LITERARY XOTICES. 



131 



heretical and dangerous, but are now to be 

 found in every class-book and are taught in 

 every school." 



Dr. Brunton's volume is not at all of the 

 controversial form, and is quiet in tone and 

 most conciliatory in spirit. It is besides a 

 very instructive book, his plan being not so 

 much to argue his questions in a formal way 

 as to give the information and illustrate the 

 facts that will enable the reader to draw his 

 own conclusions. 



The method of the book is somewhat 

 novel. It is divided into two parts, which 

 are so separate and so different that the 

 reader is left long in doubt as to their con- 

 nection or what they have to do with each 

 other. The three introductory chapters are 

 devoted to an account of Bible lands, or the 

 countries of Egypt and Palestine, and the 

 Exodus of the Hebrews. This part of the 

 work is of extreme interest, because of the 

 freshness of its restatement of old facts in 

 the light thrown upon them by later knowl- 

 edge. The countries of Egypt and Pales- 

 tine are regarded as typical specimens of 

 regions where the climatic conditions were 

 entirely different, so that abundance pre- 

 vailed in one while famine desolated the 

 other, and drove a starving people to one 

 of those wholesale migrations which have 

 played so important a part in the world's 

 history. Ancient Egyptian life has been 

 dwelt upon to fix attention upon an old 

 civilization as a landmark of the world's 

 progress, so that the long centuries which 

 have since intervened might introduce to 

 the conception of geological time. The in- 

 fluence of circumstances upon character and 

 the law of the hereditary transmission of 

 qualities are variously exemplified by the 

 Israelitish race. 



Fifty pages of the work are consumed 

 in this preliminary discussion, and then the 

 next 286 pages are devoted to such a gen- 

 eral survey of the vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms, in the present structures and af- 

 finities of living species and in the rela- 

 tions of the earth's historic life displayed 

 by fossils, as brings out in an impressive 

 manner the truth of the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion. This portion of the work is highly 

 instructive, from the richness of its facts 

 and the copiousness of the pictorial illus- 

 trations which help their interpretation. 



But it is mainly valuable, of course, as show- 

 ing the extent, the variety, and the harmo- 

 ny of the proofs that can be given of the 

 law of development. This law being estab- 

 lished, the author proceeds in Lecture XVI 

 to consider " The Mosaic Record and Evo- 

 lution." There is here no straining after ef- 

 fect, but it is shown how the honest believer 

 in the Scriptures need have no real difficulty 

 in interpreting the Biblical text in harmony 

 with evolutional truth. A rigorous literal- 

 ism can, of course, make a stand here, as it 

 did in the times of the astronomical and 

 geological controversy ; but there is a good 

 deal less difficulty with the reconciliation 

 now than there was in the preceding cases. 

 The closing lecture is devoted to individual 

 development, and gives occasion to some 

 practical conclusions and reflections suggest- 

 ed by the subject, which are full of instruc- 

 tive interest. 



Report of Analytical and other Work 

 done on Sorghum and Corn-stalks by 

 the Chemical Division of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. By Peter Col- 

 lier, Chemist. Washington : Govern- 

 ment Printing-Office. 1880. Pp. 101, 

 with Twenty-seven Plates. 



The object of the work reviewed in this 

 report is to ascertain as many facts as possi- 

 ble in relation to the development and actual 

 composition of the stalks and juices of the 

 different varieties of sorghum and corn 

 which can be successfully grown in the 

 United States. The experiments were gen- 

 erally directed to the demonstration of the 

 period at which the juice of each particular 

 variety of sorghum or corn contained the 

 most crystallizable sugar which could be 

 profitably separated. Large sheet plates 

 present graphically the results of 3,601 

 analyses of thirty-eight varieties of sor- 

 ghum, eleven varieties of corn-stalks, and a 

 few outside samples of sugar and sirup. 



Napo-Phartngeal Catarrh. By Martin 

 F. Coomes, M. D., Professor in the Ken- 

 tucky School of Medicine. Louisville, 

 Kentucky: Bradley & Gilbert. Pp. 165. 

 Price, 82. 



This book, the author tells us, was pre- 

 pared by request, as a practical treatise for 

 the use of general practitioners of medi- 

 cine. It treats of the anatomy of the parts 



