i8 9 3- NOTES AND COMMENTS. 323 



here we might have been grateful for the information, but as he goes 

 on to talk about atoms of lime, and that granite contains none, our 

 faith is shaken. Of course, many fine old-crusted " Miinchausenisms" 

 are trotted out anew, such as the 5,000 year old baobabs (p. 173), 

 and the raining of blood (p. 259) ; confirmation of the existence of 

 the giants on the earth in those days is still derived from the bones 

 of the Irish Elk (p. 260), odour is yet regarded as immaterial (p. 8), 

 and the author seems to have no suspicion that the humming of 

 insects is due to any other cause than the flapping of the wings. 

 Perhaps it is hardly worth calling'attention to so slight a mistake as 

 not knowing the difference between Newfoundland and Labrador, 

 which must have given rise to the statement on p. 128 that the 

 interior of the former is still a terra incognita. Geography is not the 

 author's strong point ; but neither is mathematics, or he would not 

 have left (pp. 302, 303), as an inscrutable problem, the " curious 

 arithmetical puzzle " of the herring-and-a-half for three halfpence 

 order. We are, therefore, not surprised when he tells us the atmo- 

 sphere is saturated when it contains 84 per cent, out of a possible 

 80 per cent, of moisture ; in these conditions we should think it as 

 supersaturated as the compiler's brains. Nor ought one to grumble that, 

 when he tries his hands on crystallography, he fails to distinguish 

 between lapidaries and crystallographers, and in describing garnets 

 mistakes polygons for polyhedra (pp. 131, 132). 



His " facts " are not only at times inconsistent with the facts, but 

 they are often inconsistent with one another. Thus on page 212 he 

 tells us first that Sunken Lake is the deepest in the world, and next 

 that Lake Baikal is " by far the deepest lake in the world." If he 

 had only put these facts a few pages apart, the office boy would doubt- 

 less have done his best to believe them ; the juxtaposition of contra- 

 dictions in this case is the more surprising, as elsewhere the illustrations 

 of the truth of a remark are often given in quite a different part of the 

 encyclopaedia : thus he heads one paragraph " statistics are funny " 

 on p. 55, while his calculation as to the population of ancient Rome 

 which proves it, is delayed till p. 80. In spite of all the vast range of 

 the author's knowledge he is very modest and loves simplicity : thus 

 his formulae on p. 44 for determining ships' tonnage ought to charm 

 the heart of Lloyd's with their exquisite ease and wide applicability ; 

 while his confession on p. 19 that he will never be able to understand 

 the principle of the steam ejector shows that he does not rate his own 

 powers very highly ; but when he sums up " what's a flame ? " in four 

 lines beginning with " Combustion is in some way produced by the 

 union of carbon and hydrogen with oxygen," and ends with " the best 

 philosopher can tell little more," we cannot but excuse our office-boy's 

 comment of " More things in heaven and earth can be explained than 

 by your philosophy, Don Lemon." The author's use of the word "fact " 

 is certainly strangely comprehensive, for we do not quite see how 

 advice as to the selection of a wife (however sound in itself) can be 



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