THE 



NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW: 



A 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 

 $jLebietos. 



XIII. — A History of Infusoria, including the Desmidiace^; and 

 Diatomace^:, British and Foreign. By Andrew Pritchard, Esq., 

 M. E I. Fourth edition. Enlarged and revised by J. T. Arlidge, 

 M. B., B. A. Lond. ; W. Archer, Esq. ; J. Ealfs, M. B, C. S. L. ; W. 

 C. Williamson, Esq., E. R. S. ; and the Author. Illustrated by Forty 

 Plates. London: "Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria-lane. 1861. 



When to the means already within his reach for the investigation of 

 living nature, man's intelligence first led him to add a new instru- 

 ment, the Microscope, who could have foretold the rich rewards that 

 awaited him in the hitherto unseen world of minute organization, or 

 the glimpses, which, by its aid, he has since been enabled to obtain, of 

 marvels each day occurring within the busy house of life ? 



The varied knowledge so gained admits, to some extent, of being 

 arranged under two principal heads ; namely, histology in general, and 

 the study of the entire structure of those numerous beings, whose size 

 is such as to preclude the possibility of their being discriminated, or, 

 it may be, even seen, by the naked eye. 



The time during which our acquaintance with these last has been 

 gradually augmenting may, in like manner, be divided into two natural 

 periods. The beginning of the first we shall not attempt to define. The 

 end of the second period is yet to come. But the junction between the 

 two is clearly marked by the appearance of the great work of Ehren- 

 berg : Die Infusionsthierchen. 



There are some who, of late years, have not paid that meed of re- 

 spect to the name of the veteran microscopist of Germany, which his 

 eminent services in the canse of biology may justly claim. Not that 

 we are of the number of those who unduly venerate authority in matters 



VOL. I. — N. H. R. B 



