138 
PSYCHE. 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., NOV. 1880. 
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SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON 
FOSSIL INSECTS. 
It is not often that we can record any con- 
siderable accession to the literature of fossil 
insects, and therefore it is worth while to 
call attention to the writings of Mr. Goss, of 
England, upon this subject, whose papers,* 
appearing at intervals during the past three 
years, not only form an important contribu- 
tion, but, now that they are completed, have 
a unity and completeness worthy of remark. 
They make no pretension to originality, 
but are a pains-taking compilation of general 
results reached by a broad survey of the liter- 
ature, with full references, which show that 
no important contribution to the subject, and 
scarcely a minor tract, whether in Europe or 
America, has escaped the vigilance of the 
author. ; 
As completed, Mr. Goss’s essays form two 
series; one of three essays, first published in 
the Proceedings of the geologists’ association; 
the other of twelve minor papers, which orig- 
inally appeared by instalments in the Exfo- 
mologists’ monthly magazine, and have since 
been issued as a separate tract. The first 
series consists of 128 pages, and the second of 
50 pages, both in octavo. Both treat the sub- 
* Goss, Herbert. Three papers on fossil insects, 
and the British and foreign formations in which insect 
remains have been detected. No. 1. The insect fauna 
of the recent and tertiary periods. No. 2. of the second- 
ary or mesozoic period. No. 3. of the primary or pa- 
leozoic period. Fromthe Proceedings of the geologists’ 
association, vols. 5-6. [London, 1878-1880.] 82 
Goss, Herbert. The geological antiquity of insects. 
Twelve papers on fossil entomology. London, 1880. 8° 
PSYCHE. 
ject from a geological standpoint, i. e., each 
geological formation is separately consid- 
ered, —in the first series ina descending, 
in the second in an ascending order. They 
differ however in that the papers of the first 
series enter more fully into details concerning 
the insects, and have appended to them lists, 
for the earlier periods of the species, for the 
later periods of the genera of known forms; 
the lists are bare catalogs under the mention 
of the papers in which they are treated. The 
second series of papers consists, as it were, 
of an abstract of the other, but is also accom- 
panied by very full references to the papers 
(in foot notes), and by statements, for each 
formation, of the progress of vegetable and 
of other animal life, for comparison with the 
advance in development of insect types. Our 
author here wisely chooses the ascending in- 
stead of the descending order, as in the other 
series, where the order was less material. 
The success which has attended this ven- 
ture of Mr. Goss in a difficult field, in which 
he has shown great carefulness and industry, 
lead us to hope—the more that he is known 
as an entomologist, rather than as a geologist 
—that, if he will not join the all too feeble 
band of original investigators in the field, 
he will at least complete the picture by 
treating the entire subject from an entomolog- 
ical standpoint. Samuel H. Scudder. 
" REVIEW. 
CrcIL’s BOoKs of natural history, by Prof. 
S. H. Peabody [see Rec., no. 1982], consist 
of carefully prepared short chapters on the 
more important general groups of the higher 
animals, illustrated with well-executed wood- 
cut plates, and are a valuable contribution to 
the too small number of popular and inter- 
esting American works upon natural history 
for children. 
They treat, to a greater extent than has 
hitherto unfortunately been usual in American 
books of this class, of the indigenous insects, 
which children can be led to observe for 
themselves, and convey a large amount of 
accurate information in a form that can easily 
be understood. B: Fide 
