134 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
TIIE STUDY OF INSECTS.* 
XCE more, but not too frequently, we have to offer our thanks to Dr. A. S. 
Packard, for his admirable treatise on Insects. Parts VIII. IX. and X. 
have just reached us, and are what we might have anticipated from the ex- 
cellent character of the preceding portions of the work. They conclude the 
volume, and contain the index and preface, thus completing a treatise which 
only those who have seen can appreciate. The account of the Coleoptera 
almost terminates in Part VIII., and the Hemiptera are commenced in the 
Ninth Part, which also embraces a considerable portion of the description of 
the Orthoptera. Part X. contains the history of the Neuroptera , and also 
an account of the Arachnida , which Dr. Packard, for various developmental 
reasons which he distinctly states, regards as being unquestionable insects. 
In these Parts there are some very capital page-plates, and the woodcuts 
scattered through the text are both numerous and good. There are two 
points about this work which render it superior to any other treatise on 
Entomology in the English language. One of these is the fact, that the 
author gives a description, accompanied by figures, of the fossil types of each 
group. The second is a peculiarity to which we referred in former notices, 
but on which we cannot dwell too forcibly ; it is the fact that Dr. Packard 
goes, with the most thorough detail, into the development of each Order. 
Not only doe3 he give what he has seen in his own numerous observations, 
but he compiles his additional facts from the most eminent recent European 
and American authorities on Insect Embryology. Dr. Packard’s work is, 
we say it unhesitatingly, the best we have ever seen. 
MV1IS is a handsomely bound and abundantly illustrated, but we would add, 
- 4 - unprofitable little volume. The author, or authoress, has not been very 
careful to make herself acquainted with modem astronomy, and is, more- 
over, not very exact in her mode of expression, nor, we venture to think, well 
adapted to teaching the young. Clearly, the little work she has written is 
intended for young people, and yet we find the authoress telling her young 
readers about ellipses and parabolas, as though they were the commonest 
terms of ordinary nursery conversation. When we further state that, accord- 
ing to this work, the sun is inhabitable and derives its heat and light from 
some other source, and that the planets move round the sun nearly in 
circles, we have given some notion of its merits. We need say no more in its 
* “ A Guide to the Study of Insects, and a Treatise on those injurious 
and beneficial to Crops, for the use of Colleges, Farm Schools, and Agricul- 
turists,” by A. S. Packard, Junr., M.D. Salem, U.S. Parts VIII. IX. and X. 
+ “ What are the Stars? or a Treatise on Astronomy for the Young,” by 
M E. Storey Lyle. London : Sampson Low, 1870. 
WIIAT ARE TIIE STARS Pi- 
far our. 
