1874.] Notices of Books. 259 
who relies on this or any of the kindred works that are written 
by incompetent teachers for the mere purpose of cramming with 
phrases and technicalities in order to pass examinations. Inthe 
learning of languages, whether living or dead, this wretched 
method of packing the memory may be sufficient; but we warn 
all candidates for science examinations against any attempts to 
‘eet up” any branch of science by mere efforts of memory. 
Something higher than this is demanded of the scientific student. 
He must not merely learn his lesson,—he must understand his 
subject ; for the remorseless examiner in science at once detects 
the ignorance of the candidate who merely answers by rote. If 
he is at all qualified to conduct a scientific examination, he will 
always include among his questions some theoretical and practical 
problems which ignominiously convict the crammed candidates, 
and he condemns their blunders far more remorselessly than the 
shortcomings of the conscientious student who has learned 
much less but understands a little more. A simple rudimentary 
treatise on physiology which, in the same space as the book 
before us, attempted to teach conscientiously and thoroughly 
about one-tenth of what is here pedantically heaped together, 
might enable a student to pass some of the more elementary 
examinations on physiology adapted to junior pupils; but this 
** Student’s Class Book” is utterly worthless for the purpose of 
the ‘‘really earnest student,” and can only serve as a delusion 
and a snare even to the student who is so misguided as to 
attempt to pass an examination .in physiology by merely 
cramming the memory with technicalities and learned phrases. 
A Treatise on Watch-Work, Past and Present. By the Rev. 
H. L. Nevturopp, M.A., F.S.A. London: E. and F. N. 
Spon. 1873. 
LET no one suppose that it is the watch-maker alone who will 
be interested in this little treatise. Indeed we doubt whether 
the work will find much favour in the trade; for the reverend 
writer exposes so many of the malpractices of the watch-maker’s 
craft that he will probably find himself as unpopular in Clerk- 
enwell as Mrs. Stowe is said to have been in the Southern 
States after the publication of her anti-slavery novels. 
During a century and a half, dating from about 1660, when 
Dr. Robert Hooke invented and applied the balance or pendulum- 
spring, the science of horology made great advances in this 
country. Those were the palmy days of watch-making when 
the workman took an intelligent interest in his work and sought 
to gain a reputation by the quality of his escapements. But, 
tempora mutantur, and at the present day our author maintains 
that there is not a rising man to lay claim to the sceptre of such 
makers as Mudge, Arnold, or Earnshaw, and that “in a few 
