LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 
49 
phenomena of life presented by organic matter as a whole, including the functions 
of the vegetable and animal kingdoms; and no one that can observe the con¬ 
nection between the functions of life in organic beings, can fail to recognise the 
importance of such a mode of treating the subject. The functions of organic life are 
first treated of under the various heads of Ingestion and Absorption of Aliment, 
Circulation, Formation of Tissues, Respiration, Exhalation, Secretion, Evolution 
of Light, Heat, and Electricity, and the Reproduction of Organised Beings. The 
functions of animal life are then discussed under their peculiar phenomena, 
Sensible Motion, and Sensation.. The volume concludes with a chapter on the 
evidences of design presented by the structure of organised beings.” The 
author here points out the necessity of the physiologist not resting satisfied with 
final causes. 
“ He must disregard,” he observes, “ for a time, as in physical philosophy, the 
immediate purposes of the adaptation which he witnesses; and must consider 
these adaptations as themselves but the results or ends of the general laws for 
which he should search. The observation of the facts upon which he establishes 
these laws may have been suggested, and the phenomena themselves brought to 
light, by the perception of this harmony and adaptation in individual cases; but 
instances in which it is apparently deficient may be as valuable to him, when 
considered in this point of view. What, for example, would have been the 
present state of vegetable morphology, which explains the metamorphoses of the 
organs composing the flower, if the philosophic botanist had adopted the final 
cause or function of the different parts as his guide in investigating the laws of 
their structure, instead of tracing that structure through all its regular and 
irregular forms, with a total disregard to their function ?*.**»** 
We are not to judge of the value of facts in Physiology by their immediate and 
obvious bearing upon the phenomena of vital action; for those which would 
seem to be of the most trifling consequence, if viewed in this light only, are often 
found, when properly applied, to possess an unexpected and momentous import.” 
From our remarks it will be seen that we consider this a work of no ordinary 
pretensions, and we strongly recommend it to all who are desirous of gaining a 
philosophical knowledge of Natural History.-E. L. 
LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 
Mr. Shuckard has lately published part i., with wood-cuts, of Elements of 
British, Entomology , containing a systematic description of all the genera, and a 
list of all the species of British insects, with their habits, structure, &c. 
vol. v.— NO. XXXIV. G 
