196 The hish Naturalist. August, 1902. 



NATURESTUDY. 



The Face of Nature: Popular Readiugs in Elementary Science. By 

 Rev. C. T. Ov^iNDEN, D.D. London : John Murray, 1902. Pp. 188. 

 Price 2s. 



This attractive little book contains the r.uhstance of four lectures 

 delivered to "such mixed audiences as a clergyman or a layman can 

 gather together in a parish hall." The wish to spread scientific know- 

 ledge in this way is altogether praiseworth}', and many valuable facts 

 are set forth clearly and pleasantly by Canon Ovenden in the lectures 

 now published. The first deals with meteorolog}^, dwelling specially on 

 weather forecasting ; the other three with natural history. Of these, 

 one on " Vegetable Life " is very bright written, but somewhat marred 

 by the constant suggestion that the adaptations of plants to their sur- 

 roundings are due to the purposeful endeavours of the plants them- 

 selves. This seductive idea must be regarded as distinctly misleading for 

 a " mixed " audience. The " Record of the Rocks " sketches the history 

 of the Solar System in general, and the earth in particular, from the 

 primeval nebula to the mammoth, in forty-four pages ! The physical 

 aspect of the subject is more adequately dealt with than the biological; 

 it IS disconcerting to find our old acquaintance, '' Eozoon,'' still set forth 

 as an unquestioned animal, and to be told that Pterygotns "might be 

 called the champion of the lobster family," or that Mastodon was 

 "related to the family of hogs." The concluding lecture, on "The 

 Story of a Common Stone," is an admirable sketch of the testimony 

 borne by drift and perched blocks to the former action of ice in our 

 islands. This will surely fulfil the author's wish in leading those who 

 read to use their eyes in observing for themselves the things they see 

 around them. Some geologists might consider the statements of Croll's 

 theories of the causes of a glacial period, and Prof. Jas. Geikie's series 

 of interglacial periods, a little too dogmatic- But the reader who is 

 led by such lectures as these to study natural science for himself, will 

 soon find out that naturalists do not always agree with each other's 

 theories. The book is illustrated by outline sketches, so drawn that 

 they may be copied as lantern slides. 



G. H. C. 



NEWS GLEANINGS. 



Mr. A. R. Nichols. 



Our best congratulations to Mr. A. R. Nichols, of the Dublin Museum, 

 on whom the Degree of M.A. has lately been conferred by the University 

 of Cambridge. 



