170 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Introductory Science Primer, by Professor Huxley, 

 (London: Macmillan & Co.), is one of Macmillan's 

 Science Primers, and has been long promised. It 

 deals with the general qualities of natural objects, 

 organic and inorganic, making the most familiar 

 things teach the profoundest and most extensive 

 kinds of knowledge, physical, chemical, physiological, 

 and even psychological, after the author's easy,'attrac- 

 tive, and leading-on manner. 



Nature's Hygiene, by C. T. Kingsett, F.C.S. 

 (London : Bailliere & Co.) is a series of Essays on 

 popular scientific subjects with special reference to 

 the chemistry and hygiene of the Eucalyptus and the 

 pine-tree, in which we are shown the remarkable 

 production of the peroxide of hydrogen by the 

 latter trees. In many respects the chapters of this 

 work are clear and thoughtful "studies;" notably 

 those on the cause of malarial fever, and the relation 

 which the Eucalyptus is said to bear to it as an anti- 

 dote. The chapter dealing with the natural atmos- 

 pherical oxidation of essential oils and perfumes, and 

 the products they form — that on their antiseptic and 

 disinfecting properties — and the last, on the geo- 

 graphical distribution of Eucalyptus and pine-forests, 

 and their influence in nature, are most instructive and 

 suggestive. All those persons who are concerned 

 with the public health would do well to procure and 

 study this original and interesting work. 



Epidemical Diseases, by John Parkin, M.D., 

 (London : David Bogue), is an able endeavour to 

 trace the remote causes of epidemic diseases in the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms, as well as the causes 

 of hurricanes and abnormal atmospherical vicissitudes. 

 It will be seen, therefore, that the author has not 

 failed because of the narrowness of the ground he has 

 selected. He has, however, produced a very full 

 and suggestive work, calling for more than a passing 

 notice at the hands of all medical men. 



Fossil Men and their modern Fepresoitatives, by 

 Principal Dawson, LL.D. (London, Hodder & 

 Stoughton), is a book which has disappointed us. 

 It is written in the same attractive manner which 

 has made the author's other works so deservedly 

 popular, yet to our mind it is disfigured by that 

 theological narrowness which endeavours to adapt 

 modern ethnology to the accounts of individual and 

 racial movements recorded in Genesis. Such an 

 attempt at ethnological "reconciliation" cannot hope 

 for a better fate than has attended the swarms of 

 "geological reconciliations." Truth must be studied 

 on every side for its own sake. It refuses to be 

 coerced as much as to be coaxed. Nor do we think 

 Professor Dawson helps his cause by the sharp 

 artillery practice of raillery and invective which he 

 directs against philosophical ethnologists. Fortunately 

 the latter are armour-plated against such attacks, 

 and the only sufferers will be those whom Professor 

 Dawson represents. 



Science a Stronghold of Belief, by R. B. Painter, 



M.D. (London : Sampson Low), is a large bulky 

 book, dedicated " To the Praise, Honour, Glory, and 

 worship of God," which is chiefly filled with very 

 ignorant and abusive declamations against evolution 

 generally, and Darwin, Huxley, Spencer, Tyndall, 

 and others particularly. We endeavoured con- 

 scientiously to read the book for the sake of giving 

 an opinion, but we were obliged to give it up. 

 And yet the author promises and advertises four 

 more volumes to follow on the same subject ! One 

 stands awed at the power and flexibility of the 

 English language ! Can all this farrago of non- 

 sense, ignorance, and vituperation be necessary to 

 the "honour and glory of God"? There must be 

 something Divine in the Christian religion, or it 

 could not survive such enemies as these of its own 

 household, who thus bring common sense and 

 Christian charity into discredit ! 



Climate and Time, by James Croll (London : David 

 Bogue). We are frequently asked for explanations 

 of the probable causes of those great changes in tem- 

 perature, swinging alternately from tropical to glacial, 

 with which the strata of the British Islands are 

 crowded, and our answer is to refer readers to this 

 fascinating work of Dr. Croll. Therein will be found, 

 traced in the clearest and most patient manner, the 

 relations between great astronomical and possible 

 geological phenomena, wrought through the agencies 

 of ocean currents, regular winds, &c. Speculations 

 on the probable causes of climatal change, which 

 were plentiful as blackberries before the publication 

 of the present work, no longer issue, for Dr. Croll 

 seems to have put the question at rest. This work 

 is a magnificent Principia of Physical Geography 

 which every student and teacher of that science cannot 

 afford to leave unread. 



Nature's Bye-paths, by J. E. Taylor, F.L.S., &c. 

 (London : David Bogue). This is a series of twenty- 

 seven chapters on Geological, Zoological, Botanical, 

 and other subjects, contributed originally to various 

 Reviews and Magazines. We leave it to others to 

 express an opinion on the work, as our own position 

 regarding it places us " out of court." 



The Birds, Fishes, and Cetacea frequenting Belfast 

 Lough, by R. L. Patterson (London : David Bogue). 

 This attractively got-up book must necessarily interest 

 all practical naturalists and sportsmen. Mr. Patterson 

 is one of the vice-presidents of the well-known and 

 active Belfast Natural History Society, and the son of 

 the celebrated naturalist, Mr. Robert Patterson, F.R.S. 

 The work is, in short, the result of many years' 

 personal observations on the sea-birds and fishes of 

 one of the most interesting parts of our British coasts. 

 A good deal of the matter has already appeared as 

 contributions to the natural history society of which 

 the author is vice-president. The pleasant manner 

 in which the book is written confirms Mr. Patterson's 

 statement that most of it was prepared during the 

 leisure afforded by quiet evenings in the country, and 



