52 
REVIEWS. 
though now for a little while separated by a temporal change. To the sur¬ 
vivor of the two we owe a very charming addition to the volume, in the shape 
of letters and recollections connected with the first conception and progress of 
this work, and the cordial friendship which, having originated and matured 
the undertaking, so long survived its completion and participated its suc¬ 
cess. The chapters supplied by Mr. Spence formed, indeed, the cream and 
essence of Freeman’s Life of Kirby, and we cannot suppress a regret that 
the memoir of the patriarch had not emanated wholly from a spirit so con¬ 
genial. We could refer even to an incidental sketch by a passing visitor, 
but one well able to appreciate the subjects of his vigorous pen, that renders 
more pleasingly and, we think, more justly, the traits of Kirby, the Chris¬ 
tian philosopher and minister of the Gospel, than the full-length portrait 
of the rector of Barham, discoloured in part by the jaundiced temperament 
of his biographer. 
A Re-arrangement of the Nomenclature and Synonymy of those 
species of British Coleoptera which are comprised under the 
sections Geodephaga, Hydradephaga, and part of Philhydrida ; 
Being the first portion of a General British Catalogue. By J- F. Daw¬ 
son, LL.B., and Hamlet Clark, M.A. London. 1856. 
Since Curtis’ Guide and Stephens’ Nomenclature have been out of print, 
the want of some complete list of British insects, for labelling collections, 
and for reference in correspondence, has been often complained of, and still 
oftener felt. The number of species added subsequently, as well as the 
approximation made to a better agreement between British and Continental 
Entomologists, as to the nomenclature, in certain families, seem to demand 
a revision of the whole. But as this is a task for which scarcely any 
individual among us, perhaps, possesses the means and the knowledge requi¬ 
site, we have to hope for that result only from the gradual and separate 
elaboration of particular orders and families. Of all the orders, the Lepi- 
doptera have been most attended to of late, under this point of view. We 
are glad to see a commencement made with the Coleoptera also, even by such 
fragmentary lists as this one, derived from Dawson’s Geodephaga Britan- 
nica and the Rev. Hamlet Clark’s Revision of the British Water Beetles, in 
the later numbers of the Zoologist. 
A comparison of this catalogue (which fills ten three-column pages) 
with the older lists serves to show, in a comprehensive form, how much 
progress has been made, as regards these families, in reducing spurious 
species, and settling the nomenclature on fixed principles of chronological 
precedency and scientific propriety. Mr. Dawson, in particular, has been 
