LITERARY NOTICES. 



127 



the best features of the most recent in- 

 dexes, and will be a thoroughly practical 

 guide to the store of information which 

 the volumes of the magazine contain. 

 The compiler is Mr. Frederik A. Fernald, 

 of the editorial staff of the Monthly. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



New Fragments. By John Tyndall, F. R. S. 

 New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 500. 

 Price, $2. 



The contents of this volume consist of 

 essays and addresses prepared for various 

 occasions and embracing a considerable 

 range of topics. Among those dealing with 

 natural science are a review of Goethe's 

 Farbenlchre, a magazine article on Atoms, 

 Molecules, and Ether Waves, another with 

 the title About Common Water, and a paper 

 on the Origin, Propagation, and Prevention 

 of Phthisis. Tyndall's well-known power of 

 making scientific subjects luminous and fas. 

 cinating is abundantly shown throughout this 

 volume. Take this passage from About 

 Common Water: 



The most striking' example of the color of water 

 is probably that furnished by the Blue Grotto of 

 Capri, in the Bay of Naples. Capri is one of the isl- 

 ands of the bay. At the bottom of one of its sea- 

 cliffs there is a small arch, barely sufficient to admit 

 a boat in fine weather, and through this arch you 

 pass into a spacious cavern, the walls and water of 

 which shimmer forth a magical blue light. This 

 light has caught its color from the water through 

 which it has passed. The entrance, as just stated, is 

 very small, so that the illumination of the cave is al- 

 most entirely due to light which has plunged to the 

 bottom of the sea, and returned thence to the cave. 

 Hence the exquisite azure. The white body of a 

 diver who plunges into the water for the amusement 

 of visitors is also strikingly affected by the colored 

 liquid through which he moves. 



The wonderful style above illustrated con- 

 tributes a great part to the effectiveness of 

 Prof. Tyndall's teachings in science. Many 

 a student, using one of Tyndall's treatises on 

 Heat, Light, or Electricity as a text-book, 

 has found himself drawn on to read far be- 

 yond the limits set for the next lesson. Ob- 

 viously the books that get themselves read 

 are the ones that produce results ; hence it is 

 probably safe to say that no book has done 

 more to spread an understanding of the na- 

 ture and behavior of one of the great forces 

 of Nature than his Heat as a Mode of Motion. 



Tyndall is still more fascinating and be- 

 comes even inspiring when he discourses of 

 his favorite recreation, climbing the Alps. 

 There are two essays dealing with Alpine 

 experiences in this collection, and many of 

 the phenomena of glaciers, snow-fields, and 

 mountain mists are introduced into the 

 scientific papers. The following is a de- 

 scription of the sort with which his Alpine 

 chapters abound : 



At half past one o'clock on the morning of the 

 11th we started from the Wengern Alp. No trace 

 of cloud was visible in the heavens, which were sown 

 broadcast with stars. Those low down twinkled 

 with extraordinary vivacity, many of them flashing, 

 in quick succession, lights of different colors. . . . 

 Over the summit of the Wetterhorn the Pleiades 

 hung like a diadem, while at intervals a solitary 

 meteor shot across the sky. We passed along the 

 Alp, and then over the balled snow and broken ice 

 shot down from the end of a glacier which fronted us. 

 Here the ascent began ; we passed by turns from 

 snow to rock and from rock to snow. The steepness 

 for a time was moderate, the only thing requiring 

 caution being the thin crusts of ice upon the rocks 

 over which water had trickled the previous day* 

 The east gradually brightened, the stars became 

 paler and disappeared, and at length the crown of 

 the adjacent Jungfrau rose out of the twilight into 

 the purple of the rising sun. The bloom crept grad- 

 ually downward over the snows, until the whole 

 mountain world partook of the color. It is not in 

 the night nor in the day it is not in any statical 

 condition of the atmosphere that the mountains 

 look most sublime. It is during the few minutes of 

 transition from twilight to full day through the 

 splendors of the dawn. 



Among the New Fragments are several 

 biographical sketches, and these are fully as 

 vivid as the essays already mentioned. The 

 power of expression that can so greatly en- 

 liven inanimate objects is naturally no less 

 potent in dealing with subjects that have 

 lived. It is well for science that Tyndall's 

 bent was turned so strongly toward scien- 

 tific matters, for otherwise biography would 

 long since have monopolized him. In read- 

 ing his sketch of Count Rumford one is 

 made to feel that the investigator of a cent- 

 ury ago was also a man, and, moreover, what 

 manner of man he was. The same applies 

 to the account of Thomas Young; and when 

 our author speaks of one whom he has known 

 in the flesh, as in his Personal Recollections 

 of Thomas Carlyle, and his address on un- 

 veiling the statue of Carlyle, the image of 

 his subject stands out with marvelous dis- 

 tinctness. 



Among the miscellaneous papers in this 



