76 THE entomologist's record. 



Saturday 4fch. All the members of aflfiliated Societies are at liberty to 

 join and no doubt the meeting will be a successful one. 



e^EYIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



A Text Book of Medical Entomology. — By W. S. Patton, M.B., 

 and F. W. Cragg, M.D. Published by the Christian Literature 

 Society for India, Madras, xxiv + 768 pages. 89 plates. Price £1 Is. 



This large and weighty volume is intended as a vadt'-niecuni. for 

 medical and veterinary ofhcers practising in the tropics, to give full, 

 most recent and reliable information on all entomological matters 

 relative to sanitation or disease in all parts of the world. Plenty of 

 treatises exist dealing with general entomology, or with groups of 

 insects in systematic order, but hitherto no work has been written to 

 comprise just that amount of practical detail which deals with the 

 breeding and manipulating insects, ticks, etc., with the internal 

 anatomy of disease-bearing forms and with particulars of those species 

 in the various groups which are known to be carriers of disease. Much 

 of the matter contained in this book has been obtained from special 

 memoirs hitherto existant only in magazines and in many languages, 

 and therefore not generally available for ready consultation, while 

 much is the result of years of study on the spot and of original 

 observation and experiment. Quite half the book is taken up with the 

 consideration of the Diptera. Chapter II. deals with the Anatomy 

 and Physiology of the Blood-sucking Diptera. Section 1 takes in 

 detail just that portion of General Structure with which it is necessary 

 to be acquainted for the purpose of the book, making frequent com- 

 parison with familiar insects in other orders. Section 2 deals in a 

 similar way with the Internal Structure, and, in addition, treats of the 

 functions of the different organs and their co-ordination with the 

 habits and life history of the various genera to which reference is made 

 for illustration. Chapters III. and IV. deal with those species in the 

 order Diptera, which are known to be prejudicial to life and health by 

 being carriers of disease, giving characters, class, generic and specific, 

 sufficient for identification, and many items of life history, with 

 indications how and when measures may be taken to minimise or 

 prevent the spread of the deleterious efi'ects of attacks. Chapter V. 

 treats in a similar manner with the order Siphonaptera or Fleas. 

 Chapter VI., with the Rhynchota or Bugs. Chapter VII. with the 

 Anoplura, or Lice. Chapter VIII., with a portion of the Acarina, the 

 family of Ixodid.e, or Ticks. Chapter IX., with a further portion of 

 the Acarina, the family Acari, or Mites. Chapter X., with the Order 

 Pentastomida, the family Linguatulidae, or Tongue Worms, and the 

 Order Eucopepoda, the CijclopH, or Water Fleas. All these chapters 

 are profusely illustrated by first-rate drawings of details and figures 

 (enlarged) of many individual species in black and white. Lastly, a 

 chapter is devoted to Laboratory Technique in dissecting, mounting, 

 preserving, staining, and examination. A final essay is added on the 

 " Relation of Arthropoda to their Parasites." Each section contains a 

 capital bibliography without which, in these days, no work of any 

 aspiration is issued. We are quite sure that the present volume will 

 be of the utmost use to those for whom it was written, supported as it 

 is by the comprehensiveness of its detail, and the abundance and 

 clearness of its illustration. — H.J.T. 



