314 WOOD, ON OBJECTS FOR THE MICROSCOPE. 



Churchill's manuals have been a great public benefit, and they 

 would have been imperfect without a manual of botany. The 

 editor of an encyclopaedia might as well omit the article botany 

 because it had been done in all other encyclopaedias, as for Mr. 

 Churchill to omit a manual of botany because so many good 

 ones exist. Having said thus much as an apology for both 

 publisher and author, we would now draw attention to the 

 histological portion of Professor Bentley's manual. As in all 

 other parts of his book, Mr. Bentley does not present him- 

 self as an original observer or discoverer, but as a teacher of 

 what is known upon the subject ; and in turning over the 

 various parts of the manual devoted to microscopic investiga- 

 tion, we must confess that he has given a very fair interpre- 

 tation of the facts in the structure and functions of plants 

 which are elicited by the aid of the microscope. Mr. Bentley 

 has evidently been more anxious to make his book an ortho- 

 dox volume, available for all classes and examinations, than a 

 work representing or attempting any advance in the science of 

 botany. We think, however, he might have consulted more 

 frequently original papers — and many such have appeared 

 in our own pages — with advantage. 



This work is got up in the same excellent style as all 

 Churchill's manuals, and is illustrated with upwards of eleven 

 hundred wood engravings, executed with great skill by Mr. 

 Bagg. 



Common Objects of the Microscope. By the Rev. J. G. 

 Wood. London : Routledge. 



The great feature of this book is a series of illustrations by 

 Tuffen West, but they are so crowded together as to render 

 them exceedingly inconvenient for use, nor are they printed 

 so well as to do justice to Mr. West's celebrity as a microsco- 

 pic artist. The objects have not, however, been selected for 

 the purpose of illustrating " common objects " alone, but of 

 ofiering to the public the largest number of illustrations at 

 the lowest price. The text has been written as an explanation 

 of the plates; and when we say that above four hundred objects 

 are described, as well as an account given of the microscope 

 and how to use it, in 127 pages, it will be seen that little 

 space has been given for that kind of description which a 

 beginner requires. Indeed, we think too much has been 

 attempted in this volume ; and that had there been fewer illus- 

 trations, and more letter-press, it would have better served the 

 demand for a cheap introduction to the microscope. 



