Koikes respecting Neuu Books. 13S 



the open air for 70 days, tliat in this interval the larvae might 

 have been lodged between the fingers of the hand while still 

 fleshy, and v/rapped up with them ; and they might at first have 

 entered the flesh, and afterwards been brought to maturity while 

 tliC state of the body admitted. The insect must have after- 

 wards attained its full growth, and ended its life in the state in 

 which it was found. I think it right thus early to mention this 

 discovery, for the benefit of those who study entomology. In 

 the mean time I am preparing a more extensive work on mum- 

 mies in general, their embahnent, and the pointings with whidi 

 their envelopes and cases are adorned. 



XXIV. Notices respecting New Book<;. 



Ohservrilmns sur les Insocies, &'c. — Oh^ervat'ions upon Insects 

 considered us runnjialinir Animals, and on the Functions of 

 the vnrimis Parts of the in fes final Tube in t/iis Order of 

 y4nimals. Bi/ Marcel dk SEraiKs. 1 vol. 4to. Paris, 1814. 



jL hjs work, \\'hich has been favoured with various marks of ap- 

 probation from the French Institute, is written to prove that 

 the organization of insects is bv far too simple to admit of their 

 operating a real rumination of their food. Some verv eminent 

 anatomists, however, among whom are Malpighi, Swannnerdam, 

 and Cuvier, arc of opinion that there is an entire order among 

 the injects, similar to that of the ruminating class of animals. 

 M. -Marcel de Serres, on the other hand, seems to have the merit 

 of demonstrating l)v anatomical and pliysiological proofs of a 

 palpable nature, that all the insects as yet known have an or- 

 ganization totallv dlfierent from that wliich they would have 

 if their food underwent a true rumination. But in order to en- 

 able our read.::rs to decide upon the evidence which M. de Serres 

 a'lduces, we shall follow him through his work, and detail the 

 facts upon which he cliieflv rests. 



Rumination, accorehng to M. de Serres, is an act of volition: 

 wc see, in fact, that animals which ruminate, i. e. which pass 

 their food from one stomach to another, and finally to the 

 mouth, suspenil this rumination when they wish to retard their 

 digestifjn, and ruminate afterwards when they are no longer pur- 

 sued. Tlm'<, these animals place in reserve, in their large and 

 ample stomachs, such food as has not been masticated, and 

 which for this reas<m ought to be again thrown up into the 

 mouth to be rcmasticated at leisure. Rumination is therefore 

 eonnected in this respect with the habitudes of the animal; and 

 all the rununating animals are herbivorous, and placable in their 

 1 3 dispositions. 



