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 NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS, 



The Natural History of Aquatic Insects, By Professor L. C. 

 Miall, F.R.S. With Illustrations by A. R. Hammond, 

 F.L.S. 8vo, pp. 395. London: Macmillan & Co. 1895. 



A popular interest in Natural History founded upon ob- 

 servation is one of the latest fruits of the revival of learning. 

 During the course of the eighteenth century, the discoveries of 

 Swammerdam and Reaumur slowly made their way into the 

 thoughts of the people, and some acquaintance with the life- 

 history of Insects is now to be counted upon in every reader. 

 The death-like repose of the chrysalis and the emergence of the 

 butterfly, the short life of the winged Ephemera, and the trans- 

 formation of the Dragon-fly from a sluggish larva lurking in pools 

 to a glorious winged creature flying swiftly through the air, are 

 now among the every-day illustrations of the preacher and 

 moralist, and form a highly characteristic feature of modern 

 literature. 



To revive an interest in the writings of certain old-time 

 zoologists — Swammerdam, Reaumur, Lyonnet, and De Geer — 

 whose teaching has been unduly neglected, and to carry on as 

 well as to popularise their work, is the chief object of Prof. 

 Miall's book, and we heartily welcome it as an efficient and 

 instructive guide to those young naturalists who take a delight 

 in observing the structure and habits of living animals. 



It was a good idea of Prof. Miall's to begin by telling us what 

 was known of aquatic insects up to a certain point through the 

 teachings of our predecessors above named, explaining their 

 shortcomings and mistakes as viewed by the light of modern 

 research, and then to carry their observations further by com- 

 pleting the life-histories which they had commenced, but had left 

 unfinished. Prof. Miall, in point of fact, has saved the reader a 

 considerable amount of trouble. He has gone through these old 

 volumes, picked out whatever was worth noting, added his own 

 comments in editorial brackets, and brought the information up 

 to date. But he has gone further than this. He has given us 

 the outcome of his own researches, and those of certain fellow- 

 workers, into the structure of aquatic insects as correlated with 



