than a
Iocahzed one A n o t h e r question arises f r o m
the frequent use of the term "interbreeding
population" m this connection The taxa
used are m most cases genera, and all the
members of a genus in nature are usually
not even p o t e n t i a l l y interbreeding Perhaps
one should stay w i t h the conclusion that
there is some negative correlation between
known areas of distribution of genera and
rates of evolution, although that is a step
removed f r o m causal explanation
That "natural selection ts concluded to
play the usual important role m determining
what organisms develop, but not a first-
order role m determining the rate at which
they develop" is a somewhat cryptic and
not w h o l l y satisfactory statement Why do
smaller populations have some tendency to
evolve more rapidly? One answer Is "Be
cause in them natural select=on acts more
rapidly," and that returns natural selection
to a first-order role m determining rates
Boucot has some d i f f i c u l t y m defining
and malntamlng his distinction among taxo
nom=c, phylet~c, and cladtstlc rates o f evolu
t=on He has somehow missed a point made
in one of his cited sources that there are
t a x o n o m i c phyletlc rates and t a x o n o m i c fre-
quency rates A t a x o n o m i c frequency rate,
which ~s what Boucot usually means by a
taxonomic rate, is simply another (and
prior) name f o r a cladistlc rate
These m i n o r cr~t~msms should be taken
as favoring rather than as being adverse to
Boucot's book They demonstrate h o w stlm
ulatmg his w o r k ~s even to someone w h o ~s
not particularly interested tn Paleozotc
brachiopods per se
G G Simpson, Tucson, Arlz
TECHNIQUES IN PETROLOGY
C S Hutchlson, 1974 Laboratory Hand
book o f Petrographic Techniques Wiley,
New Y o r k , N Y , x x w l + 527 p p , 148 figs,
£ 1060
During the past t w e n t y years the equip-
ment used m research in mineralogy an(] pe
trology has become increasingly soph=stt
cated and the t e x t b o o k s on methods have
tended to concentrate on one technique on
ly The exception is Physical Methods m
Determinative Mineralogy edited by J Zuss-
man and now this new book in which Dr
Hutchlson has brought together in one place
many of the standard techniques used by
petrologists The topms covered by Dr
Hutchtson range from cutting a hand spec=
men of a rock to the apphcat~on of powder
X-ray methods to specd~c mineral groups
The present reviewer f r e q u e n t l y refers
students to Holmes' Petrographrc Methods
andCalculatlons (1921) f o r the rules for cal-
culating a CIPW Norm and to Johanssen's
Manual of Petrographic Methods (1918) f o r
a list of hquids suitable as immers~on media
for refractive index determination and de
script~ons of such rarely used instruments as
the Bravals plate It was thus of particular
interest to find what Dr Hutchlson had m
cluded in h~s book and to see how far he
had succeeded in incorporating so many
techmques in one volume In his introduc-
tion he states that d~scusston of electron
microprobe techmques Ls omitted because
there are already several monographs on this
instrument and he hsts a number of these
He also notes that there ~s some overlap
with Prof Zussman's book on Physical

Methods m Determmatwe Mineralogy b u t
contends that some of the articles m Zuss-
man's b o o k do n o t gwe sufflctent practical
detads of the methods Hutchlson has gone
to the other extreme and this ~n some ways
~s the mare cnt~ctsm of his " d o w n to
e a r t h " approach For example in the section
on "practical aspects of X-ray diffractome-
t r y " he assumes that the reader has a Phlhps
PW 1050 vertical gomometer and a detailed
description of this instrument follows In
the case of X-ray fluorescence spectrometry
hkewlse the instrument described in detml is
the Phd~ps PW 1540 which was first pro-
duced more than 15 years ago and most
laboratortes have much more recent tnstru-
ments It ~ s d ~ f f t c u l t t o u n d e r s t a n d w h a t v a l -
ue the detailed instructions for adjustment
of the crystal holders have over those gtven
by the manufacturer and they could easdy
have been left o u t
The arrangement of the optical methods
~s somewhat peculiar Chapter 4 deals w i t h
" R o t a t i o n methods f o r the polarizing micro-
scope" b u t we have to go to Chapter 9 be-
fore finding o u t a b o u t routine methods of
refractwe index determination The use of
the Lmtz-Jelley refractometer and an Abbe-
t y p e refractometer are described b u t no ex
planat~on of the prmmple used in rather in-
strument ~s gtven
One chapter is headed " D i s p l a y of Data"
and thts covers the p l o t t i n g of data m trtan-
gular diagrams, A C F , A ' K F and A r M dia-
grams f o l l o w e d by sohdlficatlon index, cry-
stalhzatlon index and differentiation index
dtagrams, recalculation of mineral analyses
and rules for calculating ClPW and Niggh
Norms We are n o t told w h y anyone should
wish to calculate a norm and w h y one m~ght
prefer one m e t h o d over another or even
where the letters CIPW come f r o m th~s
rewewer will stdl have to refer students to
Holmes' b o o k This is the price we have to
pay for so much m f o r m a t t o n bemg given m
one b o o k In the recalculation of a mineral
analysis no clear explanation ~s given of h o w
to treat fluorme or c h l o n n e
The b o o k is well produced w i t h clearly
drawn diagrams and it will u n d o u b t e d l y be a
useful reference b o o k for a variety of tech
tuques, descriptions of which are scattered
t h r o u g h o u t thegeolog~cal hterature T h e a u
thor's selectton of w h a t to include and what
275
to leave out, is n o t the selectton this revtew
er w o u l d have made b u t th~s ~s rather a per
sonal matter There ~sa useful hst of refer-
ences and an appendix containing the hst of
compames which supply the e q u i p m e n t and
materials f o r the techniques described in the
book
W S Mackenzie, Manchester
CARBONACEOUS METEORITES
B Nagy, 1975 Carbonaceous Meteorites
Elsevier, Amsterdam, 747 p p , Dfl 2 1 0 0 0 ,
US $8095
Carbonaceous meteorites are very pr~ml
twe, extraterrestrial substances c o n t a m m g
clues to the ongm and e v o l u t i o n of Lhe solar
system They have been the object of sci-
entific study since they were first recog-
nized during the early part of the nineteenth
century In his b o o k Professor N a g y h a s a d -
mirably accomplished the d i f f i c u l t task of
documenting the available sc~entlfac m f o r
matlon on carbonaceous meteorites AI
though w h a t has been done wdl serve as a
very useful reference for those w h o wLsh to
acquire an idea of the contents of the htera
ture on carbonaceous meteorttes up to
1973, the volume lacks the e x c i t e m e n t and
interest that could have resulted from a
comprehensive, critical review of what is
k n o w n The reader ~s asked to sdt through a
myrtad of analyses, to draw h~s o w n conclu
slons, and to determine what w o r k has been
relevant and what has n o t Most readers are
probably not prepared to do th~s and w o u l d
have appreciated some kind of assessment
and evaluation It must be noted, however,
the author's speciftc and stated purpose was
to d o c u m e n t and n o t to evaluate, that pur
pose has been successfully achieved
The b o o k ~s dwlded into five chapters
each of whmh treats an aspect of the total
subject matter The first chapter serves as a
good introduct~on by providing general de-
scrlpttons of meteorites, classtftcatton
schemes, age determinations and cons~dera
tlons of possible origins C h a p t e r 2 deals
wtth the early h~story of meteorite analyses
much of the chapter ~s composed of d~rect