232 NOTES ON CRUSTACEANS. 



to a class of Entomologists to whom we wish to say a few words, namely, 

 the incipients, as they are termed in the parlance of the day. To those 

 we trust we shall always be a friend. We shall not flatter them by pub- 

 lishing ill-digested or useless communications, but we shall do all we can 

 to set them in the right way — to encourage them in their difficulties, and 

 by holding up to them as examples those who have gone before them, and 

 who by steady perseverance have won fame and renown, we hope that our 

 efforts to keep them in the true path will be crowned with success. To 

 those who are more advanced — to the adult and aged student of Nature 

 we appeal with confidence. Had we any other interest than that of the 

 advancement of science, we should scorn to make any appeal at all. Science 

 never progresses when its advocacy is made subservient to private interests 

 or book-trading monopoly. It must be free and unshackled. The great 

 object of all science — that of giving knowledge to the ignorant, of enlarging 

 the mind, of exciting thought, and forming habits of observation and re- 

 flection, must never be lost sight of. To this end simplicity of language 

 is all-important; we must not make doubtful laws, and illustrate our assertion 

 by long, hard words. The thirst for knowledge is often at once and for 

 ever slaked by the cumbersome language of pedantry. Science itself is pure 

 and simple. It is merely the study of those laws which the Omnipotent 

 Creator in the world's early morning impressed upon all things. In revealing 

 these laws we are unfolding to the lower human mind the Greatness, the 

 Wisdom, the Power, the Harmony, and Goodness of the one Greater Mind 

 which designed Creation. 



And only so far as such revelations impress upon us an exalted feeling 

 of gratitude can science be of benefit to mankind. Once let the lower 

 usurp the place of the higher mind, and all our efforts to bo useful will 

 from that moment cease. 



C. R. Bree. 



Strickland, Sept. lblh., 1857. 



NOTES ON CRUSTACEANS. 



Lithodes Maia. — This beautiful species is pretty common: on March 1st., 

 and May 21st. and 26th., specimens came to hand. It inhabits rocky 

 ground at a considerable depth. It seems somewhat strange that almost 

 all the specimens were incomplete, some wanting one leg, some two, and 

 some more. 



Carcinus Mcenas. — On September 12th. I found many of this speeies 

 with the carapace quite soft. They were very languid, and made almost 



