608 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



tracting from them such larvae and worms as feed upon them ; they likewise 

 seize upon earth-worms which are entwined among the masses of fibrous 

 roots, &c. The principal object of its search, however, is the earth-worm." 



We shall observe from time to time the progress of this work, as the sub- 

 ject is one of especial interest to ourselves. 



The Naturalist. Conducted by B. MA UNO and W. ROLL. Nos. 2, 3. 



Groombridge. 



A WORTHY companion to Mr. Bell's " British Quadrupeds." The plates are 

 admirable, and the work most scientifically conducted. No. 3 opens with an 

 account of a very interesting animal, the ornithorynchus paradoxus, one of 

 the anomalous monotrematous animals of Australia, which combines in itself 

 the peculiar characters of a mammiferous animal and a bird, suckling its 

 young like the former, laying eggs and having a flattened bill like the latter. 



A few years since the habits and characters of this animal, even its exist- 

 ence, were almost hypothetical to naturalists : now we have presented to us, 

 in an agreeable and popular form, the most positive and complete information 

 respecting it. Further on we find an excellent essay by a distinguished phy- 

 siologist, Langston Parker, on the circulation of the Invertebrata. 



Works of this kind cannot be too much encouraged ; we wish it every suc- 

 cess. When we have less press of matter than at present, we will again 

 recur to it. 



MEDICAL SCIENCE. 

 Magazine of Health. By a Practising Physician. Nos. 9, 10. Tilt. 



THERE is undoubtedly no subject of greater importance to an enlightened 

 public than that which points out to them the nature of the machinery of 

 their corporeal frames, the natural movements which constitute health, and 

 the irregular actions that give rise to disease ; that explains, on a reasonable 

 understanding of structure, the best rules for cherishing health, and the pain- 

 ful consequences of an infraction of nature's laws. We must admit that upon 

 such points the majority of society some even amongst medical men are 

 lamentably ignorant ; and a magazine well directed towards the enlighten- 

 ment of the public upon such subjects would, by a reflected action, prove an 

 excellent stimulus to a class of men to whose skill the public health is entrusted. 

 Upon these grounds we acknowledge the value of a publication of this sort ; 

 but at the hands of a physician, or of a medical author, we expect no com- 

 mon instruction. We have a right to demand from men of education and 

 of severe thought, an information in their own peculiar province, and a sim- 

 plicity and distinctness of argument, that shall place their work upon the surest 

 ground-work of popular favour. 



With these remarks we close our present notice of the work before us, ad- 

 vising the nameless Editor to remember the warning of the Scottish bard : 

 " A chiel's amang ye, takin* notes, 

 And, faith, he'll prent it." 



A Series of Anatomical Plates. By JONES QUAIN, M. D., and 

 WILLIAM J. E. WILSON, M. R. C. S. Fasciculus 42. Taylor 

 and Walton. 



THIS beautiful work still continues to maintain the ground which the name 

 of its distinguished Editor induced the medical world to expect. 



It was commenced with the express intention of placing within the reach 

 of the educated gentleman, the barrister, and the public, the means of 

 becoming easily acquainted with the important structures of the animal ma- 

 chine, as well as to serve as a continual reference to the student and the prac- 



