Notices of New Books. 4405 



' A Manual of Natural History, for the use of Travellers ; being a 

 Description of the Families of the Animal and Vegetable King- 

 doms : with Remarks on the practical study of Geology and 

 Meteorology. To which are appended Directions for Collect- 

 ing and Preserving.'' By Arthur Adams, M.R.C.S. ; F.L.S. ; 

 M.E.S., Stettin ; William Balfour Baikie, M.D., F.B.S.E., 

 late one of the Presidents of the Royal Medical Society of 

 Edinburgh ; and Charles Barron, Curator of the Royal Naval 

 Museum at Haslar. London : John Van Voorst, Paternoster 

 Row. 1854. Post 8vo ; 750 pages. Price 12s. 



We cannot better give the view which the authors have in publish- 

 ing this work than in citing their preface entire. 



" The design of the following pages is to endeavour to supply what 

 seems to be a blank in the scientific literature of this country, for, 

 although numerous treatises exist upon every branch, yet no work has 

 hitherto appeared, comprising either succinctly or in detail, a compre- 

 hensive outline of Natural History. It may appear presumptuous on 

 the part of the Authors to attempt to grapple with such an extensive 

 range of subjects, which they feel must be, in many instances, ina- 

 dequately treated, still they trust that their effort to condense, within 

 the limits of a portable volume, the leading features of Animate and 

 Inanimate Nature, may prove of service to those at least for whom it 

 is more especially intended. Their chief aim has been to render their 

 work at once sufficiently popular for the general reader, without, at the 

 same time, lessening its scientific value. For this purpose technica- 

 lities have been avoided whenever their employment could be dis- 

 pensed with, English names have been given to all the Classes, 

 Orders, and Families, and the principal divisions have been prefaced 

 by brief introductory remarks. The classification adopted is that 

 which has seemed most closely to accord with the advanced views of 

 the time ; and throughout the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms a 

 uniform system has been employed, so that similar subdivisions are 

 designated by a cognate nomenclature." 



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