14 



HAIIDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



niueteen-tweutietlis of all our avian fauna, and as 

 each is figured in briglit colours (a trifle too bright, 

 perhaps), our readers may form some idea of the 

 pictorial wealth of this book. The eggs of each 

 species are also figured and naturally coloured, and 

 ■we must bestow a word of praise on the really 

 artistic manner with which the delicate tints, and 

 shades, and markings are all given. As each is of 

 the natural size, this part of the book cannot but be of 

 great value to tlie student. The plan of figuring both 

 birds and eggs is a good one. The letter-press is 

 clear, and the paper good, whilst the authors have 

 collected a good deal of sound information, and have 

 arranged it in a very distinct manner. By using 



Tig. IG. Moor Monkey. 



this book, the young ornithologist "will save much 

 time, and gain his end more speedily than from any 

 other similar work that we arc acquainted with. 



One cannot peruse Mr. Simmonds's book without 

 feeling how truly we are wasting our substance in 

 riotous living! Here is a work of above five 

 hundred pages devoted to showing how materials 

 may be utilized that we are in the habit of regarding 

 not only as utterly useless, but many of them as 

 deleterious. If " dirt is matter in t he wrong place," 

 then " waste" is profitable substances in the wrong 

 place. No man in Great Britain is better able to 

 deal with the important question of " Waste Pro- 

 ducts and Undeveloped Substances," than Mr. P. L. 



Simmonds ; no otiier writer lias devoted so much 

 time and attention, or has for so long been regarded 

 as an authority on these and kindred matters. If 

 we had to find any fault with this most interesting, 

 and what we regard as an important volume, it is 

 that the vast store of material is not arranged under 

 cliapters or sections. We feel that such an arrange- 

 ment would materially add to the value of the work. 

 In a great measure, however, this is atoned for by 

 a copious index. To the general as well as to the 

 scientific reader, to the statesman and manufacturer 

 especially, this book is invaluable. A word should 

 be said as to its literary style. It is easy and 

 attractive, and notwithstanding the overcrowding 

 of facts, interests the reader instead of wearying 

 him. 



Mr. Cash's handsome little volume is just the 

 book one would put into the hands of an unfledged 

 naturalist. We know none other better able to 

 speedily develop him. And to older readers', it 

 possesses many attractions, in setting before the 

 world the simple but earnest lives of humble workers 

 in the field of science. Here we learn how such 

 " hobbies " can sweeten the most arduous toil, can 

 render interesting th.e most monotonous of lives. 

 With some of tiic characters liere described, we 

 v.ere personally acquainted, and we can therefore 

 testify to the accuracy of the author's delineations 

 and observations. Some of these lives read like little 

 idylls. Shut out from the great world that roars out- 

 side them, we find them looking to Nature for in- 

 struction, and studying her great kingdom with never- 

 tiring zeal. The lives of such men as John Dewhurst, 

 George Caky, Samuel Gibson (who went by the 

 name of the "Scientific Blacksmith"), llichard 

 Buxton (the author of the " Manchester Flora,"— a 

 man who never earned a pound a week in his life !), 

 George Crozier, Elias Hall, the geologist, and others 

 of which this little book treats, read ambitious 

 worldlings a lesson as to the real enjoyments they 

 are constantly passirig over. Most of the characters 

 are Lancashire, for among the factory employes 

 there is developed a genuine love of nature, and 

 there may be found some of our best amateur bota- 

 nists and entomologists. The book is pleasantly and 

 earnestly written, and is a credit both to author and 

 publisher. 



To notice such books as this first volume of the 

 Telegraphic Journal is somewlint out of our usual 

 line. But it is with pleasure that we can mention it 

 as a most attractively got-up book, the subject- 

 matter as being various and important, and of a kind 

 that must place the readers of such a periodical, 

 a?i courant with all that is taking place in telegraphy 

 in every part of the world. 



" In a man, a nervous or sensory impulse has 

 been variously calculated to travel at 100, 200, or 

 300 feet a second."— i/«x%'i' '' Fhysiology" 



