132 Hodgson's Memoirs of Gibson, Harle, fyc. 



The above sentence is part of a review which has been 

 sent us of this work, and which notice would occupy about 

 six of our pages. We cannot allow more space for noticing 

 the work than to thank H. S., the writer of the review, and 

 to add, that he represents the author as failing, here and 

 there, to preserve the course of his argument vigorous and 

 clear, and as burdening his text with too many notes, so as, 

 in effect, to bewilder the reader : he has not so written his 

 book " that he who runs may read." H. S. complains that 

 the author, in his natural history, " mistakes the relations of 

 analogy for those of affinity," and that the structure, habits, 

 and classification ascribed in the book to several animals are 

 erroneous. H. S. notices that, in nomenclature, the author 

 frequently puts the specific name before the generic, and cites 

 p. 261, 262. in example. In geological speculation, H. S. 

 differs considerably from the author ; and takes occasion to 

 describe an " interpretation of the Mosaic cosmogony," which 

 he deems preferable to that of the author, or to any other 

 with which H. S. is acquainted : for this we have not room. 

 The last remark in H. S.'s review is, — "I must notice an 

 error which could only have proceeded from inadvertency 

 (p. 48.). ' It is inferred that from this mode of movement 

 [that of the moon always keeping the same side towards the 

 earth], one half of its residents never see the earth, and the 

 other half never behold the sun. 9 The falsity of this last asser- 

 tion is apparent to any one at all acquainted with astronomy." 



Hodgson, Rev. John, M.R.S.L., Vicar of Whelpington, &c. : 

 Memoirs of the Lives of Thomas Gibson, M.D. ; Jonathan 

 Harle, M.D. ; John Horsley, M.A. F.R.S. ; William 

 Turner, M.D. 8vo, 147 pages. Newcastle, 1831. 



The writer is the talented author of a History of Northumber- 

 land, and, consequently, addicted to antiquarian research. He 

 has accumulated into this little volume facts and incidents ap- 

 pertaining to the biography of the above individuals, which all 

 who have any curiosity respecting them will much appreciate. 

 His memoirs of Dr. Turner (commemorated in the genus of 

 plants Turnera) will be welcome to botanists and to natur- 

 alists as well ; for Dr. Turner wrote, more or less, on natural 

 objects of every kind. He was described by Conrad Gesner 

 as a man of the greatest learning, and deserving of the highest 

 praise ; and of him Pulteney says, " The true era of botany 

 in England must commence with Dr. William Turner, who 

 was unquestionably the earliest writer among us that dis- 

 covered learning and critical judgment in the knowledge of 

 plants." Of this little volume only one hundred copies have 

 been printed. 



