28-1 



KNOWLEDGE, 



[December, 1908. 



sjiirit have gathered from all sources and added to from liis own 

 imaginiitive stores would be a long one. Liraanora is an island 

 in the South Seas — somewhere, we conjecture, in the neighbour- 

 hood of the sunny isles of New Zealand. It is inhabited hy a 

 race which a prolonged selection and adaptation (for the author 

 is both Darwinian and Spencerian) have endowed with new 

 jiowers of flight and locomotion, new senses, a new command 

 over nature, won by the legitimate means of scientific discovery, 

 and an unique civili.^ition that is evidently the author's ideal of 

 society. We are gradually initiated in the secrets of the outer 

 and inner life of the Limanorans by an attractive account of the 

 author's education as one of their adopted citizens. Evidently 

 a sufferer from insomnia, he finds in Limanora new appliances 

 (magical in eilect, but scientific in construction) that make sleep 

 and rest a source of exhilaration and of replenished stores of 

 energy. The modes of locomotion are as numberless as the 

 modes of rest. He is taught to fly, but imperfectly, because 

 his body, unlike the Limanoran, has not been adjusted to the 

 new conditions by the selection of his ancestry. A hermit by 

 vocation, he rejoices to live with a race that condemns 

 gregarious education as encouraging atavism and restricts social 

 intercourse. A visit to the Valley of Memories revealed the 

 successive stages through which the race had passed. He saw 

 the origin and traced the evolution of each new faculty, power, 

 and virtue. He was taken to their great repository of force, 

 and here the glowing imagination of the author finds ample 

 scope in describing the numberless modes in which the force of 

 the winds, the waves, and the sun is trapped, stored and applied. 

 The halls of nutrition and medication showed how perfect a 

 command the Limanorans had gained over all the processes of 

 health and disease. A consequence of the phy.-ical evolution of 

 the Limanorans was the genesis of a magnetic or electric sense 

 out of the magnetism latent in all human beings. We have no 

 space to describe the wonders it reveals or the marvels of 

 another faculty by which solid and beautiful structures are 

 raised, like the walls of Thebes, to the sound of music. After 

 he had seen a storm-cone that diverted both tempests and clouds 

 of death-bearing dust as they approached the island, his educa- 

 tion was resumed. His eyesight was so strengthened that he 

 could see into the interior of objects. He acquired the new 

 electric faculty, with all its resources. His auditory powers 

 were increased. His lower senses were intellectualised. His 

 nerves were refined. He mastered the fine outiUmje that had 

 been evolved ^;a)v ^k/.sx» with the evolution of the senses. Thus 

 equipped, he became a citizen of his ideal commonwealth and 

 was initiated into its inner life. He tells of its polity, its 

 literature, ethics, and religion. In all these departments the 

 Limanorans seem to h.ave made advances that we may emulate. 

 For the story is no mere dream, but a vision that is possibly 

 within measurable distance of realisation. Embodying thought- 

 ful and original apercas, it is a most inspiring book. By its 

 wealth of ideas, the solidity of its scientific foundation, and its 

 excellence of literary form, it surpasses most Utopian romances, 

 from Plato to Bellamy. 



BOOKS EECEIVED. 



Central Asia and Tibet. By Sven Hedin. 2 vols. (Hurst & 

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Man's Place in the Universe. By Alfred R. WaUaee, LL.ii., d.c.l., 

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British Mammals. By Sir Harry Johnston, HOX. D sc.(camb.). 

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Aether and Gravitation. By William George Hooper, F.s.s. 

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Limanora : The Island of Progress. By Godfrey Sweven. 

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Lahoratory Physics. By Day ton Clarence Miller, D.sc. (Ginn.) 8s. 6d. 



Mechanics, Molecular Physics and Seat. By Robert Andrews 

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Bird Life in Wild Wales. By J. A. Walpole-Bond. (Unwin.) 

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Morphology of Sjiermatophytes and Part II. Morphology of 

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School Arithmetic. (Universal Tutorial Series.) By W. P. 

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Manual of Practical Mathematics. By Frank Castle, H.I.M.E. 

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The Evolution of Earth Structure. By T. Mellard Beadc, F.o.s., 

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Canadain the Twentieth Century. By A. G. Bradley. (Constable.) 

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The Analytical Chemistry of Uranium. By Harry Brearlcy. 

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Official Year Book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of 

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On Lihpriy. By John Stuart Mill. (Rationalist Press Associa- 

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HaeckeVs Critics Answered. By Joseph McCabe. (Rationalist 

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Experiments and Observations with Sadium Compounds. The 

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Rock Phosphates and other Mineral Fertilizers. By Charles 

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Continental State- Aid for Agriculture. By T. S. Dymond. 

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Illustrated Catalogue of Astronomical Instruments, Ohsertatories, 

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Conducted hij M. I. Cross. 



SHORT NOTES ON MICROSCOPIC ENTOMOLOGY. 

 By W. Wesch^, f.r.m.s. 



The Gizzakd of the Eakwig. — It is known that many of 

 the Orthoptera, such as Grasshoppers and Crickets, have gizzards. 

 The Earwig, {Forficula auricuhivia) is also well provided in this 

 respect. The organ is in four jiarts, all four elaborately 

 toothed and working one on the other. The teeth consist of a 

 number of spines, haviug their blunt ends inserted into round 

 sockets with raised edges. 



Favourite food of this insect in the spring and summer is the 

 Aphis, and if the stomach is carefully examined, the broken-up 

 parts will be seen. The Aphis has two trumpet-shaped tubes 

 on its back, which exude the fluid that the ants are so fond of. 

 These will be usually found intact, but how they escape com- 

 plete destruction by the gizzard it is difficult to say, at all events 

 when seen they can be readily identified, and enable a deter- 

 mination of the contents of the stomach to be arrived at. 



Ovipositor of the Fly, Phi/fi'mi/-a flavn. — There is a 

 small family in Diptera, the I'lii/lnnni-iilcr, which has a very 

 characteristic ovipositor. In most flies this is a telescopic organ, 

 membranous, and with rings and rods of chitin to extend it. 

 In other families it is hard and horny, with a sharp point which 

 enables the fly to insert her eggs under the cuticle of leaves. 

 We see examples of these families in our common flower- 

 haunting TryjJetidn:. We can trace the progress of the larvaj 

 by the marks on the leaves of such plants as the garden 

 Marguerite (Chriisanthf.muni leuninthemiim). The Phytuini/zidir 

 have an ovipositor, which makes when mounted a beautiful 

 microscopic object. It consists of a series of subtriangular 

 horny scales, arranged more or less symmetrically. These 

 working freely hollow out cavities in the soft parts of shrubs, 

 which afford protection to the eggs of the insect. 



The MANDinLES of the "Aphis Lion." — The most com- 

 plicated mandibles I know, are found on the larvie of the lace- 



