LITERARY NOTICES. 



751 



art of printing, which confers the greatest 

 benefit by multiplying the production of 

 thought, for it conveys an analogous advan- 

 tage by fixing and multiplying phenomena. 

 But it does more than this. A new science 

 has been called into being by photography, 

 the Chemistry of Light ; it has given new 

 conclusions respecting the operations of the 

 vibrating ether of light. It is true that 

 these services, rendered by photography to 

 art and science, are only appreciated by the 

 few. Men of science have in great measure 

 neirlected this branch, after the first enthu- 

 siasm excited by Daguerre's invention had 

 evaporated ; it is only cursorily that phys- 

 ical and chemical matters are treated on in 

 manuals of photography." 



The interest of Dr. Vogel's volume is 

 not at all confined to the treatment of that 

 side of the subject which is important to 

 practical operators. It will be equally ap- 

 preciated by the multitudes of people who 

 are buyers of photographs, and who not 

 only desire to understand the processes by 

 which they are produced, but to know what 

 are the excellences and defects of photo- 

 graphic productions, and how they are to 

 be intelligently criticised. We print a por- 

 tion of one of Dr. Vogel's chapters upon 

 this branch of the subject. 



Scientific London. By Bernard H. Beck- 

 er. New York : D. Appleton & Company, 

 1875, 340 pages. Price, $1.75. 



Some one has cleverly pointed out the 

 tendency of all Anglo-Saxons to organize 

 themselves into committees with a presi- 

 dent, a vice-president, two secretaries, and 

 a treasurer, before they can do any work, 

 great or small, or indeed before they feel 

 ready to deliberate in concert. We are 

 familar enough with this in America, and 

 we are ready enough to laugh at the ex- 

 treme to which it is carried ; but our Eng- 

 lish brothers, and peculiarly our English 

 scientific brothers, carry this even further 

 than we do. 



Witness the list of the meetings of the 

 scientific bodies of London which are an- 

 nounced in Nature weekly. It is worth 

 while to transcribe some of the most impor- 

 tant names : 



The Royal Society, the Royal Institu- 

 tion, the Society of Arts, the Institution of 



Civil Engineers, the Chemical Society, the 

 Department of Science and Art, the Lon- 

 don Institution, the Birkbeck Institute, the 

 Society of Telegraph Engineers, the Museum 

 of Practical Geology, the British Associa- 

 tion, the Statistical Society, the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society all the foregoing socie- 

 ties are spoken of in Mr. Becker's book, 

 while there yet remain of the important 

 societies the Mathematical Society, the So- 

 ciety of Antiquaries, the Royal Astronomi- 

 cal Society, the Entomological, the Zoologi- 

 cal, the Asiatic, the Meteorological, the Geo- 

 logical, the Linncean, the Royal Microsco- 

 pical, the Royal Horticultural, the Royal 

 Botanic Societies, and quite a number of 

 others, hardly less important the Society 

 of Biblical Archaeology, and the Geologists' 

 Association, for example. 



This is a curious and a very instructive 

 list. It shows that year by year the spe- 

 cialists in each branch feel obliged to bring 

 themselves closer together in order to keep 

 pace with the advances in their peculiar 

 subject ; and it illustrates well the great 

 share which the scientific societies of Eng- 

 land have in forwarding and promoting 

 scientific work. There is undoubtedly a 

 great deal of good done by this system, for 

 each of the minor societies has in it several 

 of the great men of the nation, whose in- 

 fluence is thus exerted, not only upon the 

 Royal Society (of which they are, of course, 

 members), but upon a host of younger and 

 less celebrated men who are elevated by 

 the contact. 



The system has, too, an injurious effect 

 which is equally apparent : the great men 

 become " scientific popes " in the eyes of 

 their associates, and the ignoring of every 

 thing foreign the "insularity" of Eng- 

 lishmen, which has become a byword in 

 ordinary matters, is specially fostered in 

 science, where of all places it is most nox- 

 ious. 



Thus, to an Englishman, Be la Rue is, 

 and always will be, "the father of celestial 

 photography," notwithstanding Draper and 

 Bond : and it is so in many other cases. 

 But, in spite of this, the great and small 

 societies are a powerful and helpful force 

 in England, and they contain a galaxy of 

 distinguished names, which may well make 

 any country proud. 



