—19— 

 Book Notice. 



An Introduction to Entomology, By John Henry Comstock, Ithaca, N. Y., 

 iSSS. I'liMislit-d by the author. Part I, pp. I to VI and i to 234, ff. 201. 



I li!s book, so far as il t^oes, fills one of the spaces so long left 

 vacant by American writers. It presents in a form, suitable for use in 

 the cla.ss-mom, the ts.sential parts of Insect .\natomv and even goes 

 further, and lays the basis for an ability to continue independant and 

 original observation. Not only to the student in the class-room is it 

 valuable however — il had missed a large fiekl of usefulness else — but 

 also to the enterprising young man or boy with an intense longing to 

 know something about general Insect structure, but without money to 

 bu\- .1 lil>rary or access 10 any large Public Librar}'. So far as it goes, 

 it comprises Chapters on the Anatomy and Metamorphoses of Insects, 

 the general or Ordinal Classification, and the Classification of the 

 T/ivs(iiinra, Pseudonciiropfcra OrUioplera, Pliysopoda, He/iiip/era and 

 Xeurop/era. The general {)lan throughout is to give at once a tabular 

 or synoptic statement of the classification, and then in a somewhat more 

 elaborate manner to define all the divisions so far as within the scope 

 of the work. I'hese synoptic or tabular statements constitute one of 

 the most useful and unique ])ortions of the work, and in this alone Prof 

 Comstock's book will be entitled to the highest commendation. It is 

 really what it pretends to be.— an Introductory work, in which any one 

 intLMestetl can obtain a knowledge of the general classification of Insects. 

 The acio])iion of the more simple of the ordinal divisions, deserves com- 

 mendation. The more, as the minute and complex divisions of some 

 of our more modern Authors are sufficiently indicated. Taken as a 

 whole, it is by far the most practical and generally useful work that has 

 been published in America. But while thus emphatic and sincere in 

 its ])raise, we cannot forbear to call attention to what we consider im- 

 periections which can perhaps be obviated in the other parts of the work. 

 The description of the anatomical details is somewhat unnecessarih- 

 dry : tiie subject might have been made somewhat more interesting and 

 atlraciive to the individual student. A more serious objection is to the 

 illustrations: some of the original drawings are undeniably poor. In 

 some, even those showing anatomical details, the artist, by close line 

 shading, has made the drawing very obscure, where the simple outline 

 would not oidy have answered the purpose better but would have printed 

 more clearly. The lettering and numbering of details are often indistinct 

 wheie the greatest clearness would seem to be indicated. Few of the 

 oriuinal illustrations are of a really high character. While we are glad 

 to see that Prof Comstock has very largely restricted the use of the 



