* formed in every parish. Finding it impracticable to present a satisfactory general summary of the progress of Natural History throughout Europe, for the past year, we have given the best substitute for such a summary, an abridged translation of the Baron Cuvier's Report for France, p. 409. The great use of Natural History and Comparative Anatomy is to humanise and soften the heart. If boys were acquainted with the wonderful structure of insects, and of other animals low in the scale, they would not be found sticking pins into flies, or tormenting cats; nor, when men, would they treat those noble domestic animals, the horse and the ox, with cruelty. The girl who has learned to derive enjoyment from observing the operations and watching the metamorphoses of insects, who knows their history, and is conversant with their structure, habits, and curious economy, will mark these circumstances in animals higher in the scale; and, ascending to her own species, will learn also the elevation of her own nature. As she grows up to womanhood, she will feel more intensely the delicacy and dignity of the feminine character, and resist with more force the temptations which always beset innocence, amiability, and inexperience, both from without and from within. The mind rationally occupied with the study of nature, will no longer seek refuge from ennui in bad novels; and the same superior taste for information, and the same admiration of the wisdom of Nature, as displayed in her works, will lead to a more select choice of companions, male as well as female. To procure the advantages resulting from the knowledge of Natural History, at the easiest rate of labour, recourse must be had to scientific study, which is to the acquirement of knowledge what machinery is to the production of manufactures. To render this machinery available to every reader, and especially to young persons, without the aid of a teacher, is the principal object of the Magazine of Natural History; in conducting which we have only to assure our readers, that the most unremitting exertion on our part will be continued, in order to secure success, and to procure for the work the honourable reputation of having given an impulse to the mind of the country in matters of Natural Science. J. C. L. Bayswater, Oct. 25. 1829. *See "Parochial Institutions; or, Outline of a Plan for a National Education Establishment," &c., in the Gardener's Magazine for December. CONTENTS. An Account of Mr. Needham's original Dis- covery of the Action of the Pollen of Plants; with Observations on the supposed Existence On certain Effects produced by Fresh Water on - Some Account of the Life, Genius, and Per. ZOOLOGY. 435 On the Arrival and Retreat of the British Hi- rúndines, with a Table of Arrivals and De- partures, from 1800 to 1828. By the Rev. An Outline and Description of Centrotus Ben. nèti and Hardwickii. By the Rev. William The Natural History of Molluscous Animals. In a Series of Letters. By G. J. 22. 148 The Cuvierian, or Natural, System of Zoology. -Essay 3. The Characters of Vertebrated Animals, and their Division into Four Classes; Mammiferous Animals, Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes. Distinctive Characters of each Class. Observations on a preternatural Growth of the Incisor Teeth, occasionally observed in cer. tain of the Mammàlia rodéntia. By the Rev. On the Kath of the Ancient Hebrews, con- An Introductory View of the Linnean System of Plants. By Miss Kent, Authoress of Flora Doméstica, Sylvan Sketches, &c. On the Natural History of Vegetables. By On some Phenomena attending Sphæria fraxi- Some Account of a remarkable Spruce Fir Tree in the Woods at Braco Castle, Perthshire. By Mr. Archibald Gorrie, C.M. H.S. Notice respecting an Oak Tree struck by Light- |