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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



witLin his ken, and he gains a more vivid 

 feermg and a keener conception of it. He 

 measures the distance he has traversed, and 

 values the worth of his own contemplations 

 by the fullness of lucid clearness -which en- 

 lightens his faint view of the first princi- 

 ples of things, and by the depth of humble 

 reverence with which he bows before the 

 mysterious Power which created all ! 

 " CoNCABNEAir (Flsisterre), May, 1878." 



The Microscope and its Revelations. By 

 William B. Carpenter, M. D., F. R. S. 

 Fifth edition. 848 pp. Price $5.50. 

 Philadelphia: Lindsay &Blakiston, 1875. 



This standard work on the microscope 

 has been carefully revised by the author, 

 so as to present the latest improvements in 

 modern instruments. It also includes the 

 new methods and principles of Dr. Roy- 

 ston-Piggott, which have lately been the 

 subject of so much discussion among micro- 

 scopists ; it likewise gives the latest results 

 of microscopical study. It is a volume of 

 goodly size, containing 449 woodcut-illus- 

 trations, and 25 plates illustrative of its wide 

 range of subjects, and forming a standard 

 and complete guide to the use of the micro- 

 scope. The author's object throughout is to 

 direct the possessor of a microscope in the 

 intelligent study of any department of natural 

 history for which he may have a taste, or 

 his circumstances afford him the facilities 

 of pursuit ; and, again, to meet the wants 

 of those who, coming to the study of mi- 

 nute animal and vegetable life with no sci- 

 entific preparation, yet want something 

 more than a mere sight of them. Of his use 

 of scientific terms the author says : 



" Some . . . may think that he might 

 have rendered his descriptions simpler by 

 employing fewer scientific terms. But he 

 would reply that he has had much opportu- 

 nity of observing among the votaries of the 

 microscope a desire for just such informa- 

 tion as he has attempted to convey; and 

 that the use of scientific terms cannot be 

 easily dispensed with, since there are no 

 others in which the facts can be readily ex- 

 pressed. As he has made a point of e.xplain- 

 ing these in the places where they are first 

 introduced, he cannot think that any of his 

 readers need find much difficulty in appre- 

 hending their meaning." 



Dr. Carpenter recognizes the impossi- 

 bility of keeping pace with the rapid exten- 



sion of knowledge over every part of the 

 constantly- widening field of microscopic 

 research, to say nothing of furnishing an 

 exhaustive treatise on each of its many de- 

 partments, in the limited compass of his 

 book, the original purpose of which is to 

 impart general guidance, rather than special 

 instruction ; and, instead of attempting the 

 impossibility of teaching his reader all 

 there is to be learned, he is put in the 

 way of learning it from that best of all 

 teachers, experience. And so, in the appli- 

 cations of the microscope, the proportion 

 of space allotted to the dififerent depart- 

 ments has been determined more from 

 their special interest to the amateur micro- 

 scopist than their physiological importance, 

 and more space and treatment in detail are 

 given to subjects having no special sources 

 of information than to such as are the sub- 

 jects of special treatises. 



The first five chapters, embracing 269 

 pages of the work, treat respectively of the 

 principles of the microscope, its construc- 

 tion, accessory apparatus, management of 

 the microscope, preparation of objects, etc., 

 while the rest of the work is devoted to 

 the practical applications of the microscope 

 in the study of minute forms of animal and 

 vegetable life, and its uses in geology, min- 

 eralogy, and chemistry. 



Health ; A Hand-book for Households and 

 Schools. By Edward Smith, M. D., 

 F. R. S., Author of " Foods," etc. 198 

 pages. Price ^1.00. New York: D. 

 Appleton & Co. 



Under the general title of " The Popu- 

 lar Science Library," it is proposed to issue 

 a series of neat and attractive volumes at 

 the modei-ate and uniform price of a dollar 

 each, that shall treat of the most important 

 and interesting scientific subjects in a way 

 suited for general readers. The books will be 

 original, translations, reprints, and abridg- 

 ments, with illustrations when necessary, 

 and will take a free range in the selection 

 of subjects, giving prominence to those that 

 are pi-actical, but aiming to represent all 

 the aspects of science which are of general 

 or of prominent interest. Dr. Smith's vol- 

 ume on " Health" was issued first, and is a 

 plain, practical, useful book, which aims 

 only to give valuable information for every- 

 body, in a form which anybody can under- 



