G7 
REVIEWS. 
THE TRANSFORMATION OF INSECTS.* 
MID the vast host of drawing-room scientific works which the past few 
years have introduced into England, the best, it seems to us, is the 
work of M. Blanchard, edited by Dr. Duncan, which is now before us. 
Whether we consider the marvellous array of exquisitely beautiful plates, a 
host of woodcuts, the admirable printing, or last, but not the least, the ex- 
cellent additions which our English naturalist has made to the text, we 
must readily give the first place to M. Blanchard’s treatise. 
Curiously enough, it deals not only with the animals of one class alone, 
but, besides treating of the insects, it goes comparatively fully into the 
Arachnida and Crustacea. In this respect it presents, apart from the many 
features cf novelty which we find in other parts of the volume, much that 
is new to the general reader. For it must be confessed that, while the 
insecta are comparatively well known in many respects to the world gene- 
rally, the Arachnids and Crustaceans form — especially the latter — rather new 
groups for the consideration of the naturalist. 
The first chapters, of course, deal with questions of physiologjq such as 
those of metamorphosis, and the general character of the animals described, 
and the succeeding ones with the metamorphoses of the various groups of 
insects ; then in the same manner, though in briefer fashion, are subsequently 
detailed the classes Myriapoda , Arachnida , and Crustacea. In the earlier 
chapters — those, in fact, which deal with the general anatomy and physiology 
of each group — we fancy that Dr. Duncan has had the heaviest work to per- 
form. Not merely as a translator, of course, but in bringing the French 
edition up to the state of our recent knowledge. We have only seen the 
French book momentarily, and of course we may be wrong ; but we fancy that 
a great deal of new matter meets the eye in this part of the work, and we 
heartily thank Dr. Duncan for the trouble he has taken ; for, if we do not 
* “ The Transformation, or Metamorphoses of Insects ” ( Insecta Myria- 
poda , Arachnida , Crustacea). Being an Adaptation, for English Readers, of 
M. Emile Blanchard’s “ Metamorphoses, moeurs et instincts des Insectes,” and 
a Compilation from the Works of Newport, Charles Darwin, Spence Bate, 
Fritz Muller, Packard, Lubbock, Stainton, and others. By P. Martin 
Duncan, F.R.S., Professor of Geology in King’s College, London. London : 
Cassell, Petter, & Co. 1871. 
