Ixvi 



best monographs of our day, such as those of Erichson and Ger- 

 stacker, have been the work of members of this school, and three of 

 them, Schaum, Kraatz and von Kiesenvvetter, are the authors of 

 volumes of the well-known faunistic work, the ' Insecten t)eutsch- 

 lands,' in wliich the Coleopterous fauna of Germany is treated, not as 

 faunas usually are, as a collection of species independent of the rest 

 of the world, but as forming portion of a wider field, with which, to be 

 intelligible, it must be continually compared. The Berlin Entomolo- 

 gists, so far as they have hitherto expressed themselves, have been 

 opposed to the theory of the gradual, natural formation of species. 

 We have not any published account of the opinions they have held, 

 except some short notes of the late Dr. Schaum, in which, discus- 

 sing the subject of the origination of well-marked local varieties of 

 the genus Carabus, he announced his belief that the varieties bad not 

 been produced by migration and subsequent modification, but were 

 created originally as local varieties. The same view, as is well known, 

 is held by Professor Agassiz, who believes that a vast number of indi- 

 viduals of each species were simultaneously created over the whole 

 area of its distribution ; " creation," according to these authors, im- 

 plying a miracle, or at least, a process lying beyond the field of human 

 investigation. Von Kiesenwetter is the first of these learned Entomo- 

 logists to announce his conversion to the opposite doctrine, namely, 

 that local varieties have originated by modification of individuals 

 which have migrated to the localities, that they have become 

 further modified into species, and that the process by which this 

 is effected is Natural Selection, as expounded by Darwin. He 

 states that he has been gradually forced into the adoption of this view 

 by the facts of variation presented to him, in the field and in the 

 closet, whilst studying the European genus Oreina, an alpine group of 

 Chrysomelidse, abounding on the mountains of Central and Southern 

 Europe. In the introductory paragraphs of his memoir, he states the 

 Darwinian theory with great clearness and accuracy, showing how well 

 he has studied its meaning, — unlike most other critics, naturalists as 

 well as mere litterateurs, — and one is prepared to find in the sequel 

 that, in understanding, he has accepted it. The objects which furnish 

 the evidence that has had so much weight with him are certain species 

 of Oreina, such as O. senecionis, speciosa, intricata and others. He 

 appears first to have been struck with the fact, that whilst on some 

 mountain ranges two or more of these species exist in great pro- 

 fusion, and show no signs, by the occurrence of intermediate forms, &c., 



