160 CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



Utility, is evidently the great aim of his vigilant perseverance. 

 That he has simplified much that was intricate, and thrown new 

 light on much that was involved in obscurity, by which new expe- 

 riments have been attended with beneficial consequences, all scien- 

 tific votaries will readily admit ; and he that has so distinguished 

 himself is confessedly a benefactor to the whole race of man. 



This treatise has now reached its ^/ifth edition, which is a self- 

 evident proof that its circulation has been extensive ; and it is an 

 acknowledged truth that no publication will thus get into .i;eneral 

 notice unless it be stamped with the impress of utility. It should 

 be considered, however, more as a new work than as a continued 

 edition of a former one ; for on comparing it wnth a previous edi- 

 tion, we find that it is almost entirely a fresh composition, a very 

 considerable portion of interesting matter connected with recent im- 

 provements having been added to the present volume. 



There is sufficient practical detail throughout to make the subject 

 intelligible, but the general principles of the construction and ope- 

 ration of steam engines seem to have been the main object of the 

 author's elucidation ; and therefore the reader must not look for the 

 technicalities of the artisan in this volume, neither must he expect 

 to find a history of the numberless disputes respecting the rights of 

 invention which have often so harshly grated on the public ear. 

 These matters are wisely withheld, and in their place are explana- 

 tions of that stupendous machine familiarly laid down, its appliances 

 to navigation and railways clearly developed, and some excellent 

 recommendatory observations addressed to railway speculators, 

 which, in the present ra^e for shares, may not be without their 

 usefulness. 



From an attentive perusal of this work of Dr. Lardner's, we 

 consider it the best, the very best, publication of the kind which 

 has yet emanated from the press, and admirably adapted, as it pro- 

 fesses, to the comprehension of those persons who have neither time 

 nor opportunity to devote to larger treatises. It is a very neatly 

 executed volume, and the engravings and wood-cuts asamilate with 

 its typographical accuracy. 



Manual of Entomology, from the German of H. Burmeister, by W. 

 E. Shuckard, M. E. S. Nos. 17 and 18 — (completion). London : 

 Churton. 



This admirable manual, alike valuable to the scientific entomo- 

 logist and the physiological student, is now completed, and deeply 

 are they indebted to Mr. Shuckard for the very able manner in 

 which he has executed his task. The translator has propounded 

 the elementary principles of entomology with great perspicuity, and 

 adduced a vast mass of interesting facts in elucidation of the study, 

 elicited by the laborious investigations of Straus Durckheim, 

 Miiller, and other eminent naturalists. The translator, in his pre- 

 face, very justly remarks that " the advantages to be derived from 



