352 Becreations in Natural History. 



ing in monthly parts, entitled Homes without Hands, in 

 which the constructive faculties of all kinds of animals are 

 agreeably set forth ; and Dr. Phipson has selected an excellent 

 set of subjects under the title of The Utilization of Minute Life.* 

 If we were disposed to be hypercritical we might say that 

 some of the living creatures whose utility to man forms the 

 theme of Dr. Phipson's essay, are not exactly minute, as that 

 term is scarcely applicable to the lobster or the crab ; but the 

 general appropriateness of the title will be apparent when we 

 proceed to enumerate the contents. First, we find the Silk- 

 Producing Insects, then the Colour-Producing Insects, then 

 Insects producingWax, Resin, Honey, and Manna; after which 

 the Insects Employed in Medicine, or as Food, and other Insects 

 useful to Man, are treated in a manner that conveys a great 

 deal of zoological and technological information in a very plea- 

 sant way. After the insects Dr. Phipson deals with the Crus- 

 tacea in one chapter, and with the Mollusca in another; and 

 the work concludes with Worms, Polyps, Infusoria, and 

 Sponges. From this enumeration of subjects it will be appa- 

 rent that Dr. Phipson has addressed himself to the widest 

 possible range of readers, and by a happy union of chemical, 

 zoological, and technological science, he has provided matter 

 to suit all tastes. 



At the present moment two of Dr. Phipson' s subjects are 

 especial matters of interest, and to them we shall confine our 

 remarks; first adverting to the efforts for increasing the pro- 

 duction of silk, and secondly to the plans in operation for 

 the artificial propagation of mollusca serviceable as food. 

 Attention has been strongly directed to the introduction of 

 new species of silk-producing insects, and to the prevention 

 of the diseases which have proved so ruinous in many silk 

 Minis. Amongst the diseases we find " muscardine/' caused 

 by a parasitic fungus, for which cleanliness and the removal 

 of sick larva seems tin- most effective remedy; u atrophy" 



or " rachitism," "gangrene/' " jaundice/' ''apoplexy/' 

 "diarrhoea/' "dropsy," for which different methods of 

 treatment are prescribed. " In il" 1 department of Vau- 

 cluse, where OH :i small area of land more than two mil- 

 lions of mulberry trees are grown, gangrene resulting from 

 these and oilier maladies is arrested in its course by sprink- 

 ling quicklime over the larvae by means of a 7017 line sieve, 



and then covering them with leaves soaked in wine." The 



list of complaints sounds shockingly human, and affords a 

 curious, though scarcely pleasing picture, of unity of plan in 



* The UttUtatwn <>f dUtutte Life ; being Practical Studies on Insects, Crus- 

 tacea, MoiliiM.i, Worm", Polyps, Infusoria, and (sponges. liy Dr. 'J'. L. l'liipson, 

 F.C.S. London. Qroombridge and Xons. 



