470 The American Naturalist. 



which compose it, a lack, in part attributable to the individuality of 

 the authors, in part to an apparent failure on the part of the editors to 

 lay down guiding rules for their authors. 



Mr. Sedgwick devotes 26 pages to Peripatus, giving a good general 

 account of the group, in its structure, development and habits, and fol- 

 lowing it with a list of the known species, essentially the same as that 

 in his previous monograph. From his familiarity with the group no 

 one was better able to treat of the group than he. 



Mr. Sinclair should have been almost equally familiar with the 

 Myriapods for he has published both on the structure and the embryo- 

 logy of the group, and yet his account is much less satisfactory. The 

 general account of the habits is good and is based to a large extent 

 upon the author's own observations, but we wish he had put into Eng- 

 lish some of the facts ascertained by vom Rath. The classification 

 adopted, that of Koch, is rather antiquated (1847) while the investiga- 

 tions of Grassi, to say nothing of the later researches of Schmidt and 

 Kenyon, show that the Scolopendrellidae and Pauropidse are not to be 

 set aside as distinct from the Diplopoda, and the elevation of Cermatia 

 to ordinal rank has very little in its support. One or two typograph- 

 ical errors are annoying. Scudder's figures of fossil Myriapods are 

 attributed to " Meek and Worth," the author persisting in depriving 

 the American paleontologist of the last syllable of his name. Here 

 may be mentioned one of the inequalities of the work. While in treat- 

 ing of Peripatus a diagnosis is given of all (?) known species, in the 

 Myriapods only the families are thus treated. Concluding the account is 

 a discussion of the relationships of the group, and in this we find mixed 

 up myths from Pliny and facts from other authors, including (p. 78) a 

 quotation showing that the people of Ehytium were driven from their 

 quarters by Myriapods, a statement which also occurs (p. 30) in an- 

 other place. But in this whole part we see nothing but a feeble grop- 

 ing, not the firmness of the master hand. The chapter as a whole shows 

 the lack of editorial supervision ; its prolixity on minor points should 

 have been suppressed. 



The best of the book is that by Mr. Sharp — accounts of the Aptera, 

 Orthoptera, Neuroptera and the lower Hymnoptera, the author using 

 these names in the widest sense. In the introductory sections, deal- 

 ing with the anatomy and embryology of the Hexapods, the author is 

 evidently less at his ease that in the more systematic portion. Here he 

 has given us one of the best of all books upon insects. The strictly 

 systematic portion is well done, while the account of habits and trans- 

 formation is excellent, and the perspective good. Thus the Mallophaga 



