REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
387 
This work, instead of being published uniform with the other treatises of the 
series, is merely a fresh impression of the types as set up for the Encyclopaedia* 
obviously for the convenience of inserting the quarto plates. The higher groups 
and the genera are amply characterized, and a few of “ the more interesting 
species” of each genus are described.. The book is written in a popular and 
attractive manner, and is well calculated to impart a sound elementary knowledge 
of the subject treated. The plates are very superior to the common run, being 
evidently executed with a view to scientific accuracy, and being generally devoid 
of that stiff formal expression so common in engravings of a similar kind, where 
the originals might indeed be supposed to be alive, but aware that they were 
sitting for their pictures. We shall shortly have the pleasure of returning to Mr. 
Wilson as an author on another branch of Natural History. 
Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects. By J. 0. Westwood, 
F.L.S., &c. Part I. May, 1838. London: Longman and Co. 
When we consider the vast number of species of insects which have already 
been discovered, and the extent and complexity of the divisions and sub-divisions 
under which it has been found necessary to arrange them, we shall readily admit 
the importance of works written to facilitate the acquirement of a knowledge of 
classification. For this end, Roemer’s Genera Insectorum Linncei , et Fabricii , 
iconibus illustrata , Curtis’s British Entomology, Wood’s Illustrations of the 
Lirtnaean Genera of Insects , &c., have been published. But whilst there has 
been no scarcity of works illustrative of the genera, we have not at present any 
devoted more particularly to the orders and families. A good introduction to the 
Classification of Insects (which must of course include the characters, &c., of the 
higher divisions) has long been wanted. Mr. Westwood has determined to 
supply this desideratum, and perhaps there is no other British naturalist into 
whose hands we should as readily confide the execution of such a task. In a 
work which wall require numerous figures for the illustration of the characters 
upon which a system is based, Mr. Westwood’s long experience in the investiga¬ 
tion of the structure of insects, and his excellent capacity as a delineator, give 
him an advantage over others that cannot be appreciated lightly. The first Part 
has not disappointed our expectations. It opens with 44 observations upon insects 
in general,” in which the definitions proposed for this class of animals are discussed. 
Linnteus defined Insecta — the fifth class ofliis Systerna Naturae —as comprising 
those animals u with a simple heart, white blood, and jointed antennse.” These 
he divided into seven orders, the last of which, Aptera , contained the Spiders, 
Crabs, Scorpions, Centipedes, Wood-lice, &c. &c., having no other claim to be 
thus associated together than the negative one upon which he based the order; 
