New Books, 3533 



It extends to three volumes, of more than 400 pages each ; describes 

 about 2000 species ; and is embellished with 24 plates, 23 of which 

 are excellently coloured, and the 24th contains minute structural de- 

 tails of palpi and antennae. 



1 Great Artists and Great Anatomists.'' By R. Knox, M.D., F.R.S.E., 

 Lecturer on Anatomy, and Corresponding Member of the Aca- 

 demie Nationale of France. London : Van Voorst. 1852. 



The funniest book we ever read. We believe Dr. Knox to be in 

 earnest ; were it otherwise — did we imagine his little volume to be a 

 burlesque or a romance — we should not notice it in the ' Zoologist.' 

 The author evidently considers that the world has produced seven 

 men infinitely greater than all the rest ; that these are Knox, Napo- 

 leon, Cuvier, GeofTroy St. Hilaire, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael An- 

 gelo, and Raphael : that Scotland, France, and Italy have the honour 

 to be the only countries capable of producing greatness : and that 

 England can neither produce nor appreciate greatness. We learn 

 that Cuvier' s great work on comparative anatomy " produced no sen- 

 sation in England, where its object, owing to the character of the pre- 

 vailing race, was wholly misunderstood," — p. 24. And again: — 

 " What passes for the views and theories of Cuvier in England, does 

 not belong to him. They emanate from a school with whom truth in 

 science is of no moment, &c. &c," — p. 29. And again : — "Pirates, 

 contrabandistas, appear from time to time on this great sea of disco- 

 very, chiefly English, who, under pretence of pointing out a few bar- 

 ren rocks and sand-banks which Cuvier had neglected to describe or 

 deemed unworthy of notice, conceal their scandalous calling : and 

 how they live and fatten on the brains of genius ! " In the next page 

 we are called " Flibustiers ; " and so on throughout the book. In 

 fact, the author's abuse of England and the Anglo-Saxon race appears 

 to us rather excessive ; but then, being ourselves Anglo-Saxons, we 

 are scarcely perhaps impartial. We believe that were Dr. Knox to 

 visit the Middlesex bank of the Thames, between the Custom-house 

 and London- bridge, he would occasionally hear Anglo-Saxon invec- 

 tive quite as recherche as his own : but, for the honour of England, it 

 must be said that we never think of introducing it to ears polite, or 

 of publishing it in our books. 



