376 Notices respecting New Books. 



a standard medium of communication between the various 

 cultivators of fhatdelightful science. This first number con- 

 tains fifteen articles, principally original ; besides the usual de- 

 partments of literary and scientific intelligence found in a Phi- 

 losophical Journal. Among them we may particularize the fol- 

 lowing: —Art. I. An Inquiry into the true Nature of Instinct, 

 and of the Mental Distinction between Brute Animals and Man, 

 %c. : by J. O. French, Esq. In this inquiry the author pro- 

 poses to account for the various actions of brutes which ap- 

 pear to be of a moral or of a scientific nature, by the hypo • 

 thesis that moral and scientific qualities do not become ob- 

 jective in the minds of brutes, thus that they possess no moral 

 or scientific consciousness; and therefore that the appearances 

 of morality and science in their actions, are the effects of 

 moral and scientific energies, acting upon them in a region of 

 their minds above the sphere of their proper consciousness. 

 — Art. II. Monograph on the Cebrionidce, a Family of Insects. 

 By W. E. Leach, M.D. F.R. & L.S.— Art. VI. Some Obser- 

 vations on the LamarckianNaiades, and the Propriety of uniting 

 them all under one generic Name. By G. B. Sowerby, F.L.S. 

 Mr. Sowerby proposes to unite the genera Alasmodonta of 

 Say, Dipsas of Leach, Anodon, Hyria, and Castalia of La- 

 marck, with some other shells, under the genus Unio ,• repre- 

 senting that they have, been separated from it merely upon 

 such characters as would warrant the raising of almost every 

 strongly marked species into a genus. — Art. XI. Monograph 

 on the Cyprceidce, a Family of Testaceous Mollusca. By Mr. 

 J. E. Gray. — Art. XIV. Abstract of a Memoir on the Physio- 

 logy of the Helix pomatia. By M. B. Gaspard, D.M.: with 

 Notes by T. Bell, Esq. F.L.S. This is a curious memoir on 

 the growth, habits, and physiology of the H. pomatia. Mr. 

 Bell's notes correct M. Gaspard's statements on several im- 

 portant points. — Art. XV. Memoir on the chemical Composi- 

 tion of the corneous Parts of Insects. By M. Augustus Odier. 

 With some Remarks and Experiments by J. G. Children, Esq. 

 F.R. & L.S. M. Odier affirms in his memoir, that the sub- 

 stance resembling horn, obtained by treating the elytra of in- 

 sects with a hot solution of potash, and which he calls chitine, 

 contains no nitrogen ; and he compares it to lignin. Mr. 

 Children, however, has determined, by analysing it with prot- 

 oxide of copper, that chitine does contain a considerable pro- 

 portion of that element; thus invalidating M. Odier's in- 

 ference respecting the analogy of the substance to the basis 

 of vegetables. — The Number contains five plates, four of which, 

 principally of Shells, are well coloured. — The Second Number 

 is to be published on the 15th of June. 



Curtis' s 



