GOSSE, ON THE MICROSCOPE. 249 
animals. From these we are taken to a general survey of 
the structure of insects, with interesting dissertations on the 
functions of their microscopical organs. All this time we 
feel the author is doing himself violence. He longs to get to 
the sea-shore. There he has used his microscope with most 
success, and on the microscopic objects of the sea he dwells 
with more than usual wonder and eloquence. Crabs, the 
structure and transformation of Crabs, Sea-acorns and 
Barnacles, the hooks of Serpula, the movements of Pedicel- 
lariz, the spines of Echini, the anchors of Synapta, and the 
transparent wonders of Sarsia, Thaumantias, Cydippe, and 
Turris, all pass before us. Polypes and sponges finish the 
history of sea-animals, and the volume closes with accounts 
of infusory animalcules. Such isa brief outline of Mr. Gosse’s 
book. ‘To say there is nothmg new in it would be wrong, 
for Mr. Gosse always looks at things for himself, and the 
Gossean view is frequently a new one. 
But it is for no scientific novelty that this work will be 
valued. Mr. Gosse is a writer, and a very agreeable one 
too, and im all this work he succeeds in throwing a charm 
over his subject which can but lead his reader on, whether 
they ever looked into a microscope or not. We shall not, 
therefore, transfer to our pages any of his more technical 
descriptions of microscopic objects, but give one or two pas- 
sages to illustrate the style of the book. His chapters are 
more like lecturettes or demonstrations than anything else. 
We may fancy him sitting at a table with his microscope 
before him, and discoursing quite at his ease to a few 
friends invited expressly to hear what he has to say. The 
party being seated, he thus begins: 
“Not many years ago an eminent microscopist received a communication 
inquiring whether, if a minute portion of dried skin were submitted to him, 
he could determine it to be Awman skin or not. He replied that he thought 
he could. Accordingly a very minute fragment was forwarded to him, 
somewhat resembling what might be torn from the surface of an old trunk, 
with all the hair rubbed off. 
“The professor brought his microscope to bear upon it, and presently 
found some fine hairs scattered over the surface ; after carefully examining 
which, he pronounced with confidence that they were Auman hairs, and such 
as grew on the naked parts of the body; and still further, that the person 
who had owned them was of a fair complexion. 
“This was a very interesting decision, because the fragment of skin was 
taken from the door of an old church in Yorkshire ;* in the vicinity of which 

* “T am writing from memory, having no means of referring to the original 
record, which will be found in the first (or second) volume of the ‘ Transac- 
tions of the Microscopical Society of London.’ The general facts, however, 
may be depended on,” a 
