396 Analytical Notices of Books. 



partment. As the subject is probably not uninteresting to our readers, 

 we may notice a curious remark which occurs in the preUminary obser- 

 vations on this class, where it is stated that the " chain of affinities, Mr. 

 " Vigors conceives, takes always a quincunx form :" a quite erroneous 

 expression, quincunx, as applied to a circle, implying five-twelfths, and 

 not one-fifth, of the circumference. The authour yet more extraordina- 

 rily adds, " As a further confirmation of Mr. Vigors's theory, it may be 

 " remarked, that Professor Blumenbach long since noticed the same 

 " principle as applicable to the arrangement of the feathers of birds on 

 " the skin, which he observed always to follow a quincunx order :" 

 quincunx, we need not observe, having here an entirely different signifi- 

 cation, and expressing an arrangement in parallel rows where every two 

 objects of the upper row represent with one in the lower the extreme 

 points of V, the Roman five. Quinary, we may inform Mr. Stark, is the 

 term generally employed to express the distribution contemplated in the 

 Horae Entomologicse. 



" The arrangement of Baron Cuvier has been followed in the classes 

 " of Reptiles and Fishes:" and here also the authour has relied for the 

 species he has noticed principally on the General Zoology of Dr. Shaw. 

 An error which has struck us as we were turning over the pages, induces 

 the remark that the authour should have carefully avoided any departure 

 from his model ; for, had he closely copied M, Cuvier, he would not 

 have included among the Sea Tortoises the genera Chelys and Trionyx, 

 which are in reality inhabitants of fresh water. 



" The classes MoUusca and Conchifera, including the fossil genera, 

 " and the class Tunicata, have been adopted from M. Lamarck :" and 

 to the characters of each of the genera in these departments are appended 

 those of species extracted from the works of that eminent Naturalist. 

 For the Annulose animals the authour is chiefly indebted to Latreille, Des- 

 marest, and Dr. Leach : and in the Radiata and Acrita he has been 

 guided by Cuvier, Rudolphi, and Lamarck. Here also, except in the In- 

 secta, characters are given of the whole of the genera as they appear in 

 the works of the authour who has been consulted for each department, and 

 one or more species are characterized in illustration of them. In the 

 selection of the species no principle, however, appears to have been 

 uniformly followed. 



