130 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 
purposes, since with a little practice it can be held in the eye, 
leaving the two hands free for the manipulation of the needles 
and forceps. 
The types for study have been advisedly selected, being those, like 
the cockroach, water-beetle, garden-spider, and prawn, which can be 
obtained in almost every country district, or in any of our towns or 
their neighbourhood, and may very easily be kept alive in suitable 
surroundings. For one of the great merits of this little book is, that 
it recommends an observation of the habits of the species before they 
be submitted to the process of dissection. 
The errors of the book are few and, on the whole, unimportant. 
It is not however usual to regard the carapace in the Crustacea as 
synonymous with the cephalothorax; and to say that the former 
consists of fourteen segments in the prawn, when it really represents 
the tergal elements of but two is misleading. Moreover, and since 
Mr Scherren—not without the countenance of authority— applies the 
word ‘joint’ to the internode or segment of a limb, it would be 
interesting to learn by what term the point of junction of two 
‘joints’ is to be recognised. Lastly, Dr David Sharp will not be 
flattered by the ascription to him of the authorship of the ‘ Myria- 
poda’ in the Cambridge Natural History. In spite of these blemishes, 
however, the book may be cordially recommended to beginners as an 
excellent practical lesson in the elements of the morphology and 
bionomics of the Arthropoda. R. I. Pocock. 
For THE YounG ENTOMOLOGIST 
FAUNE DE FRANCE: Orthopteres, Neuroptéires, Hymenoptéres, Lépidoptéres, Hémi- 
pteres, Dipteres, Aphaniptéres, Thysanoptéeres, Rhipiptéres. Par A. Acloque. 
viii. and 516 pp., with 1235 figures. Paris: Bailliére, 1897. Price, 8 frances. 
THE YounG BEETLE-CoLLEcToR’s HanpBook. By Dr E. Hofmann, with an introduc- 
tion by W. Egmont Kirby, M.D. 8vo. viii. and 178 pp., 20 coloured plates. 
London : Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1897. Price, 4s. 6d. 
THE fauna of France in the groups mentioned above may be estimated 
at about 15,000 species, and M. Acloque disposes of them in this 
small volume. We have previously (Natural Science, May 1896, 
p- 346) explained the plan of the work, and need only add that, in 
the volume now before us, the necessity of keeping the number of 
pages within assigned limits has caused the author to abandon the 
attempt at dealing with species in the more extensive and difficult 
families ; so that in these cases we find only tables of the genera. 
In his preface the author recognises that this volume does not 
accomplish all that was intended when the scheme of dealing with 
the whole fauna of France in four small volumes was adopted. The 
system of terminations used in the names of the systematic groups is 
extremely repellent: the well-known family name Apidae becomes 
Apisidi; and as sub-family names we find Andrenii and Bombii, 
derived from Andrena and Bombus. Possibly the system is theo- 
retically excellent, but it reminds us of Montgomery's lines about 
Nebuchadnezzar, who 
*“murmured as he cropped the unwonted food, 
It may be wholesome but it isn’t good.” 
Dr Hofmann’s work is remarkably well printed, and the twenty 
