study of Natural History: but the most cogent and sublime inducements to its prosecution are rather obscurely noticed; while disproportionate stress is laid on a subordinate motive, deduced from the blunders into which celebrated poets and others have been betrayed by their neglect of this department of science. We admit an obvious propriety in stating such arguments, and in allowing them their due weight: but we do not regard it as the part of a skilful pleader to give them a preference over more convincing and important reasoning.

Under the head of methodical arrangement, we could have desired a more decided leaning to the ascending series; both because it better coincides with our ideas of taste, and because it is attended with more ease and gratification to the student than the inverse procedure.

Having sketched the great outlines of the Linnéan classification, Dr. Shaw very properly hints at the Cuvierian division of Vertebrated and Invertebrated animals: but some of the extraordinary phænomena in the history of the Polypi are here misplaced, especially as they are re-stated in the sequel.

Lectures second, third, and fourth, present a very rapid view of the Mammiferous animals; including the Pinnated and Cetaceous families, in the form of distinct divisions annexed to the other orders.-In the whole of this extensive range, we observe little that needs detain us. Yet, in justice to the Doctor's candour, we shall make room for the ensuing paragraph :

A few years ago a very remarkable animal was brought into this country from the interior parts of Bengal, which by Mr. Pennant and others was referred to the present genus, and considered as a species of Sloth. Its general appearance however was so much allied to that of a Bear, that it was natural enough, at first sight, to suppose it to belong to the genus Ursus. It was in company with Mr. Pennant that 1 first examined it with accuracy, and could not but agree with him in opinion that it should be regarded as a species of Sloth, from the appearance of the teeth. But the age of the animal was not ascertained, and it was not clear that it had gained the legi timate number of its teeth. It was described by myself under the name of Bradypus ursinus, or the Ursine Sloth, and has been extremely well figured by an ingenious artist, whose representation has been repeated in different works. The animal was about the size of a Bear, and of a black colour, with very long shaggy hair; a lengthened, naked, and flexible snout; five excessively strong, curved claws on the fore-feet, and five much smaller, and of a rounder shape, on the hind feet; the tail and ears very short. Its motions were not peculiarly languid, as in the Sloths, but moderately lively: its manners were gentle, and it fed on vegetable substances and milk. I forbear any longer description of the animal, and must refer those who wish for more particular information, to the description given in the Na turalist's Miscellany, and in the last Edition of Mr. Pennant's Quadru

peds;

peds; but I have now to observe that in consequence of information received on this subject from an ingenious naturalist lately arrived from India, and who has had opportunities of examining the animal in its native regions, it ought really to be referred to the genus Ursus or Bear, and may therefore not improperly be named Ursus Bengalensis or the Bengal Bear.'

The design and complexion of these pages had induced us to expect much pleasing detail in the illustration of the canine species: but how were we mortified to find the dogtribe only technically defined by generic characters, and then dismissed with the important remark that the visage is of a lengthened shape!

The Cetaceous Mammalia, though not allowed to tumble about in the free expanse of their native element, afford us no ordinary entertainment, as they pass in review before us :

With respect to the anatomy of the Whale, I shall content myself with observing, that on so colossal a scale of magnitude does nature act in these animals, that the vertebræ or joints of the back bone are of the size of moderate barrels; the ribs and jaw-bones so large as to be occasionally used to form the sides of tall, arched gateways; the heart too large to be contained in a very wide tub; the aorta or principal artery measures about a foot in diameter, and it is computed that the quantity of blood thrown into it at every pulsation of the heart, is not less than from ten to fifteen gallons

The strength of the great Northern Whale is prodigious; it is able to shatter a strong canoe in pieces with a single stroke of its tail: it swims, according to the computation of Cepede, at the rate of about thirty-three feet in a second, and it is further computed that in the space of about forty-seven days, it might circumnavigate the globe in the direction of the equator, even allowing it to rest by night during the whole time. It is supposed to be an extremely long-lived animal. The female produces, in general, but one young at a birth, which usually measures something more than twenty feet in length; and she has the reputation of being very tenderly attached to her offspring.'

The Physeter Macrocephalus, or great Spermaceti Whale, is not greatly inferior in size to the Great Whalebone Whale or Mysti. cete, and is of a shape not less uncouth; the head being of so vast a size as at least to equal a third of the length of the whole animal. It is from this Whale, as well as from some others of this genus, that the well-known substance popularly known by the name of Spermaceti is obtained. This substance, which in the living arimal is a fiquid vil, is contained in a vast cellular cavity within the head; when exposed to the effect of cold air, it concretes into a solid form: it exists in other parts of the animal, as well as in the head, and may be gained from the blubber or common oil by proper preparation in a smaller proportion also it is found to exist in the blubber of all the rest of the Whale tribe, and even in the oil of the generality of marine animals.

:

Another remarkable production of this and other species of the Physeter tribe, is known by the name of Ambergris, and has long continued

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continued its reputation as an agreeable perfume. Ambergris is an opake whitish, greyish, or yellowish substance, so light as to swim, not only in water, but even in spirit of wine. Its real origin was formerly much disputed, but it is now ascertained to be a product from the Whales of this tribe, and it will perhaps excite some surprise in those who may not be informed of its real nature, to be told that it is no other than part of the natural contents of the animals' intestines, hardened by the effect of some disease, into a compact or unusually solid state. An idea has been entertained, and perhaps it is not an improbable one, that Ambergris owes it odour to the flesh of a particular species of Cuttle Fish, which has naturally a musky smell, and on which these Whales are known particularly to feed. In the larger pieces of Ambergris, the horny beaks of these Cuttle Fish are generally found imbedded.

In the two next Lectures, which complete the first volume, we are called to a survey of the feathered tribes: but here Dr. S. exhibits a very abridged and inadequate view of ornithology. We know not on what principle of partition the history of birds should occupy less space than that of quadrupeds, since their kinds are more multiplied, and their manners at least equally attractive; nor why it should be treated at no greater length than that of the molluscous animals, which is still. obscure, and belongs to a much lower station in the Zoological scale.

The Linnéan amphibia compose the subject of the seventh Lecture. Before he particularizes the different kinds of Testudo, Dr. Shaw takes occasion to remark that in no branch of Natural History have more errors prevailed, than in the attempts of the most respectable systematists to discriminate the species by invariable marks. Those which were laid down by Linné, and his editor Gmelin, have, been found to be entirely insufficient for the purposes of accurate distinction. The Count de la Cépède has by no means removed the general ambiguity; and Schoeff, a German Zoologist of considerable eminence, has exposed the fallacy of long established criteria assumed from the claws; since some specimens of the common green Turtle will be found with only a single claw on each foot, others with two, or even three, and others with two on the fore-feet, and one on the hind. The same diversity is occasionally observable in the feet of some of the land Tortoises, and particularly in those of the Greek, or common species.

Dr. Shaw's sketch of the serpentine race is, avowedly, very short,' and in fact limited to eight pages. Yet our readers will, perhaps, admit that this is no unfair proportion of consideration, since the fishes are dispatched in the eighth, and the insects in the ninth Lecture. The preliminary ob

servations

servations on both are at once comprehensive, and expressed with Dr. Shaw's appropriate elegance and neatness.-Though the Halsydrus be still very imperfectly known, the recent notices of portions of its remains might have been introduced with propriety, immediately after the sharks.

On the much controverted question concerning the circulation of the blood in insects, we have these sensible observations:

It has been a matter of doubt among naturalists, and particularly those of the French School, whether insects can properly be said to have a circulation of the blood; and whether they have any organ that can properly be called a heart. The celebrated Cuvier seems to suppose that they have not. It is acknowledged indeed that the animals of the Crab and Lobster tribe, the Monoculi, and others of that particular cast, have a genuine circulation; but these animals should, according to some Zoologists, be separated from insects, and form a distinct division in the animal kingdom. Nay, Monsieur Lamarck is willing to exclude even the Spider tribe from the class of insects, because in these animals the heart and circulation of the blood are distinctly visible.

The organ which the famous Italian anatomist Malpighi supposed to constitute the heart, or rather a kind of chain of hearts, in the Silkworm, has been since proved to be a vessel of a different nature, the use of which does not appear to be fully understood; but no ramifications of blood-vessels proceed from it.

;

It seems to have escaped the attention of those who are not willing to allow a circulation of the blood in insects, that, though it may not be perceptible in the major part, yet it certainly appears to take place in some which are allowed on all hands to be genuine insects and particularly in the genus Cimex or Bug. I shall here give a quotation on this subject from an author, who, though he cannot be supposed to have deeply investigated the anatomy of insects, was yet an excellent general observer, and who detailed with great plainness and accuracy his own observations, viz. Mr. Henry Baker, the celebrated microscopic observer. In speaking of the common Bug or Cimex lectularius, Mr. Baker says: "In the legs of these insects, when very small, the current of the blood is remarkably visible, together with an extraordinary vibration of the vessels, which I have never observed in any other creature; and though one of these animals has been confined between two glasses for many weeks together, so as not to be incapable of stirring, and has at times appeared dead, yet a little warmth, properly applied, would renew the motion of the bowels, and the circulation of the blood as briskly as ever." Mr. Baker also observes that the circulation of the blood may be perceived in the wings of Grashoppers, and that the globules of the blood in those animals are of a green colour.'

The naked and testaceous Mollusca are respectively considered in the tenth and eleventh Lectures. Without specifying each genus of the former description, the author is

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contented

contented to select, as examples, such as he conceives to be most important or most curious. Here Limax, or the slug, figures in the fore-ground; not only as a conspicuous genus, but as the pattern or model of the inhabitants of most of the univalve or spiral shells.

Pyroroma, a genus of marine Mollusca, recently instituted by the French naturalists, is thus characterized :

This animal for there is only one species yet discovered) is of a lengthened and tubular form, open at one extremity, and closed at the other: the body is scattered over with numerous soft papille or tubercles, and there is no appearance of any regular viscera, or internal organs, but the whole presents a continued vacuity. The colour of this curious animal, when at rest, is a pale greenish blue; but, when in motion, which is performed by the alternate contraction and dilatation of the body, the whole appears in the highest degree of phosphoric lustre, passing through all the colours of a bar of red-hot iron, till at length it becomes of what is termed a white-heat ; after which it again passes into the colour of red-hot iron, and from that gradually declines into its original greenish hue. The length of this animal is that of several inches, and its diameter about a fourth or fifth of its length. It is a native of some particular parts of the Atlantic ocean, where it is seen in great multitudes, and irradiates the waves with its fiery brilliancy. Linnæus would perhaps have been inclined to have made it a species of Holothuria.'

We would not willingly suppress the remarks which accompany the description of the Eight-armed Cuttle-fish:

Mr. Pennant, in the fourth volume of his British Zoology, speaking of the Eight-armed Cuttle, te'ls us, he has been well assured from persons worthy of credit, that in the Indian seas this species has been found of such a size as to measure two fathoms in breadth across the central part, while each arm has measured nine fathoms in length; and that the natives of the Indian isles, when sailing in their canoes, always take care to be provided with hatchets, in order to cut off immediately the arms of such of those animals as happen to fling them over the sides of the canoe, lest they should pull it under water and sink it. This has been considered as a piece of credulity in Mr Pennant, unworthy of a sober naturalist. It is, certain however that a great variety of apparently authentic evidences seem to confirm the reality of this account. The ancients, it is evident, acknowledged the existence of animals of the Cuttle-Fish tribe of a most enormous size; witness the account given by Pliny and others of the large Polypus as he terms it, which used to rob the repositories of salt fish on the coasts of Carteia, and which, according to his description, had a head of the size of a cask that would hold fifteen amphoræ ; arms measuring thirty feet in length, of such a diameter that a man could hardly clasp one of them, and beset with suckers or fasteners of the size of large basins that would hold four or five gallons apiece The existence in short of some enormously large species of the Cuttle-Fish tribe in the Indian and northern seas