Bibliographical Notice. 75 



doubt the immense importance of obtaining a clear and definite 

 knowledge of those enemies of the agriculturist whose ravages are 

 so often fatal to his hopes, and by calling attention to the want of 

 any satisfactory body of information upon the injurious organisms of 

 our Indian possessions the author certainly merits the thanks of 

 all who have an interest in such matters. In the few opening 

 pages of his work he has referred to several exceedingly interesting 

 points and given some valuable advice ; but in attempting to carry 

 out his scheme in detail he has, we think, entirely mistaken the 

 course to be pursued. The body of the work consists of a series of 

 articles, many of them very short, arranged in alphabetical order, 

 and as the subjects treated of are generally indicated by their scien- 

 tific names, the book is evidently not well adapted for readers 

 unacquainted with natural history. To a certain extent this difii- 

 culty is got over by means of a rather copious index ; but this does 

 not seem to be quite complete, and a much more judicious course 

 with regard to the native names of the pests described would have 

 been to insert them in their places with cross-references to the 

 articles in which the species are noticed. Further, we are told in 

 many articles that the creatures referred to belong to this or that 

 class or order, but without any indications of the characters by 

 which such groups are distinguished, although, in the great majority 

 of cases, a rough notion of these distinctions might be intelligibly 

 given in very few words. 



In fact the broad defects of the book might easily be remedied 

 without adding seriously, if at all, to its bulk, if only certain per- 

 fectly unnecessary articles were omitted. What possible ground 

 there can be for introducing into a treatise on " Agricultural 

 Pests " a notice on " Actiniae and Medusae " (chiefly dealing with 

 Pliysalia) one is at a loss to understand ; crocodiles also seem rather 

 out of place ; and the article on Pish, relating chiefly to such species 

 as are poisonous when eaten, or furnished with spines with which 

 they can inflict wounds, seems equally supererogatory. Cannabis 

 sativa is mentioned solely on account of the intoxicating properties of 

 some of its products ; the Tse-tse fly has certainly nothing to do 

 with India ; gnats or mosquitos are not agricultural pests ; so also 

 leeches and fleas. With regard to the latter insects our author 

 quotes, apparently with approval, the statement of a writer that 

 " he had found fleas in limestone caverns, where their only possible 

 supply of food was the animal matter that may have remained in 

 the fossils, of which the limestone was chiefly composed !" Many 

 creatures are mentioned as pests because they attack men, such as 

 bees and wasps, scorpions, centipedes, &c., but they can hardly be 

 said to confine their attentions to agriculturists any more than the 

 land-leeches and fleas above mentioned. A species of Epeira is 

 noticed on account of its gigantic webs, which may be inconvenient 

 to travellers. In certain articles frost, heavy rain, continuous wet 

 weather, and hot winds are mentioned as if they were pests, but no 

 remedial or preventive measures are suggested. 



But it is needless to multiply examples of faults of omission and 

 commission. There is not a page of the book, except perhaps in the 



