Retrospective Criticism. 29^ 



exhibit a picture of truth in due symmetry and proper proportion. There 

 are a few great artists ah*eady employed about the head, more about the body, 

 and a still greater number about the limbs. I, too, would have a share in so 

 goodly a work, but I am an artist of the humblest class. I can offer only 

 the ** great toe of the assembly,'' and if that be not in proportion, I beseech 

 you to reject it and suffer it not to deform your picture. 



You have made the penultimate syllables of the words Chrysomela and 

 Cicindela long : and Ainsworth, quoting from Pliny, has done the same. 

 The poet. Gray, has adopted a different accentuation, as you will perceive 

 by the subjoined lines, which are a portion of his verses commemorative of 

 the Linnean Orders and Genera: — 



" Chrysomela inflexa loricae stringitur or^. 

 Maxilla exserta est oculoque Cicindela grandi.'* 



Gray was a classical scholar, and would not, I conceive, accentuate a 

 word without sufficient authority. But where is his authority in the present 

 instance? In the whole nomenclature of entomology, no words are more va- 

 riously pronounced than these two now before us : and I must confess that, 

 if Chrysomela be the correct accentuation, I am utterly unable to discover 

 any thing in its derivation applicable to the insect to which it is assigned. 



In page 160. you have written elytra, and in page 425. Elytra. I presume 

 that, prosodically, it may be either elytra or elytra ; but in no case can it 

 be elytra. Gray has written elytra. I prefer your former pronunciation, 

 because it is, to my ear, more euphonic. 



In one case I find prodromus ; in another, through inadvertence I sup- 

 pose, prodromus. I do not make these remarks, Sir, from any fastidious 

 feeling, but for the purpose of information ; and, more particularly, to show 

 the necessity of annexing to the end of each volume of your work a 

 correct accentuation of the terms therein employed. I am. Sir, &c. 

 — J. S. Thurgarton^ Norfolk, April 17. 1829. [Our correspondent's 

 other communications are inserted in their proper places.] 



Errata. — Page 107. line 16. from the top,/or " the fossils (^^5. 25. and 

 ^6.\" read " the fossils (/g5. 24. and 25.)." Page 162. line 9. for "fifty," 

 read " forty." Page 169. line 22, for " annona," read " ananna. " 



Ascent of the Aerial Spider. — Sir, Mr. Blackwall's letter in your Ma- 

 gazine (p. 116.) leaves this question exactly as it was. It is true he is 

 pleased to deal in invective and complaint ; but this has nothing to do with 

 the case. Your correspondent need not be told that the council of no 

 scientific society hold themselves responsible for the papers that may 

 appear in their published Transactions ; the entire onus rests on the indi- 

 vidual authors of the respective papers ; nay, more, as in the case of the 

 Royal and Horticultural Societies and others, an express printed notice to 

 that effect is prefixed to each volume. An author may gain sufficient credit 

 with the council of any society, to warrant the publication of his sentiments 

 or opinions, however erroneous they may be ultimately found to be. On 

 such promulgation, these published opinions become public property, and 

 they may be sifted and tried before that tribunal. If Mr. Blackwall finds 

 himself unable to contest the question single-handed, I cannot concede to 

 him the right of calling into his aid the coup de main of the council of the 

 Linnean Society, the individual members of which I highly respect, and 

 feel assured they will not be so unwise as to wage an indiscreet war against 

 any one contending for the principles of truth. The opinions sustained in 

 that paper are the opinions, surely, of Mr. Blackwall, and not of the coun- 

 cil of the Linnean Society, or, if otherwise, how could Mr. Blackwall lend 

 his name to a paper which did not belong to him. I shall not yield in my 

 respect for the Linnean Society to him or any one, and am only surprised, 



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