HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



27 



most attractive of English, will experience more 

 than their usual treat when they sit down to this 

 book. Never was more truly realized the saying 

 about men labouring and others entering into the 

 fruit of their labours ! The illustrations are excel- 

 lent, and recourse has been had to photographs in 

 rendering the more telling of 'physiognomical ex- 

 pressions. Even the most antagonistic of anti- 

 Darwinians will not hesitate to admit how much 

 he has learned from a careful study of the work 

 before us. 



Tbe appearance of Professor Nicholson's " Manual 

 of Palaeontology" will be welcomed by many a 

 student to whom the older work of Professor Owen, 

 owing to its more technical nature, has been more 

 or less of a sealed book. The illustrations are 

 numerous and good, and thus the first want of the 

 student is met. The subject is treated in what we 

 have long held to be the only right one — by con- 

 sidering extinct forms and groups side by side with 

 those now existing. Zoology and Palseontology are 

 thus made to reflect light on each other. Professor 

 Nicholson is thoroughly master of his subject, and 

 his style, as we have before had occasion to remark, 

 is very clear and attractive, although' terse. Com- 

 mencing with the lowest forms of life, we are led 

 on to the highest, living species being alluded to 

 and figured whenever necessary. The great stream 

 of life is thus followed up from its source. A part 

 is devoted to " Palseo-botany," which, we think, it 

 would have been better to have omitted for some 

 time to come. In no department of geology is there 

 so much confusion and doubt as in fossil plants. 

 Nearly all the work already done requires to be 

 done over again. Hence the student can place 

 little confidence on any geological botanical conclu- 

 sions. There are some good workers in the field — 

 Carruthers, Dyer, Williamson, Dawson, and others 

 — and the chaos will ere long be reduced to order. 

 The fourth part of the work is on "Historical 

 Palseontology," and is very valuable. We are glad 

 to notice a full glossary of terms at the end. From 

 what we have briefly said, therefore, four readers 

 will see that in this "Manual of Pala3ontology " the 

 geological student has a most valuable and ex- 

 haustive work placed at his disposal. 



In "Art-Studies from Nature " we have a capital 

 idea, and one ihat would have well borne more 

 detailed working out than in the present volume, 

 which, by the bye, is admirably got up, the illustra- 

 tions being of a very high order. It comprehends 

 four papers, all intended for the use of architects, 

 designers, and manufacturers, which originally 

 appeared in the Art Journal, The first is by Mr. 

 E. E. Hulme, E.L.S., on the Adaptability of our 

 Native Plants to the Purposes of Ornamental Art, 

 and is, in our opinion, the best in the book. Such 

 familiar plants as the wood anemone, arum, black- 

 berry, cinquefoil, dog-rose, hazel-nut^ and hop are 



so grouped as to surprise the beholder with their 

 really graceful and elegant proportions, and to cause 

 him to wonder that these natural products have not 

 been preferred to the usual architectural conven- 

 tionalities. Mr. S. J. Mackie has contributed an 

 interesting and original paper on Sea-weeds as 

 objects of design, with microscopic enlargements of 

 structures. The paper on the Crystals of Snow- 

 as applied to the Purposes of Design, by Mr. James 

 Glaisher, F.R.S., is most exhaustively illustrated, 

 almost every form of snow-crystal being figured. 

 How beautiful these are, only those who have care- 

 fully and repeatedly studied them can understand. 

 The fourth paper is by Mr. Robert Hunt, E.R.S., 

 on the Symmetrical and Ornamental Forms of 

 Organic Remains, and deals with the prettier 

 fossils, animal and vegetable; among which, 

 Ammonifes, Trigonice, Pedens, and fossil ferns 

 occupy the most attention. We welcome this 

 handsome book as a step in the right direction, and 

 one tending, even from a utilitarian point of view,, 

 to give to natural science more importance than it 

 has hitherto obtained. We are sorrj^ however, to 

 find that the most suggestive of all natural objects, 

 for purposes of artificial ornamentation, has not 

 been dealt with. We allude to the Diatomacese, 

 than which nothing can furnish more striking 

 designs of exquisite [beauty to the jeweller or 

 general designer. 



Professor Ramsay's book has grown, in this third 

 edition, from a slim and scantily reported series of 

 of six lectures, to a real manual of geology, and one 

 that cannot fail to take its place in the library as 

 a work of reference. As regards strati graphical 

 geology, it is very certain we have nothing so 

 good in the English language. This is a depart- 

 ment usually too much ignored, all the attention 

 being given to palseontological geology, or that part 

 devoted to organic remains. Except Professor 

 Juke's "Manual," we may be said to have had 

 nothing which the student could really consult. Of 

 Professor Ramsay's ability to treat on the combined 

 sciences of Physical Geology and Geography, his 

 position as Director of the Geological Survey of 

 this country is sufiicient proof. Few geologists 

 have experienced more active or difficult field-work. 

 And we regard the combined study of physical 

 geography and geology as being as important as 

 the twin studies of zoology and palseontology, to 

 which we have alluded. Although professing to- 

 appear as a third edition, the book before us is 

 practically a new book, with much new matter, new 

 illustrations, and new arrangement. It^ is clearly 

 and even pleasantly written, and our geological 

 readers cannot fail to appreciate it, 



Mr. Clifton Ward's unpretending little volume is 

 just of the kind we should recommend to any young 

 man who asked us what would be the best work for 

 him to begin the study of geology with. The illus- 



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