racters of an animal, its distinction from vegetables and other natural bodies, and to explain the fundamental principles of zoology. This introduction may be regarded as furnishing a synoptical view of all the author's peculiar opinions on the origin and developement of living beings, which are illustrated more in detail in separate works. The first five volumes are written entirely by Lamarck, but he was assisted in the part relating to insects by M. Latreille. A portion of the sixth volume and the whole of the seventh, were drawn up by his daughter from his notes and papers, his want of sight preventing him from undertaking that labour himself; and that part of the sixth, which relates to the mytilacés, malliacés, pectinides, and ostracés, is written by M. Valenciennes. The first part was published in 1815, and the other parts appeared at intervals up to 1822, when the whole was completed. Besides a luminous and comprehensive account of the general history of the different groups and genera, the principal species are cited and briefly characterized, with their synonymes, reference to figures, and localities. The enumeration of species sometimes includes all the known kinds, and is particularly copious and instructive in relation to sponges and shell-bearing molluscæ. The genera are established with much discrimination, and judiciously characterized by obvious properties, such as form, proportion, nature of the surface, and structure. The synonymy is unravelled with great care, and the descriptions, though necessarily often
