396 Revieivs and Notices of Books. 



We do not need to travel far for interesting examples in Natural 

 History, by an investigation into whose structures and habits we 

 may be delighted with beautiful forms and instructed by the for- 

 cible illustrations of the Creator's wisdom which they afford. 

 These writers introduce us to two of the commonest of animal 

 existences, — the Earth-worm (Lumbiicus terrestris), and the 

 House-fly {Masca domestica). They tell us of their rank and 

 standing in the ascending order of life ; of their nervous system, 

 with its curious ramifications ; of their complex organs of vision 

 and nutriment ; the circulation of their fluids, and their curious 

 respiratory organs ; with their processes of reproduction and deve- 

 lopment. Each particular is described with sufficient minuteness 

 to enable an ordinary reader to comprehend it, and yet with suffi- 

 cient generality to be free from prolixity or tedium. We would 

 not only recommend this book to the young to awaken and sti- 

 mulate in them a taste for the pursuits of Natural History, but 

 we would also recommend it to those whose studies have already 

 embraced this department of knowledge as a delightful fragment 

 of scientific literature. The illustrations are excellent, in drawing 

 and execution; the whole book is got up with that care and 

 beauty for which its publisher is so favourably known. 



The Practical Naturalist' 's Guide ; containing instructions for 

 collecting, preparing, and preserving specimens in all de- 

 partments of Zoology. Intended for the use of students, 

 amateurs, and travellers. By James B. Da vies, Assistant 

 Conservator Natural History Museum, Edinburgh, &c, &c. 

 Edinburgh: Maclachlan & Stewart. Montreal: B. Dawson 

 & Son. 



. This book is written with a view to promote the collection, 

 preparation and careful classification of private collections of ob- 

 jects for the illustration of Natural History. The chief intention 

 of the writer is to supply, within a small compass, so much know- 

 ledge as will enable the student and amateur, as also the traveller 

 in foreign countries, to collect the animals by which he is sur- 

 rounded, to prepare them in such a way that they can at any time 

 be rendered available for the purposes of science, and to preserve, 

 arrange and catalogue them with neatness and precision. This 

 aim the author has most effectively carried out. The informa- 

 tion which the book contains is of the most practical kind. 

 Methods of manipulation are reduced to their utmost simplicity, 

 and all its directions may, with a little care and practice, be easily 



