io6 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



must be regarded, and the weight of its evidence 

 balanced with minds unbiassed, striving only for the 

 truth. 



The story of the controversy contains some 

 valuable lessons : it tells us that what at one time 

 was taught by the greatest of authorities and the 

 ablest of specialists, and accepted by the whole 

 rank and file of the scientific world as the truth, has 

 been proved false ; such a memory must impress on 

 all the uncertainty of our beliefs and theories, and 

 the possibility of the most cherished doctrines of to- 

 day being the antiquated superstitions of to-morrow ; 

 no more in science than in theology, or in any other 

 department of human thought and enquiry, is there 

 any absolute criterion of truth. If Eozoon has but 

 served to point us to this moral, reminding us that 

 of all dogmatism, scientific dogmatism is the most 

 illogical and the most objectionable, (" Hear, hear," 

 Ed.) and thus helping to keep our minds ever ready for 

 the reception of fresh truths and the modification of 

 present creeds, it will not have lived in vain, if only 

 in the scientific imaginations of its originators. 



NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. 



UNUSUAL pressure of literary work has obliged 

 us to postpone the due notice of several new 

 books of unusual merit, and some of which cannot 

 fail to have an influential bearing on modern scientific 

 thought. 



First among these is The Origin of Mountain 

 Chains, by T. M. Reade (London : Taylor & Francis). 

 Mr. Reade has long won his spurs as a leading 

 ' physical geologist, and anything he has to say on this 

 subject is certain to be listened to. In the present 

 work he has digested a marvellous mass of literary 

 material, mainly from the splendid papers and mono- 

 graphs of the U. S. Geological Survey, and repro- 

 duced them in such a clear, simple, and yet bold and 

 assertive manner, that the intelligent reader grasps the 

 problem at once. Mr. Reade seriously attacks the 

 theory of secular contraction of the earth's crust, and 

 holds that it is insufficient to produce mountain 

 building. He attracts the reader's attention to 

 "sedimentation," shows that thick beds of sedi- 

 mentary strata must expand below by virtue of the 

 increment of heat there, must rise, and spread later- 

 ally, and also en avance. This would cause creeping, 

 folding, perhaps flowing of the most solid rocks. The 

 effects of expansion of solids are curiously, but con- 

 vincingly traced, and the author's profession as an 

 architect gives him many opportunities of bringing 

 his arguments practically home. Mountain building 

 is always associated with sedimentation, whilst fault- 

 ing may be mainly owing to the contraction of great 

 rock masses. We regret our space does not allow 

 us to do more than barely mention the scope of this 

 important book. We do not hesitate to place it first 



among the great geological works of the period. It 

 will not only make its mark, but will provoke that keen, 

 and fair discussion of a subject, too apt to be taken for 

 granted, which results in a triumph for truth, and a 

 gain to human knowledge. No geological work equal 

 to it in importance has been published during the last 

 decade. 



The Young Collector — Pond life — Insects, by A. 

 Butler. Crustacea and Spiders, by F. A. A. Skuse ; 

 British Fungi, Lichens, &c, by E. M. Holmes and 

 Peter Gray (London : Swan Sonnenschein & Co.). 

 These vols, are a continuation of the shilling series of 

 elementary handbooks to different departments of 

 Natural History. Those of our young readers who 

 wish to take up some special branch of study will 

 find these hand-books exceedingly useful. 



Studies in Comparative Anatomy, The Structure and 

 Life-history of the Cockroach, by Professor Miall and 

 Alfred Denny (London : Lovell Reeve & Co.). The 

 main portion of this truly valuable work appeared as a 

 series of articles in the pages of this magazine. They 

 were received with much appreciation at the time, 

 but our readers will find their collection in this- 

 handsome volume more convenient for use. There 

 have been few books issued recently which contain 

 so much thoroughly good work. 



The Coleoptera of the British Islands, vol. i., by the 

 Rev. W. W. Fowler (London : L. Reeve & Co.). 

 We are frequently asked to recommend a good and 

 not too expensive work on this subject to students. 

 Henceforth we shall be glad to place Mr. Fowler's 

 neat and well-arranged volume high up on the list. 

 The present volume comprehends only the families 

 from Adephaga to Hydrophilidic inclusive. 



Handbook of Practical Botany, by E. Strasburger, 

 edited from the German by W. Hillhouse (London : 

 Swan Sonnenschein & Co.). Students in botany 

 cannot complain of lack of first-rate handbooks. 

 Perhaps no other science possesses so many. Pro- 

 fessor Strasburger's work has in some measure revo- 

 lutionised botany, so that we are pleased to see this 

 well-edited translation made for the benefit of 

 students who use the microscope, for they will find 

 in it a clear and simple statement of vegetable 

 histology. 



British Fungi {Hymenomycetes), by the Rev. John* 

 Stevenson, vol. ii. (London and Edinburgh : Win.. 

 Blackwood & Sons). We are very pleased to receive 

 this second volume, which completes Mr. Stevenson's 

 valuable work. To those who cannot afford Dr. 

 Cooke's more expensive (and now somewhat rare) 

 Manual, these two vols, will prove most useful. 



The Birds of Suffolk, by Professor Churchill Babing- 

 ton (London : Van Voorst). Dr. Babington has been 

 engaged on this book for some years past, and he 

 has taken immense pains with it, often personally 

 investigating the more important occurrence of rare 

 birds, collecting information of all kinds relating to. 

 his subject from public and private collections, game- 



