THE 
NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW. 
Geodephaga Britannica. A Monograph of the Carniverous Ground 
Beetles, Indigenous to the British Isles, By John Frederic Dawson, 
LL.B. Coloured Plates. London: John Van Voorst. 1854. Price 
12s. 6d. 
This book may be reckoned as one of the many proofs of the advance of 
entomological science in these days. In the good old times, when ento¬ 
mology was considered a school of cruelty, or, at best, a sport for babes in 
understanding, the few men who had courage to pursue the study, 
and endeavour to reduce it to a system, had so much more on their hands 
than they could possibly manage, that it is no wonder that their early 
attempts were sometimes crude, or, at any rate, too sketchy and imperfect 
to stand the test of time and deeper investigation unchanged. The real 
wonder is that they did as much as they did, and as well; that they did 
no more and no better was the fault, not of themselves, but of those who, 
by spending their time in ridiculing instead of helping them, left them to 
struggle unaided through a work far too vast and complicated to be satis¬ 
factorily performed by a few. Times are now happily changed, and men 
are not only no longer ashamed of being entomologists, but think it worth 
while to devote to it their time, trouble, and intellect; and do not think it 
beneath them to investigate minutely one order, or even—as in the pre¬ 
sent case—one group of insects, instead of endeavouring to grasp every¬ 
thing at once. Something may be lost in sound, but the real interests of 
science are immeasurably the better for it. Therefore, such books as this, 
if carefully and ably written—and this is undoubtedly so—deserve a cordial 
welcome from the true lovers of entomology as a science, not as a pastime. 
If too great simplicity were the prominent failing in some of the earlier 
systems of classification, Mr. Dawson is of opinion that, of late, the opposite 
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