496 



THK ZOOLOGIST. 



Having said this much, we can say further that, knowing the 

 character of Prof. Claus' " style," we looked with some anxiety as 

 to the results of Mr. Sedgwick's attemjjt to do the work into 

 English ; though we note some sentences that we should like to 

 have seen differently arranged, he has, on the whole, succeeded 

 beyond even our best hopes for his victory : in the present 

 condition of things, we may think ourselves lucky to get a truthful 

 and clear account of a subject which, confessedly, it is difficult to 

 describe to a commencing student. 



There is only one fault that we must find with tlie translation, 

 and this is that after the systematic names of some of tlie insects 

 we have the German popular name; e.g. (p. 5G3), " Panorpidce 

 (Schnabelfliegen)"; now " SchnabelHiegen" is no translation, but 

 " Scorpion-Flies," which is the English equivalent, would have 

 been; so again the Coccidte might have been called the Scale 

 Insects, or Mealy Bugs, the Fuhjoridce the Lantern-Flies, and the 

 (Estridce the Bot-Flies. 



The first volume, whicli is alone now before us, has a most 

 masterly general introduction to the study of Zoology, which, 

 inter alia, is ver}"^ properly regarded from its historical aspect; 

 the Protozoa, Ccelenterata, Echinodermata, Vermes, and Arthro- 

 poda are dealt with. 



What little we shall dare to say in the way of criticism of the 

 contents of the book will be best postponed till the second volume 

 is also before us. When that is published the English zoologist 

 will have no cause to complain of the want of an admirable intro- 

 duction to his favourite study, however much he may lament that 

 an Englishman is not the author of his handbook. Perhaps 

 Mr. Sedgwick may sometime find leisure to give us himself a work 

 which may take a place on our shelves beside that text-book on 

 Comparative Embryology which we owe to his lamented teachei', 

 the founder of that morphological school in Cambridge which 

 is so rapidly restoring to our nation the honourable place in 

 zoological activity of which various causes have consi)ired to 

 deprive it ; the countrymen of John Hunter and Charles Darwin 

 must never i-est till our schools and studies of biology are not only 

 on a level with, but in advance of, those of other nations. 



WEST, NEWMAN AND CO., PRINTERS, 54, HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, K.C. 



