Scicfitific Intelligence. — New Publications. 199 



NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



Illustrations of' Zoology^ being representations of New^ Rare^ or 

 otherwise remarkoMe subjects of the Animal Kingdom^ drawn 

 and coloured after Nature^ with Descriptive Letter-Press. 

 By James Wilson, Esq. F. R. S. E., Member of the Wer- 

 nerian Society. Blackwood, Edinburgh, — Cadell, London. 

 No. I. Atlas 4to. 



A. GENERAL tastc for the pursuits of Natural History has been 

 very rapidly developed witliin these last few years. Enterprizing 

 and intelligent naturalists have arisen in almost every quarter 

 of the world, by whose observations a great advance has been 

 made towards an exact knowledge of nature. The splendid 

 writings of BufFon were perhaps the first to excite a general in- 

 terest in this dehghtful study — while the order and harmony 

 which the classification of Linnaeus bestowed upon the apparent- 

 ly confused and almost endless variety of subjects, greatly con- 

 tributed to augment the number of zealous amateurs. These two 

 men may be looked upon as the great lights of the science of 

 nature in modern times. The first, by bringing a greater por- 

 tion of that emphatic and original power of mind^ called Genius, 

 than had ever before been applied, in aid of Zoology, relieved 

 the spience from the undeserved opprobrium of being regarded 

 as the pursuit of inferior capacities ; and, by embodying his 

 thoughts in language as attractive and brilliant as had ever been 

 employed to give utterance to the workings of the human intel- 

 lect, he gained many proselytes among those who had hitherto 

 viewed the science, and all its barren technicalities, with coldness, 

 if not disgust. The second, by his close and. cautious observa- 

 tions, and that peculiar and instinctive tact, by which, in the 

 darkness which then pervaded the science of comparative ana- 

 tomy, he may be said to have predicted many of those most 

 beautiful analogies of the animal kingdom which later observers 

 have demonstrated, bestowed a clearness and precision of outline 

 on the views of the naturalist, which can never more be effaced 

 from the picture of nature. 



The deservedly popular system of Linnaeus, though it does not 

 profess to be a natural method of classification, actually is so in 



