112 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Yilit four iJioiisand Y>z.Y>ers, in order to acquire all this 

 useful information, and he has arranged all he has to 

 say clearly and well. This ought to be, and deserves 

 to be,, a very successful book. 



Practical Microscopy, by Geo. E. Davis, F.R.M.S., 

 &c. (London : David Bogue). Of the numerous 

 works on this increasingly important subject, we do 

 not think any approach the present volume, either in 

 their method of treatment, or skill in arranging the 

 very knowledge which a tyro to the microscope 

 requires. Chapters are devoted to mechanical de- 

 scriptions (abundantly illustrated) of all the structures, 

 parts, and accessories of the leading types of micro- 

 scopes, to the collection of objects, microscopical 

 dissecting, section cutting, microscopical measure- 

 ments and delineations, staining, injection, prepara- 

 tion and mounting, reagents, recipes, &c. The 

 author's style is very terse, but lucid in the highest 

 degree. This work must be, for a long time to come, 

 one of the very first that an earnest microscopical 

 worker will purchase and keep by him for constant 

 reference and advice. 



Vignettes from Nature, by Grant Allen (London : 

 Chatto & Windus), A series of papers originally 

 contributed to the Pall Mall Gazette, bright, sparkling, 

 and suggestive. IMr. Grant Allen is, facile princefs, 

 the popular expositor of evolution ; and he nowhere 

 appears to better advantage than in these eminently 

 readable and entertaining essays. Even naturalists 

 of advanced experience will profit by his original 

 comments and generalisations, although some may 

 think he pushes evolution too far, and others that he 

 takes things for granted which have yet to be proved ; 

 as, for instance, the existence of/;v-glacial man. Mr. 

 Allen speaks about that hypothetical person as though 

 no geologist or anthropologist doubted him — instead 

 of which there are few things more doubted. Nor do 

 we think the author has clearly caught Dr. Croll's 

 theory of the alternate changes of climate in the 

 northern and southern hemispheres. These, however, 

 are no drawbacks to the thorough enjoyment of a 

 very pleasant and original book. 



The Honey Ants and the Occident Ants of the 

 American Plains, by Henry C. McCook, D.D. 

 (Philadelphia : Lippincott & Co.). The Rev. Dr. 

 McCook has here given the world another of his 

 entertaining volumes on his own original investiga- 

 tions of certain American ants. We have already 

 had to refer to the author's book on the wonderfully- 

 endowed agricultural ants ; but those treated on in 

 the present volume seem more appreciated still. The 

 honey ants are natives of Colorado, and Dr. McCook 

 has given them this name, because among these 

 insects tliere is a differentiated caste he calls " honey- 

 bearers." These are distinguished by their rotund 

 bodies, which are distended with grape-sugar collected 

 by the worker-ants. The latter treated the "honey- 

 bearers " as so many sugar-casks, filling them up at 

 night, and drawing upon them for sustenance during 



the day. The Occident ants are mound builders, and 

 make " clearings " by cutting away the grass and 

 other vegetation, after the manner of the agricultural 

 ants of Texas. The present work is illustrated 

 by lithographic plates of the various species of insects 

 described, their castes, and detailed structures. 



Leaves from a A^aturalisf s Note Book, by Dr. 

 Andrew Wilson (London : Chatto & Windus). 

 We have here another series of collected papers and 

 essays, chiefly on natural history subjects. The 

 author is a well-known and industrious writer on 

 them, and that the reading public can trust him, is 

 shown by the diligence with which they purchase his 

 works. His style is easy and language clear, and he 

 has the power of marshalling his facts so as to make 

 them all tell. This is an elegantly got-up little book, 

 just big enough to put into one's pocket for an 

 occasional read — an intention which the short papers 

 easily enable us to carry out. 



The Sun, by C. A. Young, Ph.D. ; and Myth and 

 Science, by Tito Vignoli (London : Kegan Paul, 

 Trench & Co.). These are two recently-issued vo- 

 lumes of the celebrated "International Scientific 

 Series," than which few books are more welcome. 

 The author of the former is Dr. Young, Professor of 

 Astronomy in the College of New Jersey. For 

 general astronomical readers we could not recom- 

 mend a better book. It sets forth, in a clear and yet 

 terse manner, all that is at present known and believed 

 about the sun. The enormous addition to our know- 

 ledge of the physical condition of our luminary which 

 has accumulated since the application of spectroscopic 

 observation to it twenty years ago, and the closer 

 observation of its spots and other changes made by 

 such men as Secchi, Lockyer, Draper, Proctor, and 

 others, are all found within the present volume ; so 

 that it is a popular handbook of solar physics. 

 Myth and Science is one of the most original in the 

 whole series, and we are surprised that greater notice 

 has not been taken by psychologists of the author's 

 theory. He holds that we must go deep down into 

 animal natures for the roots both of religion and 

 science ; that the terror exhibited by a horse when he 

 "shies" is produced by a feeling that the object 

 dreaded, although inanimate, is alive ; that the latter 

 feeling is the same as in the savage produces re- 

 ligion, myth being a later formulation of the feeling. 

 "Myth" has hitherto been regarded as a fanciful 

 product of the human mind, due to extrinsic impulses, 

 whereas the author makes it out to be an intrinsic 

 necessity of animal intelligence. He also holds that 

 the elements of science are identical with those 

 through which mythical representations and the 

 inward life of the human intelligence are developed. 

 A more thoughtful book than the present we could 

 not desire. We have perused it with the greatest 

 pleasure. 



Easy Star Lessons, by R. A. Proctor (London : 

 Chatto & Windus). There can be no doubt that 



