REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 159 



the matter was. brought to our attention by recently reading, as we 

 were turning over the pages of the I'lntomdhnjisCs Wcrldji Intilliijcncer, 

 vol. vii., pp. 14-15, a letter from a gentleman who was then Alpheus 

 S. Packard, Jun., and who dated it on Sept. 13th, 1859, from the 

 Uoudoir College, Brunswick, Maine, U.S.A. In this letter, addressed 

 to the editor of the H.W.I., wo read : — 



" You cannot but be aware of the difficulties that beset the American ento- 

 mologist in a country where so slight a degree of attention is paid to this branch 

 of natural history ; more particularly in regard to the young entomologist, who 

 has no large and accurately labelled collection to which to refer, nor any complete 

 and standard work to consult. In no order of insects has so little been done as 

 with the Lepidoptera, and in no order am I so much interested as the moths, in 

 which, I must confess, your Maitiial has led me to take a deep interest. The llev. 

 Dr. J. G. Morris, of Baltimore, is now engaged on the Noctuina ; I want to make 

 tlie Geometrina my speciality for the present ; now can you (or some of your 

 acquaintances) supply me with as complete a collection of European species as 

 possible, and receive in exchange some fifty species of I;cpidoptera, and with 

 insects of all other orders (save the Hymenoptcra) making some five to eight 

 hundred species in all? You see our moths have not been worked up at all yet, 

 and I must wait a year or two before sending any away. If others of your 

 acquaintance would like to exchange with me, I should be most happy to do so, 

 receiving in exchange any European Lepidoptera." 



Since then what have the writer of that letter and his colleagues 

 not done ? We have had a Munor/raph of the Geometrid Moths of 

 X. America, a Momxjraph of the Bombi/ciite Muths, text books on 

 general entomology, and essays innumerable on particular genera and 

 species. There have been Scudder's Ihitterflies of the Eastern States of 

 y. America and Canada, and Edwards' inimitable monograph of the 

 butterflies. Fernald has reduced the Crambidae and I'tem/dioridae to 

 order, and at the present time American entomology stands probably 

 at a higher level than that of any other country, both as to the output 

 and quality of the work done. There is, of course, an enormous 

 amount of refuse, where there are so many " professionals," but it 

 appears to us that full credit should be given to those who have pro- 

 duced sterling work, and who have been able to write such books as 

 those mentioned, whilst we in Britain have got no further than the 

 Manual, which still remains the most concise technical book that 

 we have in this country. Fortunately, American lepidopterists have 

 had a higher view than we of what constitutes entomological science, and 

 their good books are as great a credit to their knowledge as to their 

 industry and energy. 



A TEXT BOOK OF ENTOMOLOGY, INCLUDING THE AnATOMY, PhYSIOLOGY, 



Embryology and Metamorphoses of Insects. P>y Alpheus S. Packard, 

 M.D., Ph.D., etc. (729 -f xvii. pp., G5-1 woodcuts and illustrations). 

 London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1898. — Without doubt this is the 

 best summary of modern entomological science yet offered to the 

 public. The various chapters are exceedingly well worked out and 

 thoroughly up to date, and although the author can scarcely hope to 

 enhance the high reputation he has already well earned from all 

 classes of entomologists, he has taken care in this volume to sustain 

 it, and the excellent arrangement of the compiled parts of the book 

 is only equalled by the original deductions drawn by the author from 

 his facts. The book is divided into three parts : I. Morphology and 

 Physiology. 11. The Embryology of insects. III. The Metamor- 

 phoses of insects. Each of them is treated with the fullest detail, 



