62 REVIEWS. 



ciples of Zoology to thousands, including the names of many of the most 

 celebrated scientific men of the day, I ought not, perhaps, to notice the 

 literary pirates to whom I have just alluded, were it not that, during the 

 last hundred years, they have, in despite of many excellent English writers, 

 greatly retarded the progress of Zoology in Britain and elsewhere, where- 

 ver, indeed, the English language is spoken." 



We at first thought that the " contrabandists" denounced in the first 

 paragraph were the same as " the literary pirates" of the other, but as the 

 latter have been at work for " the last hundred years," this cannot be the 

 case. A general treatise, or a manual of Zoology, must, from its very na- 

 ture, be to a great extent a compilation. That, however, is no reason for 

 not acknowledging the sources whence the information is derived, and 

 quoting the authorities for facts but recently made known by other 

 writers. To do so seems to us to be an act of common honesty, and 

 nothing more. On this point, therefore, we would most probably agree 

 with Dr. Knox, though we might require additional evidence against the 

 compilers before assenting to the verdict : " Their views are anti-scien- 

 tific, anti-educational ; calculated, if not devised, to retard the progress of 

 the human mind." 



Dr. Knox proceeds thus : — 



" A single remark is required, and will, I trust, suffice to explain why 

 this translation of my esteemed friend's work occupies a considerably less 

 space than the original. The translation being addressed to Englishmen, 

 lovers of matters-of-fact in science as well as in other things, it became a 

 duty I owed the public and publisher to avoid all repetitions, all French 

 idioms, all lengthened treatment of physiological and metaphysical hypo- 

 theses ; but in doing so I have scrupulously avoided omitting any fact or 

 idea or opinion of the author. The curtailment has been in the language 

 alone." 



In conclusion, he notices the " combinations of unclassical terms" which 

 " have greatly retarded, no doubt, the accomplishment of that object 

 which is the aim of this work — namely, the introduction in England of 

 Zoology as a branch of primary education." 



It would appear from those words that Zoology had not yet been " in- 

 troduced" into England as a branch of primary education. This announce- 

 ment came upon us by surprise. We had seen, for years back, advertise- 

 ments of books avowedly for the purpose of teaching the elements of 

 Zoology to young people. We had understood that in many schools such 

 books were regularly used ; and that the use of them was gradually ex- 



