I885-] 
Analyses of Books. 
231 
Mr. Wood forgets that there are different classes of insedt 
scavengers ; some which, like the burying beetles and the dung 
beetles, busy themselves with carrion and excrement alone, and 
never settle upon our food or our persons. Such are, to the 
best of present human knowledge, purely beneficial, especially 
when they bury the offal and the odure upon which they prey in 
the earth. But, sad to say, these best scavengers are not in- 
creasing, but seem to be rather on the wane. 
There are other insedts which after feasting on diseased or 
putrescent matter pass diredtly to our faces. Now what should 
we think of a community where scavengers, nightmen, and 
knackers were permitted, without any intervening washing or 
disinfection, to adt as provision merchants, dairymen, sick- 
nurses, or surgeons ? Malignant tumour is often caused by 
the bite of flies which have been feasting on the remains of 
diseased cattle. 
As an instance of the untrustworthiness of some of our insedt 
allies, the author might have mentioned the cannibal propensi- 
ties of at least one species of labybird ( Coccinella bipunctata). 
We have been often sorry to see with what eagerness the larva of 
this species preys upon the inadtive pupa, and this, too, in cases 
where there is an ample supply of ladybirds close at hand. 
Surely this propensity must greatly limit its efficiency as a 
destroyer of Aphides. The Tclephori, “ soldiers and sailors ” of 
popular nomenclature, which the author does not mention among 
our insedt allies, does not seem guilty of this blunder. 
The cannibalism of the ladybirds is an instance of the slight 
sensibility to pain which the author notices as characteristic of 
insedts. We have seen pupae which even in the very adt of 
being devoured appear supremely indifferent to the transaction. 
We may sum up our opinion of this book by pronouncing it 
interesting and valuable as far as fadts go, but of very question- 
able authority in matters of inference or of speculation. 
Louis Pasteur: His Life and Labours. By his Son-in-Law. 
Translated from the French by Lady Claud Hamilton. 
London : Longmans, Green, and Co. 
So far as scientific literature is concerned the volume before us 
may emphatically be called “ the book of the season.’ Biologists 
and chemists have of course followed the labours of the great 
French savant with an interest not the less sympathetic and 
appreciative because often crititical. But the outside world, 
educated and cultured, though not specialistic, stands sadly in 
need of better instruction concerning Louis Pasteur and his life- 
