sept.,!^ 6 - 1 Boor Notices. 1<»7 



Their use in this case is perfectly sanctioned by custom and the 

 authority of many of the best systematists. It is true that exactly what 

 characters shall be used in generic definition can never be arbitrarily 

 asserted nor established by rule ; that will depend upon individual 

 ability and tact. If Dr. Skinner does not like the Scudderian system, 

 let him produce another for comparison with it. No positive advance 

 can be made through wholesale criticism without constructive work. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



Les Moustiques, Histoire Naturelle et Medicale, Par Raphael Blan- 

 chard, Professeur a la Faculte de Medecine de Paris, Membre de 

 l'Academie de Medecine. Paris: F. R. de Rudeval, 1905. 

 The book contains 673 pages in seven chapters and an appendix, 

 including introductory definitions, systematic account of the species, 

 their pathological properties, prophylaxis, methods of collecting and 

 breeding and a list of recently described species (appendix). The 

 general account refers at some length to allied forms, Simulium, 

 Tipula, Dixa, Chironomus, etc., with text figures. The Corethridse 

 are not included as mosquitoes. Theobald's classification is adopted, 

 based as it is largely on unimportant scale characters, although some- 

 what modified by the introduction in the text of the subfamilies Sabet- 

 tinse and Joblotinae to replace Theobald's nameless sections B and C. 

 This is really a distinct improvement and approximates the classifica- 

 tion to that of Lutz, epitomized on page 619. Figures of adults and 

 larvae are copied from various authors and inserted as text figures. 

 This has resulted in some errors. On page 297 a figure of a larva is 

 given as confinis Arrib.; it should be transferred to jamaicensts Theob., 

 page 279. Page 403, Aedes smithii should be transferred to Wyeomyia 

 in the Sabethinse. Errors of this nature are liable to occur in a com- 

 pilation, such as Professor Blanchard's work essentially is, and are due 

 to incomplete following up of the subsequent literature. Professor 

 Blanchard is an enthusiastic follower of Theobald, and he has taken 

 advantage of that author's remarkable ability in the creation of 

 homonyms to propose a number of new and beautifully formed generic 

 terms. He has also changed Theobald's badly made names into the 

 proper grammatical forms, which we think he has no right to do. 

 These names will have to stand as first proposed, bad as they are. 

 Fortunately most of them will fall into the synonymy when the scale 



