428 Anali/tical Notices of Books. 



rntomologist to extend his enquiries into other departments of 

 the animal kingdom. Since the misfortune which has incapaci- 

 tated the venerable Lamarck from continuing his Lectures on the 

 Invertebrated Animals at the Jardin des Plantes, the duty of 

 delivering them has devolved on M. Latreille, who has conse- 

 quently been compelled to acquire a more general acquaintance 

 with the whole of this grand section of animated nature ; to the 

 insect tribes of which his attention had been previously almost 

 exclusively <3irected. In doing this, he has been induced to go 

 beyond the limits prescribed by mere necessity, and to obtain 

 some knowledge of the Vertebrata; and the present work is 

 given to the public as the result of these studies, to which he was 

 prompted by inclination as well as duty. It is, as he justly 

 describes it, " a kind of prodromus, or general programme of 

 Zoology, conducting by degrees and in an analytical manner to 

 groups composed of a small number of genera, the names of 

 which are given; these groups being rather less extensive than 

 the genera of Linne." 



In the formation of these groups M. Latreille has been gene- 

 rally successful. That he has not been equally so in another 

 branch of his undertaking, " the attempt to connect them with 

 each other by natural affinities," cannot be matter of surprise, 

 when, notwithstanding the vast extent of our collections, their 

 insufficiency for such a purpose is daily evinced by the additional 

 knowledge of new forms which continues to pour in upon us from 

 all quarters. Nor in fact, even if the materials which we possess 

 were amply sufficient, could they be rendered available to this 

 object, unless displayed upon a general and connected system, 

 adhered to and illustrated throughout the whole of the animal 

 kingdom, and capable of being laid before the observer in a 

 tabular form. No such system is here pursued : on the con- 

 trary, so countless is the number of diverging branches spread- 

 ing out on either side of the principal series which are exhibited, 

 that our minds revolt from regarding ihem as part of Nature's 

 plan ; unless indeed Nature be as bad an architect as those of 

 the days of Elizabeth, and take especial delight in the construc- 

 tion of " galleries that lead to nothing." 



