346 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



French Beetles. 



Faune de France : Coleopteres. Par A. Acloque, with a Preface by E. Perrier. 

 Pp. 466, with 1,052 figures. Paris: Bailliere, 1S96. Price S francs. 



This book is to form one of a series of four volumes that shall 

 comprise the whole Fauna of France, with the object of enabling an 

 enquirer to find the name of any animal by a series of dichotomic 

 tables. The larger part of the book is occupied by these tables, but 

 there is an introduction containing a general account of the structure 

 of insects. 



As works of this class are much in vogue on the Continent of 

 Europe, we must suppose that they are useful ; or perhaps rather that 

 they are considered to be so by a section of the public ; we believe, 

 however, that they give rise to much disappointment. In order to 

 find the name of a beetle, a student must commence — supposing him 

 to have ascertained that he has a beetle before him — with the table of 

 families, and trace the dichotomic divisions until he ultimately gets to 

 the species ; before arriving at this, however, he must encounter so 

 many doubts and difficulties that he will probably abandon the task 

 as hopeless ; should he refuse to allow his doubts to deter him, and 

 continue till he has run down to the species-name, we should say, 

 from our own experience of other books of the kind, that he will as 

 often as not be guided to a name that belongs to something else. 



This first instalment of Mr. Acloque's "Faune" is a model of 

 condensation. The author has lightened his difficulties by omitting 

 "litigious" species; but the volume as it stands must include, we 

 should imagine, somewhere about 5,000 species. Detailed criticism of 

 either the introductory matter or the tables would be out of place 

 here ; but as other volumes are to appear, we may remark that an 

 alphabetical index — extending as far as genera — is necessary in a 

 work of this kind, though wanting in this volume. The book is well 

 printed, the illustrations are sufficiently good to be useful, and 

 Professor Perrier's preface is a gay fragment of autobiography. 



D. S. 



Paleontology. 



Grundzuge der Pal<eontologie (Pal.^ozoologie). By Karl A. von Zittel. 8vo. 

 Pp. viii., 971, with 2,048 text-figures. Half morocco. Miinchen und Leipzig: 

 R. Oldenbourg, 1895. Price 28s. 



Professor von Zittel's Handbook of Palaeontology is so well- 

 known, and, if it were not, we have so recently published a critical 

 account of it (vol. iv., pp. 222-225), that a lengthy review of the 

 present work, which is a condensation of the larger one, is quite 

 unnecessary. It will certainly be welcomed by those students who 

 could ill afford to pay for the indispensable but expensive " Zittel." 

 In addition to being compressed, the work has in some respects been 

 brought more up to date : it is true that this process might have been 

 carried out with more rigour, and there are advanced palaeontologists 

 who will be horrified at the retention of what they regard as some- 

 exploded absurdities ; but as most of the important recent literature 

 is referred to, the student who desires to reach this advanced stage is 

 put in the way to do so. In any case the work is a wonderful com- 

 pendium : the index contains more than 7,000 names, and as for the 

 figures, there are almost too many for the size of the book. 



It is not only professed students of geology and palaeontology 

 proper that should be grateful for this work ; but the zoologists also, 



