LTKES AND DISLIKES. 
363 
No scientific problem would be the better for being grinned at through 
a horse-collar ; and the constant joking about matters of grave im- 
port forcibly corroborates the truth of the celebrated aphorism of 
Lord Bacon, — " Homines derisores civitatem perdunt." 
The facile pen of our author, glib in finding that anything in 
science is like anything else, runs smoothly and superficially over the 
whole animal and vegetable kingdom. AYe are told that an Ento- 
mostracan, — 
" Sida crystallina, is easily transformed into a costermonger by giving 
the creature legs, a pipe, and a basket of greens." 
We were not previously aware that legs, pipes, and cabbages, were 
the only predicable characters dividing the human race from water- 
fleas. It is, however, but too evident that the writer is unacquainted 
even with the most elementary scientific facts. Thus, in the first 
paper, Tarsius JBancamis is spoken of as being man's progenitor. 
Compare the gorilla's brain with Tarsius's brain ! Has the author 
of "Likes" ever read Burmeister's monograph? has he ever seen 
the paltry little lemur ? Again, in the second paper, he writes — 
" The Acidaspis KeyserUncfii, a Silurian Trilobite figured by Barrande 
(Syst. Sil. de Boneme, pi. 36), bears a remarkable likeness, when I give 
him feet and arm him with a spear, to a Pol3niesian savage." 
"We are too slow to see the likeness, but we are far from wishing " 
to tempt the author of "Likes and Similitudes" to ofi'er us any of 
those artistic examples of his dementia with which his manuscript 
was probably suitably illustrated ; but he is evidently possessed with a 
pungent idea that there is some occasional connection between some 
individuals of the human race and the family of crabs, for he adds — 
" Pemplis Suessii, a crustacean of higher class, met with in the New 
Hed rocks of Germany, figured by Yon Meyer, may be claimed by Mr. 
Layard as an Assyrian king in an eruptive state." 
The meaning of this sentence fairly bafiles our limited powers of 
comprehension. AYhy Mr. Layard should feel anxious to possess an 
Assyrian king whose skin may be unhealthy, or who is in the process 
of volcanic excitement, we avow ourselves unable to fathom. 
"VYe all know the unfortunate mistake a certain lady is reputed to 
have made by looking at her dictionary ; the author of " Likes "has 
achieved an equally unfortunate result by not looking at his before 
he wrote — 
"The curious wing-finned fishes found in the Old Eed Sandstone of 
Scotland, belonging to the genus Pterichthi/s, which have been so cleverly 
