6(3 Bibliographical Notices. 



probable that the eastern and western shores once formed two 

 islands, separated from each other by a shallow sea, with their in- 

 habitants generically though not specifically related, exactly as are 

 those of New Guinea and Northern Australia, and that within a 

 geologically recent period a series of upheavals converted the inter- 

 mediate sea into those desert plains which are now known to stretch 

 from the southern coast far northward, and which then became colo- 

 nized from the regions to the east and west. We will only further 

 point out an interesting table (p. 536) showing that in South Ame- 

 rica, Brazil is the metropolis of the Didelphidse, a family which, as 

 Mr. Waterhouse remarks, curiously replaces in that continent the 

 Insectivora of the Old World. 



Most of the genera are illustrated by elegant and spirited copper- 

 plates ; there are also many woodcuts ; some few however of these 

 latter are rather unfortunate works of art. The plates are printed 

 on excellent paper, and the whole work is got up in a style credit- 

 able to the publisher. The Marsupiata, though highly interesting in 

 their structure and affinities, yet are less so in their habits than the 

 higher mammalia ; but from some scattered notices we clearly see 

 that this amusing part of the subject will not be neglected. To the 

 professed naturalist we believe that this work will be almost indis- 

 pensable ; but we also strongly recommend it to those who do not 

 come under this class, but yet are interested in the wide field of na- 

 ture. We do not doubt that Mr. Waterhouse is conferring by this 

 publication a real service on natural science ; we therefore trust to 

 his continued perseverance, and we heartily wish him all success. 



Introduction to Zoology : for the Use of Schools. By Robert Pat- 

 terson, Vice-President of the Natural History Society of Belfast. 

 — Invertebrate Animals. With upwards of 170 Illustrations. Lon- 

 don : Simpkin and Co. 1846. 



The main cause of the great ignorance of Natural History in this 

 country among all classes, not excluding even the highest, is that it 

 forms no part of our regular system of education. Most of our 

 youth leave school scarcely aware of the existence of such a science, 

 and so utterly unacquainted with its merest rudiments, that to be 

 told that whales and bats give suck to their young, would excite in 

 them a contemptuous smile of incredulity. This is deplorable ; but 

 it is the misfortune not the fault of our youth, that they are thus 

 ignorant of facts with which mere children in France and Germany 

 are familiar. Fully occupied with the routine of our usual instruc- 

 tion at school, and thence directly transferred either to college or 

 the active duties of commercial or professional life, they have no 

 opportunity of repairing this great deficiency of their early educa- 

 tion, and thus remain deprived of what may be justly called another 

 sense — the power of seeing at every step objects of the highest in- 

 terest and delight, to which the man unacquainted with natural 

 history is blind, and of thus opening to themselves a new source of 

 mental enjoyment, which, whether they traverse the mighty ocean 



