Oct. 2 1, 1880] 



NATURE 



579 



bis life ; and even those who think it might have 

 been better for science had their own peculiar plans 

 been earned into effect, will hardly grudge Prof. 

 Owen the palm of victory which he may have won 

 from them. 



The necessary and often arduous routine work required 

 of Prof Owen as head of so large a department did not 

 in any great measure diminish the extraordinary activity 

 with which he from time to time published original works. 

 Nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since he 

 entered on his duty at the British Museum, and the 

 record of his contributions to science during this period 

 equals, if it does not surpass, that of the previous thirty 

 years period. Among the more important of these we 

 must notice : Memoir on the British Fossil Reptiles of 

 the Mesozoic Formations— Pterodactyles, 1873-1S77; on 

 the British Fossil Reptiles of the Liassic Formations — 

 Icthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs, 1S65-1870; on the British 

 Fossil Cetacea of the Red Crag, 1870 ; on the Fossil 

 Reptiles of South Africa, 1876; on the Classification and 

 Geographical Distribution of Mammals, 1859; a Manual 

 of Palaeontology, 1861. The long list of papers published 

 in the Proceedings of learned societies, to be found in the 

 Royal Society's invaluable Catalogue (numbering over 360), 

 ■ includes many, the scientific value of most of which would 

 have given an abiding fame to their author. It would be 

 impossible here to give even a tithe of their titles, but we 

 quote a few to show that Prof. Owen left few of the 

 classes of the animal kingdom unnoticed : — On the Anda- 

 man Islanders ; on the Anthropoid Apes ; on the Aye- 

 Aye ; on the Giraffe ; on the Great Anteater ; on the 

 Great Auk ; on the Dodo ; on the Apteryx australisj 

 on Lepidosire?i ajinectensj on the Argonmita argo; on 

 Spirula australisj on Clavagella ; on Limulus poly- 

 phemusj on Entozoa; on Euplectella cuaimer and E. 

 aspergilbcm. 



In 1857 he was elected president of the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science. In 1859 ^^ was 

 chosen one of the eight Foreign Associates of the Institute 

 of France (in succession to Robert Brown). The King 

 of Italy conferred on him the " Ordre de St. Maurice and 

 St. Lazare" in 1862. The Emperor of Brazil in 1873 

 gave him the Imperial Order of the Rose, while in the 

 same year the Queen conferred on him the Order of the 

 Bath. In 1874 the Academy of Medicine, Paris, elected 

 him as one of their Foreign Associates in succession to 

 Baron Liebig. 



At an age when most 'men have to cease from their 

 labours, the subject of this necessarily brief notice works 

 on. No better proof could there be of a spirit still young, 

 than to witness the energy with which he has entered on 

 the occupation of the new home for natural history at 

 South Kensington ; and who will not join in the hope 

 that he may live to see its treasures arranged in an 

 orderly sequence. In this sketch we have presented 

 Prof. Owen as one eminently qualified to take high rank 

 among our Scientific Worthies. What niche in the 

 temple of fame he may permanently occupy is perhaps 

 better left to a generation rem.oved from our own to 

 determine. To us it would seem as if a double portion of 

 the spirit of Cuvier had without doubt fallen upon Owen, 

 who has raised for himself a monument of work that is 

 truly stupendous. 



INSECT VARIETY 



Insect Variety : its Propag-ation and Distribution. Treat- 

 ing of the Odours, Dances, Colours, and Music in all 

 Grasshflppers, Cicadce, and Moths j Beetles, Leaf-Insects, 

 Bees, a)id Butterflies J Bugs, Flies, and Ephemera j and 

 Exhibiting the Bearing of the Science of Etitoniology on 

 Geology. By A. H. Swinton, Member of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of London. (London, Paris, and New 

 York : Cassell, Petter, Galpin and Co. No date.) 



WHEN Mr. Darwin published his " Descent of 

 Man" in 1S71 non-entomological readers were 

 first made acquainted with a host of interesting facts 

 connected with the various sounds produced by insects, 

 the different colours in the two sexes, with their corre- 

 sponding senses, emotions, and habits, so far as these 

 bore upon the question of sexual selection. As in so 

 many other cases Mr. Darwin's volume was the means of 

 attracting the attention of working entomologists to this 

 interesting field of observation, which has since been 

 assiduously worked by Dr. Fritz Miiller in Brazil, while 

 in this country Mr. Swinton has for many years devoted 

 himself to its study, both by personal observation and by 

 collecting together the scattered observations spread over 

 the entire literature of entomology, the result of his 

 labours being embodied in the present volume. 



No more interesting or instructive subject could be 

 found for a great entomological work. The author 

 appears to have spared no pains in the collection and 

 elaboration of his materials. The book is full of original 

 observations, and carefully drawn tabular statements of 

 facts. It is copiously illustrated with roughly executed 

 but characteristic figures ; and the ^^Titer is evidently a 

 man of wide information and some literary skill. But 

 notwithstanding all these points in its favour, the book — 

 except as a mere collection of facts — is a disappointing 

 one. The arrangement is frequently defective ; the style 

 is often so vague and high-flown as to be actually unin- 

 telligible ; while whenever an attempt is made to generalise 

 the facts adduced, the writer appears to have no definite 

 views of his own, or if he has is quite unable to convey 

 them to the reader. A few examples will serve to illus- 

 trate the several merits and defects here pointed out. 



In discussing the combats of male insects as tending 

 towards a selection of powerful males from which to 

 continue the race, our author well remarks that the law 

 of the prior appearance of the males subjects them also 

 to all atmospheric and other influences, "rendering them 

 inured to manifold terrestrial strife previous to propa- 

 gating their kind." This is a good observation; but 

 what is probably a more important function of the early 

 appearance of the males is, that the females should not 

 have to wait long in order to be impregnated and thus be 

 exposed to the dangers of destruction, owing to their 

 usually slower flight and consequent defencelessness, 

 before their great duty of oviposition has been safely per- 

 formed. 



The remarkable discovery by Dr. Fritz Miiller of scent- 

 producing organs in a variety of Brazilian butterflies, is 

 here supplemented by an account of the numerous cases 

 in which analogous organs, often of very varied kinds, 

 have been found in moths, though in comparatively few 

 instances has any odour been actually detected. It may 



