BOOKS ON BUTTERFLIES

Dr. Arthur Lisney is Medical Officer of Health and the Principal School Medical Officer for the County of Dorset, but he is also well known as an entomologist and as a collector and keen student of the literature of the British lepidoptera. His book is the first attempt which has been made to give us a historical bibliography of the subject and will eventually be completed by a further volume covering the nineteenth century. His account gives us in chronological order a brief biography and detailed bibliographical description of the works of all those who have written of British lepidoptera, and the handsomely produced volume contains numerous portraits and facsimiles. His bibliographical method is based on that of Sir Geoffrey Keynes and is quite adequate for its purpose. One is impressed by the wide range of authors and the great rarity of some of the books described. Among the authors may be found such familiar names as Thomas Moffett, Christopher Merrett, Martin Lister, James Pettiver, John Lettsom, and George Shaw, all of whom were medical men, except Pettiver, who was an apothecary. All were also Fellows of the Royal Society, and one 'of them, Merrett, a Founder Fellow, an association which is now continued by the fact that a grant awarded by the Royal Society facilitated this timely publication. It is a book which will be immediately recognized as a valuable aid to the historian of the natural sciences and as an indispensable reference work for any library. F. N. L. POYNTER.