12 
NATURE NOTES. 
strengthened, the finances would be placed in a condition to 
enable the Society to take action where now it is compelled to 
remain inactive. Each new member becomes a centre from 
which may spring incalculable good to the objects we have at 
heart. 
The evils we are combating are so great and widely spread, 
that they can only be lessened by determined and continuous 
efforts ; and the Council make a special appeal both to Branches 
and individual members to work with increased energy during 
the coming year. 
PERIPATUS AND OTHERS.- 
The first issued volume of the Cambridge Natural History, treating of the 
Mollusca and Brachiopods, has been followed at no long interval by a second, 
which deals with the animals mentioned in the title cited below. 
It may be presumed that all readers of Nature Notes know what an insect 
is. Most are also probably aware that the creatures termed Myriapods are those 
that in ordinary parlance are called centipedes and millipedes, but we venture to 
think that many of those who read the title of the volume now under notice will 
at once exclaim : “But what is Peripalus?” And unfortunately this question, 
like so many others, is much more easily asked than answered : for Peripatus is 
Peripatus and nothing else. It has no vernacular name by which it may be 
known, and it possesses the high distinction of occupying an entire class all to 
itself, with no near neighbours but the worms on one side and the centipedes on 
the other, both of these being at a very considerable distance. In appearance it 
is something like a cross between a caterpillar and a slug, and when it was first 
discovered in the West Indies in 1826, the naturalist who described and figured 
it took it for a peculiar kind of legged mollusc. It is, however, as Prof. 
Mosely pointed out, a primitive but most important member of the .\rthropoda, 
the chief interest in its structure lying in the fact that in some respects it serves 
to bridge over the interval that separates the centipede-like arthropods from the 
higher worms. 
The centipedes and millipedes, which form the second chapter of the volume, 
are also sometimes known in this country as “forty legs” and “wire-worms.” 
But although Mr. Sinclair has grouped the two together in one class, they in 
reality form two very distinct divisions of this rank, and are not by any means 
nearly allied. The centipedes are soft, flattish, carnivorous, mostly very active 
animals, which have a single pair of legs upon each segment of the body and a 
pair of powerful poison jaws behind the head. The millipedes, on the contrary, 
are sluggish vegetarians, with hard cylindrical bodies and two pairs of legs to 
most of the segments. They have, moreover, no poison jaws, but are protected 
from enemies by the secretion of a repulsive odour. They are said to be very 
destruptive to farmers on account of their propensity for browsing upon the tender 
shoots of the growing crops. 
The rest of the volume and by far its greater part, is devoted to some of the 
insects, but it is impossible to do more than just IjiieHy allude to the orders that 
are described, .\fter some introductory chapters on structure, development and 
general habits, Mr. Sharpe proceeds to deal with the orders. First comes the 
Aptera, containing such obscure insects as spring-tails and silver-fish. These are 
followed by the Orlhopltra, which from many points of view is the most interesl- 
* The Camiiridge Naturae History: Peripalus, by Adam Sedgwick; 
Myriapods, by F. G. Sinclair; Insects, part i, by David .Sharp. (London: 
Macmillan, 8vo, pp. 584; 371 cuts, coloured map.) Trice 17s. net. 
