tain that he has not been anticipated. The contrary course is very baneful to the best interests of the science, by creating confusion and doubt.

The second work upon our list, the Continuation of Schoenherr's "Synonymia Insectorum," contains the first two volumes of the "Genera et Species Curculionidum." This is one of the most valuable additions made to the science within the last few years. Its mode of publication, also, is exemplary, for within two years, two volumes, each containing two parts, have been produced. The notice we can here give of it is much less than is due to its merits, not the least of which is reducing to order the chaos which this tribe previously constituted. He has had the valuable assistance of Gyllenhal (one of the most philosophical describers,) in the description of the majority of the species. We think we perceive a defect in it, which is the omission of the size of the insects. Two more volumes will complete this tribe, when we hope to give it the extent of notice which is its due.

Our third work is by the veteran Klug, and which he modestly calls the "Jahrbücher der Insektenkunde," tom. 1: Annals of Entomology, vol. 1. It is a work intended to be annual, should it meet with encouragement, in which it surely cannot fail, if duly appreciated. It is undertaken in direct reference to the collection of the Royal Museum at Berlin. Its object is to indicate the described species contained therein, and to describe such as are new. It is divided into seven heads. The 1st contains a view of the Cicindeleta, to which numerous new species are added. The 2d, a first portion of the Carabici, extending as far as the genus Ozana, and a continuation is promised; in this part he adds, as a new genus, Schidonychus, between Ctenodactyla and Trichis; he places Mormolyce between Drypta and Agra; and describes another new genus after Ozana, which he calls Miscelus. The 3d part is a survey of the Histeroides, in the collection by Dr. Erichson, already advantageously known to the Entomological public by his " Genera Dyticeorum." The Histers are divided according to the retraction of the head within the thorax. He introduces as new genera, Plasius, Placodes, Cypturus, and Pachylopus. The 4th division is a supplement to the species of the genus Megalopus, contained in Klug's "Monographien." The 5th, a survey of the Tenthredinete of the collection, and, besides many new species, he adds three new genera, namely, Plagiocera after Cimbex, Blasticotoma after Hylotoma, and Cephalocera between the latter and Athalia: a continuation is promised. The 6th part contains a list of the hermaphrodite insects of the collection, and the 7th is the literature of the science, and is to consist of a short notice of the Entomological

works produced during the intervals of its publication. Two plates embellish the book, they are beautifully coloured and executed, and contain thirteen species of Coleoptera and six Tenthredenida. Among the former is the male of Platychile pallida, the insect which has caused so much discussion, and of which a figure was never before published, We wish this work every success, for it is, doubtless, a valuable addition to the literature of the science.

Our fourth work is Nees ab Esenbeck's "Hymenopterorum Ichneumonibus affinium Monographiæ," in 2 vols. 8vo. It contains descriptions of the genera and species of 755 parasitic European hymenoptera, embracing most of the Ichneumones minuti of Linneus. It is to be regretted that he was unacquainted with the labours of Walker and Halliday, who have done so much in illustration of these minute but beautiful and interesting tribes. But he has added in a supplement a few of the genera and species described by Westwood. It is a well executed work and will prove very useful, Hahn's work upon the Cimicidæ is neatly executed, and gives faithful figures of the insects as well as Fischer's Microlepedopterologie, which is intended to depict all the minute Lepidoptera. To Macquart's work on the Diptera we shall allude by and by. And the last upon our list, Spix and Martius' Delectus Auimalium Articulatorum is a splendid work, expensively got up, which will necessarily much abridge its range and utility, as it will be found but in few hands. It contains figures not always so well executed as a work of this class would justify us in expecting of all the insects caught by them in their travels in the Brazils. The species are described by Perty, who has established a number of new Genera,

The progress of Entomology appears thus to be rapidly advancing, and its prospects are equally cheering. The great want of a compendious system is extensively felt, and we may congratulate our neighbours in France upon the happy idea which has given birth to a work entitled "Suites à Buffon," but which, from its not being exclusively entomological, will be long in progress. It is a resumé of all that has been done upon the subject up to the period of publication, that is to say, if they will but adopt the principle of making themselves acquainted with all that any but their compatriots have been about, the neglect of which is a vice but too prevalent among them. The work alluded to will consist of a series of volumes upon the several orders, showing the families and genera into which they have been classed, and describing some of the most remarkable species. The names advertised as engaged in it speak strongly in its favour, for there

is De Jean for the Coleoptera, Audinet Serville for the Orthopotera, Neuroptera, and Hemiptera, Le Peletier de St. Farjeau for the Hymenoptera, Boisduval for the Lepidoptera, Macquart for the Diptera, and Walckenaer for the Arachnidæ, and Aptera; and that portion which we have seen, viz, the first volume of Macquart, which contains the Diptera as far as the inclusion of the family of Syrphidæ, is a favourable specimen of its mode of execution and of its cheapness, but we have no clue as to the number of volumes it is likely to comprise, but which we judge will be numerous. Among the Germans also, we find that a work is promised comprising a systematic description of Insects, Burmeister's "Handbuch der Entomologie," which, if continued equal in execution to its first volume, containing the " Allgemeine," or General Entomology, already before the public (and of which we observe an English translation to be in the course of publication) will satisfy our most earnest expectations; and this we may reasonably conclude will be the case, from the well-known character and profound science of its author. At home also, we are not idle, there is Mr. Swainson's forthcoming work in Lardner's Cyclopædia, wherein we shall have the full development of the peculiar views of a professed disciple of the M'Leayean school, and the system arranged according to its supposed circular and quinary affinities. All this promises fair; it shows that there are labourers in the field anxious and willing to meet the wants of the community, and not wholly absorbed in the endeavour to establish a reputation by the facile construction of insulated genera and the description of vagrant species, but who willingly and zealously apply their powers to the elucidation of a family, a tribe, or an order, or even undertake what requires a still greater grasp of mind-the illustration of the whole system, But we must yet observe upon a serious deficiency, that is, a perfectly elementary work, which shall be so pleasing and popular in its execution as to lead the uninitiated by agreeable steps sufficiently far into the maze of system, that by the time it quits them they shall have imbibed a strong taste for the further prosecution of the science, and sufficient thereof to enable them easily to follow the clue ready to guide them in its meanderings, and thus induce them to exercise their own abilities in the further acquirement of information, and its concomitant, the power of bestowing it.

We must not omit observing upon the importance of treating this science in the vernacular idiom. In fact, we feel convinced, that, had it been earlier taught through this medium, it would have made much greater progress, and this is one chief cause of its greater advance in France and Germany. The whole of La

treille's works, with the exception of his "Genera Crustaceorum," are in French. Olivier's two great works, his "Entomologie," and the entomological portion of the Encyclopedie Methodique, as well as the continuation of it by Latreille, St. Fargeau and Serville, are also in French, in which language De Jean's great work the "Species Generale," is likewise written. Klug's series of papers upon the Tenthredinidæ are in German, Meigen's European Diptera is also in German. The majority of national and local Faunæ are in the language of their country, but it is needless to multiply instances. It is to the circumstance of being thus cultivated that the advance of Botany may be chiefly attributed. The fewer difficulties placed in the way of the student the better; he has sufficient to overcome in his repugnance to the technical terms, without additional obstacles to thwart him.

The institution of the Entomological Society of France and its valuable contribution of papers in its "Annales," and that of the Entomological Society of London, which threatens to rival its elder sister, by the aspect it assumes, and the durable and solid foundation it has already become fixed upon-for at every monthly meeting it continues to add to its members, and the papers read at those meetings, prove that they are in earnest in their association for the real cultivation of the science-are favourable signs. Their impulses, and the respect beginning to be paid to the science by the British and Continental General Scientific Associations, must necessarily impart a greater degree of interest to it, and tend to disseminate its cultivation. As collateral with the prospects derivable to the science from the establishment of the London Entomological Society, we must take notice of its president's very liberal devotion of every Thursday, between the hours of eleven and four, to the reception of Entomologists at his museum, where the inspection and study of perhaps the most extensive collection of insects in the country is open to them. It is scarcely necessary to allude to the advantages offered to Entomologists, by this act of munificence, but it was perhaps to be expected from his known zeal, that its impulse would prompt him to so great a personal sacrifice for the benefit of his compatriots, when we reflect that no foreign work is published to which his extensive cabinet has not contributed important additions, and no native publication upon the subject produced, to which he is not a liberal subscriber. In conjunction with this we may mention the late president's generous and considerate offer of the use to members of the society, of any work in his magnificent entomological library, which is known to be the richest in the country; for every modern publication upon this science is to be

found in it; and where but very few even of the more obsolete and less serviceable are deficient. The use of books is as indispensable to this study as the investigation of insects, and we may consequently appreciate an offer, the advantages of which are so apparent, and this gentleman's well-known urbanity and courtesy, to which every one who has had the agreeable opportunity of personal intercourse, will bear spontaneous and ample testimony, will greatly facilitate the ready access of even its most modest and retiring member. The collections of the British Museum, both indigenous and exotic, each rich in all the orders, is open to the student, (which is not sufficiently extensively known,) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, under certain necessary restrictions, but without any difficulty of admittance, by merely asking for the curator of that department, Mr. Samouelle.

The metropolis is thus seen to possess a multiplicity of advantages, which necessarily increase upon the formation of entomological acquaintances, by opening innumerable private, native, and foreign collections to the inspection of the student.

The prospects of the science are therefore very gratifying, for, even although the majority of Entomologists are satisfied with the less ambitious title of collectors, there are others among them ready and willing to undertake the scientific application of their assiduity to more general uses.

ART. XI.-Leonardo da Vinci, von Hugo Graf von Gallenberg. (Life of Leonardo da Vinci, by Hugh Count Gallenberg.) 8vo. Leipzig, 1834.

WE often feel tempted to institute a comparison between the artists and literati of our own and those of past times, especially of that remarkable period which witnessed, or immediately followed, the revival of letters. When this is done, it is perhaps really good judges only that can appreciate the superiority in genius of the latter over the former-of a Raffaello and a Dante over- -but to be personal amongst the living is invidious. We leave, therefore, to the selection of the reader the modern painter and poet whose inferiority to Raffaello and Dante he chooses to commemorate. But the wonderful general superiority, in extent and variety of information, of the distinguished men of those earlier ages over their modern rivals, must be evident to the meanest capacity; and then their immense accumulation of knowledge appears the more marvellous, when we reflect that the times of which we speak boasted no royal or rail-roads to learning-no Hamiltonian modes of mastering the most difficult language in a couple of lessons-no reviews giving, in a few pages, the essence of several ponderous tomes-no compendious encyclopædias, in

VOL. XV. NO. XXIX.

P