174 • Retrospective Criticism. 



is the insect alluded to, and probably the Bombus lapidarius 

 of Linnaeus. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the dialect 

 of Somersetshire to be positive as to the humble bee being 

 there called a dumbledore; but it is certainly incorrect, as it 

 is the Geotrupes, and is supposed to be a corruption of tum- 

 ble-dung, a name derived from its economy. 



Again, in Lander's Discovery of the Termination of the Ni- 

 ger (Vol. I. p. 248.), in a note, we read, " It [Mr. Curtis has not 

 particularised the object spoken of J is deemed as odious by the 

 natives as the toad in England, or the tarantula in Italy, which 

 is also a kind of lizard." I had always believed the tarantula 

 to be a kind of spider : even our dictionaries say that it is a 

 species of insect ; I need scarcely observe that a lizard is not. 



I have always been an advocate, for many reasons, of 

 making natural history a necessary part of education : and 

 such errors as we often meet with in those who write to in- 

 struct being no slight proofs of the general ignorance of lite- 

 rary men in such matters, the utility that must be derived 

 from natural history being taught in our schools becomes 

 evj^ent to every one who can detect the nonsense often thus 

 circulated. I am, Sir, yours, — J. Curtis. Grove Place, Lis- 

 son Grove, Sept. 29. 1832. 



Sir James Edward Smith, in the preface to his Introduction 

 to Botany, pleads for a popular adoption of the study of 

 natural history, and adds: — " In Sweden, natural history is the 

 study of the schools, by which men rise to preferment ; and 

 there are no men with more acute or better-regulated minds 

 than the Swedes." The amiable and excellent Dr. Drum- 

 mond," in his Letters to a Young Naturalist, strongly expresses 

 a similar feeling. " I would like," says he, " that a lecture- 

 room, a museum, and a library, should be attached even to 

 every village, as regularly as its church or chapel ; and that 

 part of some set day or days should be appropriated to the 

 demonstration and teaching of the works and wisdom of God, 

 in the great subjects of natural theology." See an extract 

 from this author's valuable little book, given in our brief 

 notice of it, Vol. IV. p. 421. 



Dr. Grant is now delivering, every Tuesday and Thursday 

 evening, a course of lectures " on the Structure and Classi- 

 fication of Animals," to the members, and their friends, of 

 the Zoological Society, at the Society's rooms in Bruton 

 Street. It has been our pleasure and our profit to attend" 

 some of these lectures; and no one can attend them, and 

 witness the beautiful adaptation of the structure of the 

 animals to the offices they are appointed to perform in the 

 economy of creation, which the accomplished lecturer so 



