THE centipedes, millipeds, and their allies have hitherto not only been neglected by English naturalists, but practically by Continental workers, until the present generation. Our countryman, Newport, indeed (of whom it may be said with justice, that he touched nothing that he did not elucidate and adorn), has secured a permanent place in the annals of the class referred to; but it is to the brothers Koch, Meinert, and the Italians Fanzago and Fedrizzi, with the Bohemian naturalist Rosický, and some few other writers of less importance, that we have had to look in recent times for anything approaching serious, or continued work upon these creatures. In America, Wood and A. S. Packard, jun., have also done good service. The writer of the book now under notice (Professor of Natural Sciences in the Imperial Franz-Joseph Gymnasium at Vienna) has by this sterling treatise at once assumed a place in the front rank of authorities. We are not aware of any prior writings of his on the subject, beyond one or two of trifling local interest; but, from his five years' study and collection of material in various parts of Austria and in Western Hungary, it is clear that he is qualified for the task of monographing the species of his country, especially as he has examined nearly, all the exponents in Austrian collections and museums. As he says, no work on the Myriopoda of Europe, or even of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, exists; so it is to be hoped that the present instalment towards such a desideratum may be from time to time succeeded by others of more extended area.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/023167a0

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