THE interior economy of the hive is known intimately to every bee-keeper; with the anatomy of its makers, rulers, citizens, not one in a hundred is familiar. The mass of facts accumulated during two centuries of discovery lies for the most part embalmed in the Proceedings of Societies, locked up in costly monographs, untranslated from foreign languages: for the first time it is here presented to English readers, in a form at once exhaustive and concise, by the most accomplished of modern apiarians. Careful compilation from former writers, enriched with much matter that is wholly new, conscientious exclusion of theories unverified by experiment, accuracy of illustration secured by direct drawing from photo-micrographs or microscopical preparations, justify, we think, with the deductions inseparable from a first attempt, Mr. Cowan's claim to have produced “the most perfect work of its kind.” The Honey Bee: its Natural History, Anatomy, and Physiology. By T. W. Cowan, &c. Illustrated with Seventy-two Figures of 136 Illustrations. (London: Houlston and Sons, 1890.)