30 
STATE OF ZOOLOGY 
he should only give us a second and improved edition of that 
truly excellent work, which he had the honour to commence, 
in conjunction with the great master Cuvier, and which he 
has now for some years continued alone. This work has now 
passed the fifteenth volume, and notwithstanding some slight 
defects, is undeniably beautiful and useful in every way, 
although the author finds himself tied down to the somewhat 
antiquated system of the before mentioned master. All the 
other writings of Valenciennes are equally to be praised, and 
especially the ichthyologic portion of the distinguished work 
of MM. Webb and Berthollet, on the Canary Islands. To 
whom shall a chair be given if not to him 1 It were better 
for science had he been elected to the Chair of Ichthyology 
rather than of Malacology, a subject which he ever strives, and 
successfully, to overtake. The cultivators of science are them- 
selves subject to malignant stars, and no one experienced 
them more than that estimable friend of Cuvier and Humboldt. 
Milne Edwards, the last fortunate rival of Valenciennes in 
the election to the Institute, is ever the chief zoological con- 
tributor to the Annales des Sciences Naturelles. He has 
published Elemens de Zoologie, but the lower animals seem 
more particularly to attract his studious inquiries. 
M. A. H’Orbigny continues the fine zoological illustrations 
to his Voyage dans V Amerique Meridionale^ in which he has 
announced so many new species. His not less able brother, 
Avitli other learned coadjutors, has undertaken a new Diction- 
naive d'Histoire Naturelle, the two first volumes of which 
excite favourable hopes. I now lay before you some plates of 
this work, accurately coloured, by which you may judge of their 
inimitable high finish, although the Avork is of a popular nature 
and moderate price. There has also been published at Paris, 
a Supplement, rendered necessary by the lapse of time, to the 
great Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles, which the articles 
by BlaiiiAulle suffice to render precious. The Annales du 
Museum d'Histoire Naturelle are published from time to 
time, and are not uiiAvorthy of the great collection of memoirs 
to which they form a sequel. The Revue Zoologique de la 
SociHe Cuvierienne, edited by Guerin, has noAV acquired an 
30 
