REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 387 



Tli is work, instead of being published uniform with the other treatises of the 

 series, is merely a fresh impression of the types as set up for the Encyclopedia, 

 obviously for the convenience of inserting the quarto plates. The higher groups 

 and the genera are amply characterized, and a few of " the more interesting 

 species" of each genus are described. The book is written in a popular and 

 attractive manner, and is well calculated to impart a sound elementary knowledge 

 of the subject treated. The plates are very superior to the common run, being 

 evidently executed with a view to scientific accuracy, and being generally devoid 

 of that stiff formal expression so common in engravings of a similar kind, where 

 the originals might indeed be supposed to be alive, but aware that they were 

 sitting for their pictures. We shall shortly have the pleasure of returning to Mr. 

 Wilson as an author on another branch of Natural History. 



Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects. By J. 0. Westwood, 

 F.L.S., &c. Parti. May, 1838. London: Longman and Co. 



When we consider the vast number of species of insects which have already 

 been discovered, and the extent and complexity of the divisions and sub-divisions 

 under which it has been found necessary to arrange them, we shall readily admit 

 the importance of works written to facilitate the acquirement of a knowledge of 

 classification. For this end, Roomer's Genera Insectorum Linncci, et Fabricii, 

 iconibus illastrata, Curtis's British Entomology, Wood's Illustrations of the 

 Linncean Genera of Insects, &c, have been published. But whilst there has 

 been no scarcity of works illustrative of the genera, we have not at present any 

 devoted more particularly to the orders and families. A good introduction to the 

 Classification of Insects (which must of course include the characters, &c, of the 

 higher divisions) has long been wanted. Mr. Westwood has determined to 

 supply this desideratum, and perhaps there is no other British naturalist into 

 whose hands we should as readily confide the execution of such a task. In a 

 work which will require numerous figures for the illustration of the characters 

 upon which a system is based, Mr. Westwood's long experience in the investiga- 

 tion of the structure of insects, and his excellent capacity as a delineator, give 

 him an advantage over others that cannot be appreciated lightly. The first Part 

 has not disappointed our expectations. It opens with " observations upon insects 

 in general," in which the definitions proposed for this class of animals are discussed. 



Linn je us defined Insecta — the fifth class of his Systema Naturce — as comprising 

 those animals " with a simple heart, white blood, and jointed antennae." These 

 he divided into seven orders, the last of which, Aptera, contained the Spiders, 

 Crabs, Scorpions, Centipedes, Wood-lice, &c. &c, having no other claim to be 

 thus associated together than the negative one upon which he based the order ; 



