214 
EEYIEWS. 
» o » 
ENTOZOA* 
I T is customary among the members of a certain class of scientific men to 
underrate everything in the form of literary work produced in this 
country, and to over-estmiate the labours of continental savans, especially 
German ones. This is a state of things very much to be deplored, for it 
forces those who are in ignorance of the immense progress which science is 
making in England to imagine that we are behind our continental neighbours, 
and consequently, it in great measure prevents that support and approbation 
which, under more favourable conditions, the English people would certainly 
accord to scientific workers. When we say that this habit "prevails in a par- 
ticular section of the scientific world, we would have our readers to under- 
stand, that it is entirely confined to that section, and furthermore, that 
in our opinion, the tendency to give contmental work a higher rank than to 
that accomplished within our islands, arises from a combmation of three 
causes : want of information ; absence of patriotism ; and a desire to impress 
those who are unacquainted with continental writings, that the individuals 
who extol them are perfectly familiar with them. 
The best proofs we can offer of the absolute accuracy of our views upon 
these points, are the number and importance of the truly philosophic treatises 
which are annually published in Great Britain. Not a month passes by, but 
we find announcements of valuable original essays on scientific subjects^ 
about to be issued from the press. And where, we ask, upon the Continent, 
can the like be observed? In no branch of Science more than in that of 
Biology, do English essays equal, if not exceed, in number and useful- 
ness, those of foreign writers. There are, indeed, certain departments in 
which we find our home productions do not come quite up to those upon the 
other side of the English Channel ; but let it be also remarked that the gaps 
are being rapidly filled up, and that the impetus which natural science has 
of late years received, has stimulated our “ working men ” to the achievement 
of much that was wanted. Of late we have been reproached for that we were 
not keeping pace with foreign naturalists in regard to the investigation of 
entozoa ; and this censure seemed just, when it was borne in mind that the 
only treatise upon the subject in its entirety, which our language possessed, 
was a translation of a work written by Herr Kuchemeister, more than ten 
“ Entozoa : an Introduction to the Study of Helminthology, with re- 
ference more particularly to the internal Parasites of Man.” By T. Spencer 
C oBBOLD, M.I)., F.R.S., Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy at the Middlesex 
Hospital. London : Groombridge & Sons. 1864. 
