NA I URE 



\_Dec. ii, 1884 



he believed, a pretty unanimous consensus of opinion in 

 the Council. Outside, opinion has at once declared itself 

 with strong approval of this application of the funds, and 

 it is indeed evident that, if the Council can succeed in 

 establishing health laboratories which shall find for the 

 health students of this country establishments properly 

 equipped such as those of Pasteur, Koch, and Miquel, the 

 Exhibition will not have lived its short life in vain, but will 

 leave behind it an institution not only of permanent value 

 but of growing importance and of large promise. The Com- 

 missioners of 1851 will certainly see with great satisfaction 

 this liberal intention of the Executive Council of the Health 

 Exhibition to add to those laboratories which they have 

 already provided one which is so greatly needed to com- 

 plete the means of study and of education which South 

 Kensington supplies in other departments of technical 

 and biological research and teaching. They will pro- 

 bably make no difficulty — or, rather, they will have the 

 strongest reason which a desire for national usefulness 

 will give them to overcome any difficulty — in providing a 

 suitable site for such laboratories. Even if the means 

 which the surplus may provide should not be ade- 

 quate for the establishment and endowment of 

 such a laboratory, there is little doubt that, with 

 this good beginning, so much may be effected as 

 will afford the best possible reason and the largest 

 inducement to societies such as the Royal Society, the 

 British Medical Association, the British Association, and 

 others to make grants to students conducting research in 

 the laboratories. The Government can hardly refuse to 

 make grants in aid of an institution which in any other 

 country than this would be wholly supported by State 

 funds — witness the health laboratories of France and 

 Germany, which are liberally maintained by State endow- 

 ments. In this country, however, we are accustomed to 

 look to private enterprise, and the liberality of societies 

 or committees, to furnish at least a large part of the 

 funds required for scientific research or endowment, and 

 it is satisfactory to know that the Council of the Inter- 

 national Health Exhibition have favourably considered 

 the proposition that they should take the first step in 

 this useful direction. Every one interested in the promo- 

 tion of real health-progress will trust that it will soon be 

 an accomplished fact. 



THE BUTTERFLIES OF EUROPE 

 The Butterflies of Europe. Described and Figured by 

 Henry C. Lang, M.D., F.L.S., &c. Pp. 396, Super-Royal 

 8vo, with 77 Chromo-lithographic Plates. 1881-1884 in 

 parts. (London: L. Reeve and Co., 1884.) 

 T7OR some years past the writer of this notice has, 

 " almost annually, formed one of the members of that 

 large class of Englishmen who, each year, spend a few 

 weeks in the Alpine and sub-Alpine districts of Europe for 

 " relaxation." The writer prefers to leave it to the taste 

 and fancy of the individuals interested to define the 

 meaning of the latter term. He has naturally met hosts 

 of " foreigners " of different nationalities engaged in the 

 same pursuit. Whatever may be the state of the weather 

 or other conditions incidental to travelling of this kind, 

 those voyageurs of Gallic origin succeed in amusing them, 

 selves after their own special fashion. The Teutonic 



clement also succeeds, but in an entirely different manner. 

 The Americans seem tolerably successful. They leave 

 home to " do " Europe, and they " do " it, in their own 

 businesslike fashion, — business and pleasure are carried 

 out on the same principles. Then there comes the large 

 class of our own countrymen and countrywomen. We 

 must confess that, according to our observation, the 

 majority of these do not bear the outward appear- 

 ance of enjoyment (especially the male portion). There 

 is something apparently wanting. They have left their 

 business or profession behind them, and the void thus 

 occasioned cannot be satisfactorily filled in. From 

 these must, of course, be separated those who find enjoy- 

 ment in the excitement of Alpine climbing, and some 

 others. Amongst these others are those who may be 

 seen with vasculum at back, or insect-net in hand (very 

 frequently in ill-disguised clerical garb), enjoying them- 

 to an extent unknown to, and often not understand- 

 able by, their fellow-countrymen who have voluntarily 

 placed themselves under the same conditions. Probably 

 a still larger amount of Teutons may be observed provided 

 in the same way. And only this year we found our- 

 selves seated next to a New England divine and his 

 wife, and overheard the latter read out to her husband an 

 advertisement of a butterfly-book, with the remark, " That 

 would just suit you." 



In the foregoing notes we have tried to draw a picture 

 which we (perhaps we are prejudiced) believe to be toler- 

 ably natural. The pursuit of some branch of natural 

 history studies on our travels adds a zest to the other 

 conditions of surpassing value. If pursued systematically, 

 it can hardly be termed " relaxation," if taken to mean 

 " doing nothing." But if the work be harder (and it often 

 is very much harder) than ordinary occupations, it is 

 often the one thing needed, both for health and 

 enjoyment. 



Of the bearers of the insect-net in the Alps the majo- 

 rity occupy themselves with butterflies and moths, and 

 the majority of these again with butterflies only. To an 

 Englishman accustomed only to his own meagre, and 

 declining, butterfly fauna, the wealth and beauty of forms 

 is marvellous. With the exception of a small, but useful, 

 manual, published by Mr. W. F. Kirby more than twenty 

 years ago, and which consists almost entirely of laconic 

 descriptions without figures, there has been, up till now, 

 no work in the English language that enables collectors of 

 European (as opposed to British) butterflies to name their 

 captures without the troublesome comparison of some 

 noted collection. These therefore will thank Dr. Lang 

 for having supplied the deficiency, and in a generally 

 satisfactory manner. The author has adopted no new 

 system of his own. He follows Staudinger's German 

 Catalogue, describing (for the most part originally) and 

 figuring those species that occur in Europe proper, and 

 simply describing those that have not occurred in 

 " Europe," but still form part of the " European Fauna " 

 (a term becoming daily more difficult to define). We 

 think there is evidence of a little too much dry routine 

 in the text : the descriptions appear to be excellent, and 

 there is always a notice of the larvae when known, and 

 tolerably copious geographical information as to distri- 

 bution, but the class of readers who will mainly use the 

 book would be more readily caught by a mixture of 



