Scientific Reviews. 411 



occasion ; we shall content ourselves with remarking, that the fiacts 

 above related acquire great interest when viewed in connection with 

 some recent researches on the respiration of aquatic animals, of the 

 chief results of which there is an account in the last number of this 

 Journal. 



Much additional matter respecting the structure and mode of Ufd 

 of the Acalepha is to be found in the descriptions of the particular 

 genera and species; but our limits do not permit us to go beyond 

 the specimens already selected. 



Before concluding, we have to say, that the method followed by 

 the author in his arrangement of the Acalepha, as far as a slight 

 perusal enables us to speak, appears sufficiently clear and satisfac- 

 tory; though, we confess, this is a subject to which we have not 

 paid that attention which should entitle us to consider ourselves 

 competent judges. We intended giving an outline of the classifi- 

 cation, for the sake of those who may not have an opportunity of 

 referring to the work itself, but this, we find, in order to be in any 

 way useful, would occupy far too great a space. 



Voyage du Comte Potocki, ^c. Travels of Count Potocki. Vol. II. 



Jrnmitive History of the People of Russia. 

 Essai d'une Statistique, 8^c. Essay on the General Statistics of 



the Jlmpire of Russia. By J. H. Schnitzler. 



The aim of historicsd researches is truth in the past, as that of 

 statistics is truth in the present ; and their utility is in showing us 

 the course which events have followed to arrive at their present 

 condition, and, by analogy, in throwing some light on the conjectu- 

 ral roads of the future ; for the past has worn out all the combina- 

 tions with respect to us, in the same manner as we have done with 

 regard to posterity. 



Researches on the people and the language of a nation are not of 

 the same direct utility as researches on the agriculture, arts, &c. ; 

 nevertheless it is a study to whose aid many philosophical views may 

 be brought. For example, it is pleasing to see how a people ex- 

 hibits a character at the moment when it appears in history, how ci- 

 vilization modifies this character, and how, afterwards, all the events 

 in the history of this people are only results of this character com- 

 bined with circumstances. Such observations present themselves 

 at each step in historical researches as in the study of other sciences, 

 which all offer many subjects capable of being philosophically ap- 

 plied, independently of their respective and particular objects. 



When we read the History of Russia and of Peter the Great, by 

 Count Segur, we cannot help, on seeing so much external lustre and 

 such abundance of ornament, thinking that the matter has been sa- 

 crificed to the form ; and we feel doubtful whether so elegant and 



