LITERARY NOTICES. 



247 



science, and a book of reference for the 

 veterinary surgeon, but it is also available 

 for the zoologist, the comparative anatomist, 

 the ethnologist, and the medical practi- 

 tioner. Although we have had good books 

 on the structure of the horse, this is the 

 first complete treatise on the anatomy of 

 the domesticated animals in the English 

 language, and will contribute materially to 

 the progress of veterinary science, while 

 being useful also to the community at large. 



Our Common Insects. A Popular Account 

 of the Insects of our Fields, Forests, 

 Gardens, and Houses. Illustrated with 

 4 Plates and 268 Woodcuts. By A. S. 

 Packard, M.D. 225 pages. Price, $2.50. 

 Salem : Naturalists' Agency. Boston : 

 Estes & Lauriat. New York : Dodd & 

 Mead. 



Dr. Packard has done an excellent thing 

 in preparing this little hand-book. His 

 large " Guide to the Study of Insects," with 

 upward of *700 pages and 1,200 figures, al- 

 though reduced to five dollars in price, is 

 still too expensive for the great mass of 

 readers ; and it was therefore well to distill 

 it over, with the contents of the American 

 Naturalist, into a more portable and popu- 

 lar form. Good and cheap books on in- 

 sects require to be multiplied, for we are 

 all interested in them. They infest us in- 

 side and out, by day and by night, sleeping 

 and waking, at home and abroad; they 

 damage our food, poison our drink, spoil 

 our clothes, kill our domestic animals, rav- 

 age our gardens, blast our fruit, and de- 

 stroy our crops. The subject cannot be 

 ignored, but we naturally approach it with 

 prejudice. There are, however, compen- 

 sations in all things. Although insects 

 may be our enemies, they are yet sci- 

 entifically very interesting creatures. We 

 all have a high opinion of Nature, and are 

 never done praising her; but she runs to 

 insects incontinently — they could outvote 

 all the rest of the animal kingdom five to 

 one. As the higher tribes of life have been 

 perishing out in multitudes along the geo- 

 logical march, it cannot be doubted that 

 the same thing has happened in a much 

 greater degree to the insects, although their 

 vestiges were, of course, more difficult of 

 preservation. But Dr. Packard tells us 

 that there are upward of 200,000 living 



species, and, as species are held by many to 

 be immutable, each one having been spe- 

 cially created, we have a clew to the exact 

 number of miracles that these pests have 

 cost : though why miraculous contrivance 

 took such an excessive turn in this direc- 

 tion will perhaps be found explained in 

 Dr. Bushnell's book of "Dark Things." 

 But, however they came, the insects are 

 here, a part of the world of life, growing, 

 multiplying, and dying, like ourselves ; un- 

 dergoing curious transformations, and ani- 

 mated by wonderful instincts — social, indus- 

 trious, and most instructive in all their ways 

 and history. Dr. Packard selects the most 

 common, those that are easily — often too 

 easily — observed, and gives us their various 

 stories with an interest that is quite ro- 

 mantic. His volume is compact with infor- 

 mation upon the subject, and is adapted to 

 all intelligent readers ; but, for sensible 

 boys and girls, it is worth a whole library 

 of the fictitious drivel that now forms so 

 large a part of the mental nourishment of 

 the young. 



This volume consists mainly of reprinted 

 matter, but it contains a new and admirable 

 chapter entitled " Hints on the Ancestry of 

 Insects." The irrepressible question of 

 origins is not to be escaped, and, as it has 

 long haunted the souls of botanists, it now 

 begins to torment the entomological soul. 

 Insects cannot be studied without being 

 classed, and they cannot be classed without 

 knowing their resemblances and affinities, 

 and these cannot be made out except 

 through their embryological or development- 

 al history. The question how things are 

 runs into the question how they came to be, 

 and the first thesis of Scripture becomes 

 the last problem of science — that is, gene- 

 sis. Dr. Packard inclines to the view that 

 the primal ancestors of insects were worms, 

 and he assumes without hesitation the doc- 

 trine of evolution as best explaining the 

 facts of the science. We quote one or two 

 passages upon this point : 



" Many short-sighted persons complain 

 that such a theory sets in the background 

 the idea of a personal Creator ; but minds 

 no less devout, and perhaps a trifle more 

 thoughtful, see the hand of a Creator not 

 less in the evolution of plants and animals 

 from preexistent forms, through natural 



