i88a.] 
Analyses of Books . 
421 
understand ! Glossaries may lessen, but do not remove, the 
difficulty. The more the student is compelled to think of and 
puzzle himself with the words he meets with in his text-books, 
and the more he must load his memory with their meanings, the 
more are his time and attention necessarily withdrawn from 
things. Hence, whilst entertaining a high respeCt for Professor 
Comstock as an able and learned entomologist, we can only look 
upon his present pamphlet with profound regret. To us it seems 
an attempt to lay needless difficulties in the way of the student. 
What conceivable gain, e.g., can arise from the substitution of 
the terms “ eClal” and “ ental” for outside and inside ? What 
brevity, simplicity, exactitude, or significance is won by using 
“ dextral and sinistral ” instead of right and left ? 
The second part of this little work is of a very different cha- 
racter, and if translated into plain English would be an excellent 
guide to practical work in Entomology. 
The Micrographic Dictionary . A Guide to the Examination and 
Investigation of the Structure and Nature of Microscopic 
Objects. By J. W. Griffith, M.D., &c., and Arthur 
Henfrey, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. Fourth Edition. Edited by 
J. W. Griffith, M.D., &c., assisted by' the Rev. M. J. 
Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S., and T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., 
F.G.S. London; John Van Voorst. Parts I. to VII. 
1881. 
The last edition of this well-known work was issued in 1870. 
The numerous branches of Science of which this very compre- 
hensive book treats have certainly not stood still during the past 
eleven years. The microscope itself has been greatly improved, 
in spite of the opinion expressed some years ago that it had 
nearly approached all that was theoretically practicable. At the 
date of the last edition the water immersion system of construc- 
tion of the objective had not long been known, and only some of 
the advantages to be gained by its use realised ; at the present 
time the homogeneous immersion glasses suggested by Mr. J. 
W. Stephenson, and their formula worked out by Prof. Abbe, 
have done that which was but a short time ago declared to be 
impossible. With the improvement of the instrument, those 
branches of Science dependent upon it for the means of investi 
gation have advanced with proportional rapidity. It is indeed 
no light task which the editors have undertaken, to revise and 
add to the edition of 1870. 
So far as can be seen, in the few parts at present published, 
the work appears to be well done. The all-important subject of 
