i8 9 6. SOME NEW BOOKS. 59 



Nature's Story. By H. Farquhar, B.D. Svo. Pp. 191, illustrated. Edinburgh: 



Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1S95. Price 2s. 6d. 

 Popular Readings in Science. By John Gall, M.A., LL.B., and David Robert- 

 son, M.A., LL.B., B.Sc. Second edition. 8vo. Pp. 467. Westminster : 

 A Constable & Co., 1S95. Price 4s. 

 The number of popular books on science that are now being published 

 is a sign of the times, and, whether the books be good or bad, we 

 think that on the whole it is a good sign, since it shows, at all events, 

 that a wider interest is being taken by all classes and all ages in the 

 world around us. 



We have so often been asked by people who have been attracted 

 to zoology, to recommend them some book that shall put them in the 

 way of studying it for themselves, and we have so often been unable 

 to give them any satisfactory answer, that we are glad to meet with 

 such a book as that by Miss Lindsay. There may be statements in 

 it to which one can object, such as this, on p. 43 : — " In the inverte- 

 brates, bones are not found, except in the case of the cuttlefish " ; for 

 the cuttlebone is no more a bone than is a cockleshell. Neither do 

 we share the author's view, expressed on p. 170, that the pinnules of 

 a crinoid are homologous with the tube-feet of a star-fish. But, 

 despite such inaccuracies, and too great reliance upon names and 

 terms instead of upon facts, the book is a useful one, and we our- 

 selves, in our early attempts at zoological study, would have been 

 only too glad for such chapters as those headed "Advice to Students.' 5 

 If the readers into whose hands this book may fall will honestly 

 follow the advice of the author, they cannot be led very far astray 

 by her enthusiastic ignorance. Besides an account of the chief books 

 and of the way in which they may be used, Miss Lindsay refers to 

 courses of lectures, to classes, to museums, and to biological stations, 

 and she gives a list of the chief dealers from whom specimens or 

 apparatus can be obtained. In short, the book will put a solitary 

 student in the way of finding the answers to such questions as he is 

 most likely to ask. 



We doubt whether a Natural History for children has ever 

 combined so much excellence of illustration with so much accuracy 

 of matter as that which comes to us from Messrs. Cassell. As in 

 most such books, the bulk of the work is devoted to back-boned 

 animals, but the back-boneless ones are by no means neglected, and 

 are treated in a thoroughly scientific, though none the less interesting, 

 manner. Coloured plates are always attractive to young people, and 

 those of the present volume are far superior to those usual in books of 

 this kind. Our only objection to them is that they are made in 

 Germany. " The author's aim has been to write in such fashion that 

 the book may serve to waken, or quicken, interest in the observation 

 of the habits of the lower animals, and as an introduction to the study 

 of their relations to us and to each other" — and we think that the 

 children, who, after all, are the ultimate critics, will prove that he has 

 attained his end. 



We hope that the children will not be quite so kind to Mr. 

 Farquhar's little book, which consists of a number of "talks," 

 written in that peculiarly irritating kiss-mammy style that is supposed 

 to appeal to the minds of " the little ones." Although such 

 science as is contained in this book seems correct enough, owing no 

 doubt to the revision by Mr. Graham Kerr, it is interlarded with a 

 wishy-washy and illogical theology which experience has long ago taught 

 us does far more harm than good when those who have been crammed 

 with it begin to think for themselves. Mr. Farquhar, who, we note, 



