52 Notices respecting Wexv Books. 



respecting the organization of the various subjects of the ani- 

 mal kingdom, and its adaptation to their functions and respec- 

 tive stations in nature, with the distinctions of their more com- 

 prehensive groups, which have been furnished chiefly by the 

 industry of the naturaUsts of Sweden, of France, and of Ger- 

 many ; and secondly, to the discoveries in and refined views 

 of natural arrangement, — of the twofold order of affinity and 

 analogy, now demonstrated to pervade nature, — for which those 

 facts and characters have served as a basis, in the hands of 

 our own naturalists of the present day. The doctrines of the 

 quinary distribution of nature and the circular succession of 

 affinities, shown by Mr. W. S. MacLeay to prevail through- 

 out the insect world, have received, we think, in their success- 

 ful development in the feathered creation by Mr. Vigors, an 

 unimpeachable confirmation. The new form, — we might al- 

 most say the new life, — which these doctrines have imparted to 

 zoology, are comparable only with the benefits which have 

 accrued to the sciences of mineralogy and chemistry, from 

 the knowledge of the mathematical laws of crystallization, 

 and the doctrine of definite proportions. 



Nor are the exertions which are making in this country to 

 encourage the pursuit of zoological science, and furnish means 

 for studying it in its various relations, disproportioned to the 

 advances the science is making. Two years have not elapsed 

 since a few zealous cultivators of zoology established, under 

 the name of the Zoological Club, a class of theLinnaean Society 

 expressly devoted to its promotion ; and the extent and va- 

 riety of their labours may readily be appreciated, from the 

 space they occupy in the lately-published part of the Society's 

 Transactions. — Shortly afterwards was commenced a Journal 

 exclusively appropriated to the same branch of knowledge ; 

 and this has continued, with increasing interest, to advocate 

 its cause and augment its resources. An ample share of at- 

 tention is allotted to zoology in the scientific journals of our 

 northern metropolis; and if we may judge from the specimen 

 which the first number of the new Dublin Journal presents, 

 our scientific brethren in that capital are equally alive to the 

 support now required by zoology, and the kindred sciences, 

 from all the cultivators of natural knowledge. — But the most 

 important step of all, perhaps, is the proposed establishment 

 of an Institution, designed especially for the advancement of 

 zoology in one of its most important relations, — the improved 

 application of the different races of animals to the uses of ci- 

 vilized society. Particulars of this noble project, so worthy of 

 its distinguisfied authors, will be given in a future page of this 

 number ; and it is quite unnecessary for us to dilate upon the 



extensive 



