Scientific Journals. 



363 



Realm*. Reigns. Regions. Classes. 



f Beasts. 

 Spiritual Rationals Lung-breathing } Birds. 



(^ Reptiles. 



C Fish. ' 



Vital Animals Gill-breathing } Fish allies, or MolMsca. 



(! Shell Fish, or Crustacea. 



C Insects. 

 Inorganic Vegetalia Skin-breathing } Worms. > 



( Plant allies, or Zoophytes, •> 



There is a paper on the proceedings of the Royal Institution, which 

 shows the prosperous state of that body. A great number of lectures, on 

 very interesting subjects, have been delivered and numerously attended, 

 much interesting discussion has taken place, and a great variety of curious, 

 historical, or useful objects exhibited at the weekly evening meetings. From 

 the collections in natural history, we learn (extract from Ann.Linn. de Paris) 

 that plants with pointed leaves and spines attract electricity; that electrified 

 seeds pass more rapidly through the first periods of vegetation, than such as 

 are not electrified ; and that electrified roses flower more rapidly and abun- 

 dantly. 



The Philosophical Magazine^ for July, possesses its usual interest ; that for 

 August contains a paper from the Philosophical Transactions for 1828, 

 part i., by Sir Humphrey Davy, in which volcanic fires are accounted for 

 by the exposure of the metals of earths and alkalies to air and water, and 

 also the formation of lavas and basalts, and many other crystalline rocks, 

 explained from the slow cooling of the products of such combustion. 



GilVs Technological Repository^ for July, contains an animated article on 

 the delight and instruction which flow from the study of natural history, 

 " whenever it is pursued, not merely in a scientific, but in a truly philoso- 

 phical spirit," taken from Blackwood's Magazine. " In speaking of the 

 effect of such studies on the temper of the mind, in tranquillising it, we 

 cannot help noticing the natural calmness, independent of those other 

 affections which attend such studies, arising out of the very nature of the 

 objects themselves, about which the naturalist is occupied, and out of the 

 manner in which he is occupied about them." In the August Number is 

 the continuation of Mr. Carpenter's experiments with the microscope 

 on insects and their eggs, and a paper on the Ichneumon Fly, by Mr. 

 Carpenter. " There are several species of ichneumon which make thiur 

 nings among the caterpillars of the cabbage butterfly. The process of 

 one species is this : while the caterpillar is feeding, the ichneumon fly 

 hovers over it, and, with its piercer, perforates the fatty part of the 

 caterpillar's back in many places, and in each deposits an egg, by means 

 of the two parts of the sheath uniting together, and thus forming a 

 tube down which the egg is conveyed into the perforation made by the 

 piercer of the fly. The caterpillar, unconscious of what wilt ensue, keeps 

 feeding on, until it changes into a chrysalis; while in that torpid state, the 

 eggs of the ichneumon are hatched, and the interior of the body of the 

 caterpillar serves as food for the caterpillars of the ichneumon fly. When 

 these have fed their accustomed time, and are about to change into the 

 pupa state, they, by an instinct given them, attack the vital part of the 

 caterpillar (a most wonderful economy in nature, that this process should 

 be delayed until they have no more occasion for food). They then spin 

 themselves minute cases within the body of the caterpillar ; and instead 

 of a butterfly coming forth (which, if a female, would have probably laid 

 six hundred eggs, thus producing as many caterpillars, whose food w^ould 



