CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 139 



Popular Lectures on the Vertehrated Animals of the British Islands. Part 

 1st, on the British Mammifera : with a tabular view of them, 

 arranged according to Blumenbach's system ; a synopsis of all the 

 genera and species ; and an appendix, containing a sketch of extinct 

 animals. By Shirley Palmer, M.D. Author of "Popular Illus- 

 trations of Medicine." Hamilton and Adams, Paternoster Row. 



A copy of this publication, by mere chance, having just come into our 

 hands, we cannot refrain from alluding, though, from want of time and 

 space, in the most cursory way, to the interesting matter of its contents. 

 ITiese lectures, it appears, were originally delivered at the Mechanics' 

 Institution, in Birmingham, and have since been read at the Birmingham 

 Museum of Natural History. He who endeavours by his writings or his 

 example to repress the indulgence of corrupt propensities, to correct and 

 purify the imagination, to subjugate the more tempestuous and unruly 

 passions, and, with the persuasiveness of an elegant and comprehensive 

 mind, to inculcate truth, and knowledge, and science, is a public bene- 

 factor to mankind. In such a rank we are bound in justice to place the 

 author of these interesting lectures. From his opening discourse, lucid 

 and comprehensive in its arrangement, we select the following impressive 

 passage : — 



" Individuals zealously devoted to the study of Natural History, are 

 very generally distinguished by mildness and simplicity of character, and 

 great temperance in their physical indulgencies. We may also further 

 appeal, in confirmation of this opinion, to the pure and beneficent spirit, 

 — the deep and fervid tone of moral and religious feeling — which the 

 writings of the naturalist almost invariably breathe. And when we 

 recollect the sins and the sufferings of which gluttony, drunkenness, and 

 ungovernable bursts of passion, are the fruitful source, with no slight or 

 powerless recommendation does that study present itself to our notice, 

 which shall enable the mind to triumph over, or repress these, the most 

 dangerous enemies of its welfare and repose. Is it not far better that 

 man should occupy his leisure hours in traversing the fields, the moun- 

 tains, and the valleys, in search of the animal, the plant, or geological 

 specimen, than in inhaling the vitiated atmosphere of the gaming-house 

 or the tavern, — the crowded haunts of guilt, and folly, and dissipation, — 

 to the injury of his health, the inevitable pollution of his morals, and the 

 imminent risk or ruin of his eternal interests ? Who, too, that has an eye 

 to behold, and a spirit to dwell upon and admire *the bright and 

 the beautiful panorama of Creation,* can retire from the survey of the 

 glorious spectacle which it exhibits, without finding himself a wiser, and 

 more thoughtful, if not a better man ? Who can gaze upon the bound- 

 less sky, and the verdant earth, and the mighty ocean, and the uncounted 

 host of wonders which they contain, and not be deeply smitten with a 

 sense of his own utter helplessness and insignificance, — of the power and 

 wisdom of the Creator ; and exclaim in the sublime and impassioned 

 language of our national church, * Heaven and Earth are full of the 

 Majesty of Thy Glory.' " 



1. Ladies* Botany : or a Familiar Introduction to the Study of the Natural 



System of Botany. By John Lindley, &c. &c. 



2. Edwards's Botanical Register.- or Ornamental Flower Garden and 



Shrubbery. London : Ridgway and Sons. 1834.^ 



It has been very generally admitted that few studies present more 

 alarming difl[iculties to the beginner than that of botany. Nor are these 



