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A Manual of Marine Zoology for the British Isles. By Philip 

 Henry GossE, A.L.S. Parti. London: Van Voorst. 1855* 

 12mo. 



Amongst the host of blind guides that are continually making their 

 appearance, professing to clear up the mysteries of nature to the 

 uninitiated, it is some satisfaction to us to have to record the publi- 

 cation of the present little work, — a work written with a definite and 

 intelligible purpose, which is carefully and intelligently carried out, 

 Mr. Gosse states, and we can readily believe him, that he has often, 

 in the course of his investigations, felt the want of a manual which 

 should give, in a succinct form, the characters of the genera of 

 British animals, so as to enable the student to determine on the spot 

 something more than the general alliances of any animal that might 

 occur to him. As nobody else appeared inclined to undertake the 

 task, he has set to work himself, and we have here a portion of the 

 result of his labours, embracing the invertebrate animals as far as the 

 Annulosa ; the Mollusca and Vertebrata being reserved for a second 

 part. 



It is not only to the beginner that such a work as this is of value ; 

 the more advanced student of nature will find it of the greatest 

 advantage, as, from its very small bulk, he can easily carry it in his 

 pocket in his rambles along the shore, so as to ascertain at once the 

 nature of the objects he meets with, and thus probably refresh his 

 memory as to what has been, or remains to be, observed with respect 

 to their habits and economy. 



Upon these latter subjects the work of course contains little beyond 

 generalities ; the author has contented himself with working out the 

 characters of the groups down to the genera, referring in every case 

 to the larger works which have served him as guides in the different 

 branches of his subject, and to which the student is referred for more 

 extended information. To each genus is appended a list of the 

 known British species, accompanied by an excellent outline figure on 

 wood of one species. To the eye, on a cursory inspection, these 

 figures constitute one of the most refreshing features of the book, — • 

 accustomed as we are to the continual recurrence of the same wood- 

 cuts in almost every popular work on natural history. The present 

 part contains figures of three hundred and forty species, of which a 

 great majority are original, and more than half of these drawn from 

 living specimens. 



In the execution of the work Mr. Gosse appears to have laboured 

 carefully and conscientiously ; the characters are given in clear and 

 intelligible language, and we should think that the merest tyro would 

 have no difficulty in working out most of the animals which he is 

 likely to meet with on our shores. The Infusoria and Entozoa, how- 

 ever, are entirely omitted ; the former from the uncertainty existing 

 as to what are really Infusoria, and what embryonic forms of higher 

 animal forms, and the latter because, to use Mr. Gosse's words, 



