NOTICES OF BOOKS. 921 
frame (bones included) only about one quarter is solid matter (chiefly 
carbon and nitrogen), the rest is water. If a man weighing 10 stone 
were pressed flat under a hydraulic press, 73 stone of water would run 
out, and only 23 stone of dry residue would remain. A man is there- 
fore, chemically speaking, 45 lb. of carbon and nitrogen diffused 
through 53 pailfuls of water. Berzelius, indeed, in recording the fact, 
justly remarks that the living organism is to be regarded as a mass 
diffused in water; and Dalton, by a series of experiments tried on his 
own person, that of the food with which we daily repair this water- 
built fabric, five-sixths are also water. Thus amply does science con- 
firm the popular view that water is the first necessary of life. 
Mexican Collections. 
Matteo Botteri, an aceomplished Dalmatian Naturalist, has been en- 
gaged by the Horticultural Society to collect for them in the southern 
part of Mexico. He will be allowed, after delivering to the Society the 
collections that he has stipulated to make for them, to offer for sale on 
his own account dried plants, shells, insects, and other objects of Na- - 
tural History, and has appointed Mr. Stevens, of 24, Bloomsbury-street, 
as his agent. 
M. Botteri has been several years engaged in similar pursuits in 
Dalmatia and the neighbouring parts of Turkey, and will take with 
him, as asssistant, a countryman of his own, who has been in the habit 
of accompanying him. He is expected to be in England, on his way 
to Mexico, about the beginning or middle of August, and will bring 
with him a collection of Dalmatian plants, shells, and insects, 
NOTICES. OF BOOKS. 
Harvey, Dr. WinLrAM Henry: NEREIS BOREALI-AMERICANA ; or, 
Contributions towards a History of the Marine Alge of the Atlantic 
and Pacific Coasts of North America. Part IL. Ruoposrrrmen. 
Royal 4to, pp. 258, Tab. XIII. to XXXVI., representing 67 species. 
-. The Second Part of this important work comprises the most attractive 
portion of the Algz, and far exceeds in size and in number of illus- 
