380 
NATURE 
of legs. Dr. Thorell appears somewhat to doubt Mr. 
Blackwall’s position, that this organ is in all cases a true 
spinning apparatus ; the better opinion would appear to 
be that it is so. 
The work ends with some very valuable remarks on 
the general classification of the Araneidea, or (as Dr. 
Thorell, with good reason, prefers to call the order of 
spiders) Araneze, pp. 597—607. Within this compass 
some recent works and suggestions on the systematic 
classification of spiders by Dr. Ludwig Koch, Rev. O. P. 
Cambridge, Anton Ausserer, and others are reviewed and 
criticised ; the conclusion come to being that the new and 
highly remarkable forms brought to our knowledge by the 
researches of later years shows more than ever “thata 
fully satisfactory classification of the order of spiders is a 
thing not soon to be expected, and that a by no means in- 
considerable number of forms cannot without great uncer- 
tainty, even if at all, be included under the hitherto 
received families and higher groups.” Undoubtedly, 
towards this satisfactory classification, by whomsoever it 
may be finally effected, Dr. Thorell has done good work 
in the volume on “ European Spiders,” and that on their 
“Synonyms.” The systematiser hardly exists yet who 
could say with truth that he had risen from a perusal of 
these volumes without considerable alteration, or, at least, 
modification, of his own previous views on the subject. 
With so much to commend, in the work under review, 
it may perhaps appear invidious to notice what seem, 
to be a defect, at least in point of form. In ths 
course of the minute and extensive investigation of 
specimens, descriptions, and figures necessary to arrive at 
a satisfactory determination of obscure synonyma, species 
here and there appeared to be new to Science, and others 
to require separation (under other names, and with a fresh 
description) from those with which they had before been 
confounded ; these new and separate species Dr. Thorell 
has described in extended notes, zz /oco, in a smaller 
type, thus marring the continuity, and breaking in upon 
the expressed design of the work. Would not these de- 
scriptions have come in better, and have been more useful 
for study and reference, had they formed an appendix to 
the work ? 
Another defect (though its rectification might {perhaps 
be said to have been a departure from the strict de 
sign of the work) appears to be that Dr. Thorell does 
not include in his volume a// the spiders at present known 
to be indigenous to Europe ; it details those described by 
Westring and Blackwall, with some others given in M. 
Simon’s catalogue, as well as, incidentally, many more 
described by other authors ; but still it leaves unnoticed 
other described species. It would have given the work a 
great additional value had there been a general list of all 
the (at that present time recorded) spiders of Europe in 
systematic order, or, at least, a supplementary one of all 
those species mentioned or detailed throughout the work, 
in addition to those of Blackwall and Westring. This is, 
however, as before hinted, rather a criticism upon the 
design than the execution of the work, though it seems to 
be invited by the author's having so far departed from his 
own original design as to include descriptions of new 
species, as well as notices of others besides those included 
in “ Aranez Suecicz,” “ Spiders of Great Britain and Ire- 
land,” and the “ Catalogue Synonymique.” 
It would be scarcely proper to conclude this notice of a 
scientific work written by a native of Sweden, without a 
remark upon its being written in English, and a well- 
deserved compliment upon the exceeding clearness and 
terseness of the style, and its generally happy accuracy 
of expression. . 
Dr. Thorell’s own opinion—expressed in a note to page 
583—and in which most English-writing naturalists will pro- 
bably acquiesce—is that English will one day become the 
common scientific language of the world, not only because 
it “is far more widely diffused over every part of the earth 
than any other culture-language, and that already two of 
the greatest nations publish in it the results of their scien- 
tific labours, but because English, on account of its simple 
grammar, and as combining!in nearly the same degree 
Teutonic and Romanic elements, is by most Europeans 
more easily acquired than any other language.” The 
opinion, however (given in the same note /.c.), in regard 
to works written in little-understood languages, such as 
Russian, Polish, Bohemian, Finnish, or Magyar, will hardly 
be endorsed. Dr. Thorell would exclude works written 
in these or such like languages,’ from equal scientific 
weight with others written in French, English, German 
&c., ze, he would not apply to the former the rules, as to 
priority, applied to these latter. Now, however grateful it 
would be to Western naturalists to have all works on 
Natural Science published in languages with which they 
are ordinarily more or less familiar, yet it would be rather 
too hard upon other nations, to whom the love of natural 
history has come sooner than a general philological cul- 
ture, to be excluded from equal scientific rights with their 
more advanced brethren in the West. It would seem 
quite as just, if not more so, that if a penalty is to be 
paid for ignorance of foreign tongues, it should fall rather 
upon those who, with whatever trouble and inconvenience, 
certainly might become acquainted with works on Science 
in any language, than upon those who, preferring to write 
in that tongue in which they can undoubtedly think most 
clearly and best express their thoughts, give the results of 
their scientific labours in the vernacular. By all means 
let us have, if possible, a common scientific language, but 
meantime, if it be so, we must put up with the occasional 
annoyance of finding that a genus or species which we 
had fondly imagined we were the first to describe, had 
already, perhaps long, been well described, and possibly 
figured, in some unheard-of work written in an outlandish 
tongue not understood of the Western Scientific World. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
A History of the Birds of Europe. Parts 18, 19, 20. 
By H. E. Dresser, F.Z.S., &c. (Published by the 
Author at 11, Hanover Square.) 
THIS fine work continues to appear with commendable 
regularity every month, and keeps up its high character 
both for fulness of information and beauty of illustration. 
In the numbers now noticed are several highly artistic 
plates, such as those which represent the White-shoul- 
dered and Imperial Eagles, the Great Black-headed Gull, 
the Common Crane, the White Stork, and the Great 
Bustard, which each form a perfect picture. We find full 
but not too lengthy articles on all these, as well as on 
the Black Grouse, the Curlew, and many smaller birds. 
An excellent plan is adopted, in the more characteristic 
and difficult European genera, of giving a list of all the 
[Sepz. Il, 1873 
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