equally accurate and excellent. Of the merits of the descriptive portion of the work, the following extracts, in the selection of which we have been guided by the elegance or notoriety of the Caterpillars which constitute their subjects, will enable the reader to judge for himself. They belong to the 1st Plate of the Sphingides, and the 1st of the "PseudoBombycines" of the work.

"DEILEPHILA EUPHORBIÆ."

"This Caterpillar is very beautiful. The ground-colour is black, with yellow points very thickly set. Upon each side, are observed two longitudinal rows of round spots, sometimes reddish, sometimes yellow or white. There is a longitudinal red streak on the back; and a similar one on each side above the legs; but the latter is frequently intersected with yellow. The head, the last ring (of the body), and the base of the horn, are deep-red; as are also, the legs. The horn is scabrous, curved posteriorly, and black at the extremity. In early age, the longitudinal lines are yellow."

"The Chrysalis is of a greyish-brown colour, with the articulations more bright, and the stigmata blackish."

"This Caterpillar is rather common. It feeds upon several species of Euphorbia or Spurge; but prefers the E. gerardiana, cyparissias, esula, and exigua. At the sea-side, it is frequently found upon E. paralias. It is very voracious, and grows rapidly. Sandy plains, the borders of roads and paths, and all situations in which the Euphorbia are common, constitute its favorite habitation. It is first found about the close of June: its metamorphosis takes place at the end of July; and the perfect insect appears about August or September, in the South, and sometimes even in the vicinity of Paris, if the weather be favorable. Hence caterpillars are found in the months of September and October. The individuals, which pass the winter in the chrysalid state, come out in June of the ensuing year. It sometimes happens that the chrysalid condition is prolonged for two years."

The species to which this splendid chrysalis belongs, is the Sphinx Euphorbia, of Linnæus; and Sphinx du tithymale, of Godart. An exquisite drawing of the caterpillar may be seen in the third plate of the first volume of Curtis' British Entomology; but no detailed description* of the animal is given by that profound and accomplished naturalist. The deficiency is, however, supplied, with tolerable correctness, at page 125 of Stephens' valuable Illustrations, Haustellata, vol. i.

"DICRANURA VINULA."

"Like all the Caterpillars of the genus Dicranura, the present is rendered very remarkable by two fistulous tails, from which, at the will of the animal, two highly flexible tentacula are protruded. These tentacula, we may add, are of a crimson colour, and have, when exerted, an incessant writhing or vibratory motion."

"In early age, the body is everywhere of a blackish colour; but, after the first change of skin, it becomes apple-green, and sometimes whitish-green with a few remotely scattered black points. From the third ring, which is slightly prominent, the back exhibits a kind of lozenge-shaped mantle, which is prolonged to the origin of the tails, and descends rather low upon the sides, yet always at a certain distance from the membranous legs. This mantle is almost invariably connected by its anterior extremity, with a triangular spot of the same colour. The head is brownblack; and retractile, at the will of the animal, within the first ring which exhibits a square form, and deep-crimson colour. It is, moreover, marked with two black spots. The tail is intersected with whitish and black; and embraces another small forked tail completely black. Frequently at the base of the second pair of membranous legs, there exists a purple lunule, marked with yellow, above."

* At least in the first edition of his invaluable work. A second edition of the letter-press, descriptive of the species, was commenced a few years ago; but unfortunately, did not meet with sufficient encouragement to justify its continuance. This is much to be lamented; as accurate descriptions of the various species of the genera of insects, so admirably illustrated by Mr. Curtis, were alone wanting to render the British Entomology as perfect in its kind, as it is correct and beautiful in execution.

"This caterpillar is found, from June to the beginning of September, upon the different species of the poplar, and willow genus. On attainment of the full size, it spins an exceedingly hard and gummy case, covered with minute chips, or morsels of lichen, and strongly adherent to the body upon which it is fixed."

"The chrysalis is of a shortened conico-cylindrical figure, and blackish-brown colour. The perfect insect is disclosed from the middle of April to the end of May."

The very common Lepidopter, produced by this extraordinary caterpillar, is the Bombyx vinula, of Linnæus and Godart; Harpya vinula, of Ochsenheimer; la Queue fourchue, of Ernst; Cerura vinula, of Curtis and of Stephens; and Puss-moth, of vulgar entomologists. The reader may compare the preceding description of the French naturalists, with that appended to plate LXXXV, in the 3rd volume of Donovan's pleasing work. Professor Rennie's sketch, exhibited at page 33 of his Conspectus of Butterflies, is very vague and unsatisfactory.

As the exquisite work, upon which we have long been feasting, with all the avidity and zest of the epicure of ancient Rome for his celebrated Cossus, is probably destined to fall under the notice of comparatively few readers of THE ANALYST," we have been strongly tempted to present another sketch, that of the Bombyx quercus, and its compact and beautiful cocoon,—from the Family of the "Bombycines." Prudence, however, warns us to desist. Caterpillars, although affording an admirable and most nutritious food to organs of intellectual digestion in a sound and vigorous state, will readily cloy the delicate and fastidious stomach. Our object is to stimulate, not pall, the appetite for knowledge ;-to produce craving and not satiety. Should the specimens, however, already given, excite, in the student of entomological science, any desire for further supply of the like substantial fare, we may, probably, be induced to present an occasional dish of European caterpillars, dressed up in our plain old English fashion; and rendered, mayhap, somewhat more grateful to the English palate, by the judicious admixture of a few spices of criticism, and a small sprinkling of the pure spirit of observation, with and upon the various articles destined for his repast.

To the description of each caterpillar are prefixed an extensive Synonymy; and copious references to the works of the various authors by whom the animal has been figured or described. The collection, moreover, will be ultimately enriched by "general considerations and anatomical details" on the subject of caterpillars. In these, the best mode of procuring, and rearing the different species, will be explained; and an outline of the generic characters, by which they may be distinguished and arranged, will be carefully traced. Finally, full directions will be given to the agriculturist, for the discrimination and destruction of noxious caterpillars. The execution of this important pledge will, we apprehend, be deferred till the work is drawing near the period of its completion. When that will be, " Man does not know."

P.

* Great diversity of opinion exists among authors of the present day as to the precise animal which formed this celebrated article of Roman luxury. By some, it is stated to have been the caterpillar of the goat-moth,-Phalana cossus, of Lin næus,-Cossus ligniperda, of modern entomologists. Others believe it to have been the larva of a beetle of the Lucanus or Cerambyx genus. From our own researches on this curious subject, we are led to infer that the wood-boring caterpillars and larvæ of several insects, now arranged in different orders and genera, were, by the ancients, confounded, and eaten, under the common designation of Cossus. The most satisfactory account which we have hitherto seen, is given under the articles, Calandre des Palmiers, and Capricorne, in Cloquet's Faune des Médecins, ou Histoire des Animaux et de leurs Produits, 8vo. Paris,-an interesting periodical, commenced thirteen years ago, and not yet completed.

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC.

ON THE COMBINATIONS OF OXYGEN, WITH THE NON-METALLIC COMBUSTIBLES.

The following is an analysis of the lecture on this subject, delivered at the Athenæum, on the 22nd of December, by W. Addison, Esq. of Great Malvern :

"In all the varied productions of Nature man may contemplate instances of the profoundest skill and wisdom, every object displaying a power and an intelligence superior to his own, and adequate to the production and maintenance of all he sees. Above him is a vast etherial expanse, traversed by a refulgent sun, and canopied with cloud or illumined by the moon, and studded with a thousand stars-beneath him is the earth on which he treads, with all its tribes of plants and animals, its rocks and water. A desire to obtain some knowledge of these objects is congenial to the intellectual character of man. Hence Natural Philosophy, which in its extended sense embraces every inquiry or investigation into the phenomena of Nature, whether Astronomy, Geology, Natural History, or Chemistry. In the study of Astronomy the imagination wanders through infinite realms of space, occupied by masses of matter in magnitude, and in the rapidity of their motions, beyond the feeble powers of our finite comprehension-yet all obedient to certain fixed laws, moving noiseless-in harmony-without confusion. The rapidity of the real movements of the planets, (measured by the scale of our experience,) exceeds conjecture; yet such is their boundless distance, and so wide the circles in which they range, that their apparent motion is hardly to be noticed. The foundations of Astronomy are laid in the highest departments of mathematical study, which few only can understand, yet the verification of the statements which these mathematical investigations evolve, comes home to every one, when we find the orbits of the earth, the moon, and all the planets pointed out with such certainty and precision that the particular station or place of either of them, in any period of time to come, may be foretold; and any partial or total obscuration of any one of them may be predicted, and all the circumstances which shall attend it be detailed as if describing an object of present observation. Such results as these shew the truth of astronomical reasoning-give the stamp of superiority to mathematical calculation-fix the high endowments of the mind of man, and indicate that the operations of the intellectual faculties can no more be estimated by the powers of his corporeal frame than the diameter of the earth can be measured by an outstretched arm."

From Astronomy Mr. Addison proceeded to similar and highly interesting general observations upon Geology and Natural History.

"But if the student of Nature," he observed, "passing by all these objects, is anxious to discover the materials employed in the several structures around him, then CHEMISTRY teaches him to unravel their complexity, exhibits the nature and properties of the elements composing them, and makes him acquainted with the laws which govern their combinations. The wonderful and sudden transformations with which this science is conversant, the violent activity often assumed by bodies usually considered as the most inert; and, above all, the insight it gives into the nature of innumerable operations daily carried on in the arts of civilized life, have contributed to render it the most popular, as it is one of the most useful, of the sciences."

"A solid body," said the lecturer, may be chemically regarded as a fabric more or less regularly constructed, in which the materials and the workmanship may be separately considered, although the latter may be broken up or destroyed, the former remain unchanged, though, perhaps, very differently arranged." Instances of this were adduced in the burning of wood, the solution of chrystallized salts, and the explosion of gunpowder-in all these cases, Mr. Addison

remarked, the workmanship, or the fabric, is destroyed, but the materials are neither lost, nor made away with. The latter instance, in particular, was noticed as being merely a change from the solid to the aeriform state. "It is the business of Chemistry," said Mr. A., "to investigate these and similar changes, and to inquire into all the circumstances which can influence them."

Many interesting observations were here made upon the imponderable agents Heat, Light, and Electricity, and Mr. Addison shewed that all simple elements might be arranged into two classes-the electro-positive and the electro-negative; from the former Mr. A. selected hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, and carbon, and from the latter oxygen-detailing the several properties peculiar to each, and giving a succinct account of the various compounds which they form by combination with each other. Water was shewn to be a compound of two invisible gases, oxygen and hydrogen; and a very beautiful experiment was exhibited, in which a small mass of platina by being merely suspended in a current of hydrogen gas, was rendered red-hot, remaining so as long as the stream of invisible matter impinged upon it. Mr. Addison explained that this effect was produced by the union of the hydrogen with the oxygen of the atmosphere, effected by the platina which was rendered red-hot thereby, the result being pure water, which was copiously deposited in pearly drops of dew upon a small glass receiver which Mr. Addison held for a short time over the glowing platina.

Sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) is a compound of sulphur and oxygen. Nitric acid (aquafortis) of nitrogen and oxygen. Ammonia (hartshorn) of hydrogen and nitrogen; the two last are colourless fluids, and formed by the union of two invisible gases, yet totally dissimilar in all their qualities. The combustion of sulphur in oxygen gas was shewn, and the beautiful blue or purple light emitted called forth the admiration of the audience.

"There is nothing which excites the wonder of the chemical student more than the tremendous powers which the particles of matter in certain modes of combination display; instances of it are afforded in the vapour and in the freezing of water; to the power evinced by the former the steam-engine owes all its usefulness; and the bursting of strong leaden pipes during severe frosts are familiar demonstrations of it in the latter. The vast power derived from the combustion of gunpowder is another sufficiently homely example. "There is a compound of silver," said Mr. Addison," which can hardly be handled without exploding; and another of mercury which explodes violently by a slight blow. The chloride of nitrogen is another hazardous compound, it is an oil-like fluid, decomposed by many combustibles, with powerful detonation: Dulong, who discovered it, lost an eye and the use of a finger before he was aware of its dangerous nature; and Sir H. Davy was wounded in the face by the effects arising from its sudden decomposition."

The various combinations of phosphorus and carbon were then briefly noticed, and the atomic theory, with the laws of definite combination and proportionate numbers popularly explained. This was followed by illustrations of the nature of combustion; and the brilliancy of flame was shewn to depend upon the large proportions of carbon carried up and burnt in the hydrogen which forms the body and figure of the flame, for instance, of a candle.

This interesting and instructive lecture was concluded by a brief history of the various theories which have at one period or another prevailed upon the subject of combustion-theories which have now all given way before the experimentally established doctrines of modern chemistry, beautifully developed by the researches of Hooke, Mayow, Cavendish, Lavoisier, &c:-and combustion is proved to consist in the union of the elements composing the combustible with the ponderable part of the oxygen of the air, the results, in all ordinary cases, being water and carbonic acid, which are dissipated in the atmosphere.

We cannot conclude this brief notice of Mr. Addison's lecture without giving our readers the following pertinent observations with which it closed :

:

"Whatever may have been the rapid strides of chemical discovery within the last century, more, much more, remains for future investigation. The farther we advance in any branch of the study of Natural Philosophy, the more its circle instead of closing on us, widens; when we reach some distant but seem

ingly fixed point where we thought to terminate a definite object of inquirythen the boundaries recede-fresh objects and novel contemplations pour in upon us on every side, multiplying and becoming more wonderful and more worthy our attention at every step. From these accumulating scenes the humble man (and true philosophy will make its votary humble) learns the little that he can, and in understanding that little, becomes not only better acquainted with himself, but gains a more correct and exalted knowledge of his Maker,while the vain who pride themselves in a fancied knowledge too often fail, not only in these, but in contemplating as they ought the coming scenes of futurity."

SCIENTIFIC LECTURES AT KIDDERMINSTER.

The Committee for conducting the affairs of the Kidderminster Public Library having long felt the want of a Scientific Institution in that populous and increasing town, to meet the general taste for really useful knowledge, at length determined to arrange a course of lectures on scientific and philosophical subjects, which should tend to give a new impetus to the feeling of the inhabitants, and gratify their numerous and highly respectable subscribers. On this being made known to Thomas Bradley, Esq. the respected High Bailiff of the borough, that gentleman with the utmost urbanity and politeness, granted the use of the Townhall for the purpose, and on Monday, the 12th of January, R. J. Streeten, Esq. M. D., of Worcester, opened the course with an introductory lecture. We regret to be compelled to abridge this admirable lecture so closely, that it can hardly be said to bear more than a slight sketch of the original discourse.

The lecturer, after shewing the manifold advantages to be derived from discussing and investigating the various topics of scientific inquiry, pointed out the important benefits resulting from the practical application of demonstrative knowledge considered with relation to our external comforts-but the most influential advantage connected with these pursuits, he observed, was that arising from the culture of the intellectual powers and consequent elevation of the mind. "If man, considered as a sentient being (he observed), is in any way raised above the beasts that perish, it is surely by the possession of those reasoning faculties those powers of observation, of reflection, of comparison, and of judg ment, which, whatever advantages he may derive from the peculiarities and perfection of his organization, still constitute the main distinctive marks between him and the whole race of animated beings. And if this be true, the cultivation of these faculties must necessarily raise him in the scale of being. One, then, of the prominent advantages of the cultivation of science, perhaps the most prominent, is the raising of our race from the debased condition in which we too often find some of its members delighting to revel-a condition which is only distinguished from that of the brute creation by the additional degradation arising from the prostitution of the powers of mind, as well as those of body, in the grovelling pursuits of the mere animal principle."

"To cultivate science for its own sake;—for the sake of the gratification and amusement we derive in the acquisition of the many curious facts which it unfolds, is a pure and delightful recreation;-to cultivate it for the good which may result to our fellow creatures, in the addition to their bodily comforts and the general improvement of their external circumstances, is an object worthy of the philanthropist; but to cultivate it as a means of advancing the moral and intellectual condition-of affording not only facts, whereupon to exercise the powers of the mind, but as a means of developing those powers, is a still higher aim. It is the aim, the object of every one who wishes his fellow-men to take that rank in the scale of being which the Almighty Creator has assigned to them. And yet this is not the loftiest flight, this is not the noblest end to which the investigation of the powers,