Bibliographical Notices. 201 



derelictus (allied to the S. brunnipes of Sturm, and captured by Mr. 

 F. Smith in the vicinity of London). 



Perhaps the main defect in Mr. Dawson's volume may be said to 

 be the paucity of the habitats which he records, — a circumstance the 

 more to be regretted from the facility with which an extensive series 

 of localities might have been made known ; whilst it is a universally 

 admitted fact, that nothing tends so much to increase the general in- 

 terest in a subject like that which he has so skilfully handled, as a 

 copious and well-selected list of the various districts in which the 

 several insects have been ascertained to occur. It is by this means 

 indeed alone that we can obtain a correct estimate of their topogra- 

 phical distribution, and so be enabled to compare the productiveness 

 of distant portions of the British Isles ; whilst the pleasure which it 

 naturally affords to labourers in the same field, to see the fruit of 

 their investigations brought together for the general good, would 

 amply repay the small additional trouble which such an arrange- 

 ment would have involved. 



These however, desirable though they may be, are subsidiary 

 points. The general accuracy of Mr. Dawson's monograph, and the 

 amount of judgment which he has shown in grasping his specific dif- 

 ferences, will sufficiently attest its merit ; and we can only add that, 

 if his example should induce others to clear up the intricacies of 

 equally difficult departments with as much success, our coleopterous 

 fauna will not be long in assuming a more definite shape than it has 

 hitherto done. 



The Medals of Creation, ^c. By (the late) G. A. Mantell, F.R.S. 

 2 vols, small 8vo. Second Edition. London : Bohn. 



It is with somewhat melancholy pleasure that we notice these 

 volumes, as they remind us of one, now passed away, who both by 

 his writings and lectures certainly assisted in rendering the science of 

 geology popular among the many, and whose poetic temperament 

 enlivened the society of private friendship. Previous to the appear- 

 ance of this work, Parkinson's ' Introduction to the Study of Organic 

 Remahis ' was, we believe, the only one especially devoted to the 

 subject ; and that simply professed to give a mere outline of the 

 principal generic forms, then known, which were found in a fossil 

 state. With the advanced state of science a more compendious work 

 was required — avoiding at the same time mere technicalities and dry 

 details, and yet giving the facts connected with a general view of 

 fossil botany and zoology in such clear and readable manner, as to 

 render the work a popular introduction to the study of palaeontology. 

 To a considerable extent, this attempt has been successful ; and we 

 should feel the more grateful for the success, when it is considered 

 that the work was the production of leisure hours extracted amidst 

 the onerous duties of a laborious profession. 



Regardless of the censure too freqviently attached to the medical 

 man who studies Nature, although best qualified to interrogate her, Dr. 

 Mantell fearlessly followed the pursuit, and not only derived thence a 



