REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 353 
unattractive style, would have been more successful had it not ap- 
peared in advance of the present demand for works upon the sub- 
ject of which it treats. 
The present edition is the old one, only moderately modernized 
by some minor alterations. The name is changed, for the worse 
as to the contents of the volume, but for the better as to the 
fashion of the day; the impracticable microscope of the original 
frontispiece properly gives way to a cheap but useful instru- 
ment of modern style; a rewritten preface and introduction 
form connecting links between the name and the book; and the 
Infusoria, though not rewritten, are somewhat rearranged by the 
separation of the vegetable forms. The rest of the work is simply 
reprinted, with scarcely more than a few verbal corrections. The 
woodcuts and lithographs are scarcely equal in quality to the 
original, and a considerable number are suppressed, including a 
part of the interesting series of wood-sections and crystallizations, 
the one section of a root being one of the loved and lost. 
The treatment of Diatoms, and indeed ‘ Infusoria” generally, 
of the influence of temperature on vitality, of deep-sea soundings 
ad dredgings, and of the microscopic anatomy of the higher 
Plants, gives no hint of the vast labor, and wonderful results of - 
the last twenty years. The unfortunate haste with which this edi- 
_ Hon was prepared, is further shown by an abundance of minor 
errors, such as the failure to cut out all the allusions to the sup- 
Pressed plates, and the reference of the second description of a fig. 
to the Wrong cut (Fig. 2), which is given in the right place, in- 
Stead of to the right cut (Fig. 3), which is given several pages be- 
. Of course minute and technical criticism would be impossi- 
me m regard to a book which scarcely claims to be scientific ; but 
Such errors as the above should have been corrected, and it would 
peveely be too much to ask a slight improvement in classification. 
re }s a certain interest and advantage in giving, side by side, 
the hairs of insects and of quadrupeds, and the scales:of insects 
nd of fishes, and the crystals from plants, and those: artificially 
e Upon slides; but there can scarcely be any advantage in 
“ing the corpuscles of blood, tlie pollen of plants, and the 
atomy of the flea, all into the same group. 
Perea microscopists will want to place this name-sake book 
ms na ~ of the really more serviceable Lankester’s Half Hours 
ood’s Common Objects ; but intelligent general readers, and 
“MER. NATURALIST, VOL. VI. 3 
