1865.! ( 145 ) 



REVIEWS. 



ENTOZOA.* 



The recent researches of Steenstrup, ELichennieister, Von Siebold, and 

 others on the Continent, and of Allen Thomson, Kainey, Busk, and the 

 author of the present volume in this country, have thrown an interest 

 around the study of Entozoa, which has scarcely been surpassed in 

 any other department of zoological inquiry. Although these re- 

 searches have great practical value, they excited but comparatively 

 little interest in the medical profession, till the publication of Dr. 

 Lankester's translation of Euchenmeister's large work on ' Human 

 Parasites,' and Mr. Huxley's translation of Von Siebold's work on 

 ' Parasitic Worms,' by the Old Sydenham Society. Since that time 

 no systematic work in the English language has appeared, except Dr. 

 W. Smith's work on ' Human Entozoa,' which is professedly an adap- 

 tation of a French work by M. Devaine. Numerous papers have, 

 however, been published in English and foreign periodicals, and in 

 the books on practical medicine, by Dr. Watson and Dr. Aikin ; and in 

 Mr. Hulme's translation of Moquin-Tandcm's ' Medical Zoology,' brief 

 accounts of our present knowledge of the Entozoa inhabiting the human 

 body have appeared. Under these circumstances, it seemed very desir- 

 able that all that was known on this interesting and important branch 

 of natural history and pathological inquiry should be brought together, 

 and no one could have been found more competent to the task than 

 the author of the present volume. We must also congratulate Dr. 

 Cobbold and his publishers, that they appear not to have taken up this 

 subject as a mere matter of business, but as a labour of love. Amongst 

 recently-published books on natural history, we do not recollect to 

 have seen one in which all the requirements of paper, printing, and 

 illustration have been so carefully attended to, and we are almost in- 

 clined to be jealous that inquiries into other departments of natural his- 

 tory have not fallen into equally generous hands. We would especially 

 speak of the plates and woodcuts as being all that could possibly be 

 wished for the identification of specimens, and the illustration of the 

 text. 



Dr. Cobbold divides his work into three parts. The first is de- 

 voted to the Systematic, the second to the Special, and the third to 

 Spurious Helminthology. In the first part our author discusses the 

 propriety of placing the various forms of parasitic worms in the same 

 group. There is, no doubt, sufficient diversity in their forms to justify 

 the assigning of these worms, in a purely zoological classification, to 

 very different groups : but we are inclined to agree with Dr. Cobbold, 



* 'Entozoa : an Introduction to the Study of Helminthology, with reference 

 more ]>articularly to the Internal Parasites of Man.' By T. Spencer Cobbold, 

 M.D., F.R.S. London : Groombrirlge & Sons. 



VOL. II. L 



