Feb. 23, 1871 | 
NATURE 
329 

public servants, attached as naturalists to various missions, 
or had been given by gentlemen of the civil and military 
services to the Court of Directors. Amongst the contri- 
butors to the East India Museum, it will be sufficient to 
mention the names of Dr. F. Buchanan Hamilton, Dr. 
-‘Horsfield, Sir T. Stamford Raffles, Col. Sykes, Dr. 
Wallich, Mr. M‘Clelland, Dr. Falconer, Mr. Griffith, and 
Mr. Hodgson, to prove that the collection was one of no 
ordinary merit. The Zoological importance of the East 
India Company’s Museum was further augmented by 
the preparation and publication by, or under the superin- 
tendence of, the late Dr. Horsfield, of several catalogues. 
Of these may be particularly mentioned that of the 
Mammalia, published in 1851, and that of the Birds in 
1854 and 1858, the second part of which bears likewise 
the name of Mr. Frederick Moore, then assistant-keeper 
of the Company’s Museum, as joint author, on its title- 
page. 
When the East India Company became extinct, and 
the premises in Leadenhall Street were vacated, the 
Museum was removed to Fife House, Whitehall, but was 
very imperfectly exhibited there, a large portion of the 
contents (the more bulky specimens in particular) being 
kept stowed away in boxes. When naturalists who 
wanted to consult specimens remonstrated at their 
inaccessibility, they were told that this was a mere tempo- 
rary arrangement, and that when the magnificent build- 
ings of the new India Office were completed, special 
accommodation would be assigned to the Museum, 
and there would be ample space for everything. At length 
the time arrived. The new India Office, with its suites of 
salons, assembly rooms, waiting rooms, and apartments of 
every description, was finished and opened. Fife House 
was demolished, and everything that it contained was re- 
moved to the new establishment. But when space was 
required for the Museum it was discovered that the only 
rooms assigned to this purpose were three or four cham- 
bers in the uppermost story, which would not contain 
atenth part of the collection. Dr. Forbes Watson, the 
present chief of this department, has thought it right to 
devote these to the exhibition of a fine series of speci- 
mens illustrative of the arts and manufactures of British 
India, and we are by no means disposed to find fault with 
his decision on this subject. But it is the duty of the 
Government, we maintain, either to provide proper space 
for the Zoological collections alsoin the New India Office, 
or to transfer them to some other Institution, where they 
may be at least accessible to the scientific student. These 
Zoological collections contain a large number of typical 
specimens, without reference to which it is impossible in 
many cases to ascertain the identity of the species. Some 
of these typical specimens have, we believe, been handed 
over to the British Museum, but a number of them still 
remain in the collection, packed away, we are told, in the 
same cases in which they were originally removed from 
Leadenhall Street. This is, we maintain, a great and 
crying scandal, though as only a few working Zoologists 
are injured thereby, it is difficult to excite popular feeling 
upon the subject. In taking over the goods and chattels 
of the former Company, the India Office must certainly 
be held to have accepted the corresponding liabilities. 
Amongst these, it cannot be denied, was that of keeping, 
at least safe from destruction and in a state accessible to 
the scientific student, the specimens which the servants of 
the former Company amassed at such an expenditure of 
time and toil. If, as we are told, the new India Office is 
already so short of space that it is not possible to find 
room for them within its precincts, it is very simple to 
obtain the necessary accommodation elsewhere. We have 
good reason to know: that Naturalists working on various 
branches of Indian Zoology are frequently brought to a 
standstill by the impossibility of access to this important 
collection, and we trust, therefore, that some steps will be 
taken to remedy the evil Pi. Si 

THE METAMORPHOSES OF INSECTS * 
pes very handsomely got-up volume is illustrated by 
40 full-page engravings, many of which are exquisite 
landscapes as well as representations of insects in their 
various stages ; and by about 200 excellent woodcuts in 
the text, from which we have selected a few specimens as 
samples of the rest. The subject of insect transforma- 
tions presents us with so many curious examples of 
instinct, and such strange eccentricities of structure and 
habits, as to be especially adapted to attract the attention 
of the young, and to lead them to study this most fasci- 
nating branch of Natural History. The name of M. 
Emile Blanchard, and the high scientific reputation of 
Prof. Duncan, are a sufficient guarantee that the facts are 
accurately stated. In the introductory portion of the 
work, the main features of the external structure and 
internal anatomy of insects are exhibited by such large 
and clear illustrations as to be easily comprehended, the 
changes in the nervous system, from the larva to the 
perfect insect, being particularly well shown. The nature 
of metamorphosis and its different kinds are then 
explained, and a series of chapters is devoted to each 
order of insects, beginning with the Lepidoptera and 
ending with the Crustacea. 
Among the more remarkable forms in the first-named 
order are the Psychidze, small moths the females of which 
are not only without wings, but have neither legs nor 
antenne. The female Psyche is, in fact,a mere helpless 
egg-bag, which never quits the case or covering in which 
it was bred. The males are small delicate moths with 
bodies covered with long silken hairs, and with dusky 
semi-transparent wings. The larve live in cases made of 
silk or vegetable tissue, bits of straw, stick, or leaves, and 
they carry these cases just as snails do their shells. 
The ravages of the Tineidze and the curious cases of 
Coleophora and Gelechia are illustrated by figures after 
Stainton ; while the cut on p. 331 represents the beautiful 
pink or violet net-work cocoons in which some Brazilian 
species suspend themselves by slender threads. 
The parasitic Hymenoptera forming the families 
Ichneumonidz, Chalcididze, and Proctotrupidz are well 
described, and a quotation from this chapter will exhibit 
the style in which the book is written :— 
“ These parasites are very pretty and elegantly-formed 
insects when in the adult form, and are gifted with great 
agility and restlessness ; but in their early condition they 
cannot move, having no locomotive organs, and their 
structures are so soft that they are destroyed with the 
greatest ease. The larve look like worms or maggots, 
and do not attain a great perfection of development during 
their growth. All the parasites seek out a caterpillar, a 
larva, or an insect which suits their purpose, in order to lay 
an egg within its body. The larva which is born from 
this egg is nourished by the blood and fat of the victim, 
whose vital organs it does not touch or injure in any way ; 
for were it to die, the parasite would come to an end also. 
It is only when the larva is nearly full grown, and is about 
to undergo its metamorphosis into a pupa, that it appears 
to know that the life of the victim is not likely to be of 
much further use. It then devours the internal organs of 
the unfortunate insect, and undergoes its transformation. 
' The skin of the victim protects some of the pupz of its 
destroyers after all the inside has been eaten. Nearly all, 
if not quite all, insects are subject to the attacks of para- 
sitic Hymenoptera. Fine, smooth, and brightly coloured 
caterpillars often have a black spot upon their skin, and 
this is the healed wound of the ovipositor of one of the 
parasites. Sooner or later the creature is sure to die, and 
* “The Transformations or Metamorphoses of Insects (Insecta, Myria- 
poda, Arachnida, and Crustacea).” Being an adaptation for English 
readers of M. Emile Blanchard’s ‘‘ Metamorphoses, Mceurs, et Instincts des 
Insectes.” By P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S., Professor of Geology in King’s 
College, London. (Cassell, Petter, and Galpin ) 
