1874.] Notices ef Books. 533 
appearance—in order to secure their evidence at an approaching 
or postponed trial. Apart from the obvious injustice of such a 
system, we think it must frustrate the enforcement of the law, 
by furnishing those who are in any way aware of the perpetration 
of a crime with a reason for keeping silence even more potent 
than the insolence and the brow-beating which witnesses, except 
persons of rank and station, have to suffer from counsel in 
England. 
To statisticians, philanthropists, and persons interested in the 
management of asylums, hospitals, gaols, and poor-houses, this 
volume will prove invaluable. 
Mineralogy. By Frank Ruttey, F.G.S. London: T. Murby. 
Tuis work belongs to ‘‘Murby’s Science and Art Department 
Series of Text-Books,” edited by B. J. Skertchly, F.G.S. What 
share, if any, the last-named gentleman has had in the produc- 
tion of the treatise, or to what extent he is responsible for its 
contents, it does not appear. The work, as we are told in the 
Preface, is destined to meet ‘“‘the requirements both of ele- 
mentary and advanced students for the Science and Art Depart- 
ment Examinations.” It may, perhaps, be looked upon as an 
old-fashioned prejudice, but we like people to study any subject 
whatever in order to know, and not in order to pass examina- 
tions. We dislike cram, crammers, and crammees. We have 
no sympathy for the man into whom a certain dose of science 
has been forced at high pressure, like carbonic acid into a bottle 
of soda-water. When the pressure is removed, the science in 
the one case and the gas in the other escape with noise and 
effervescence, leaving a residue stale, flat, and unprofitable. 
But whilst thus taking exception to the declared object of the 
work, we must speak favourably of its contents. It might prove 
a difficult task to present a greater amount of useful matter in 
so limited a compass. The distinctive features.to which the 
author lays claim are the general arrangement of the materials, 
the minerals being ‘“ grouped according to their most prominent 
basic constituents, and preceded by a brief description of the 
chemical and physical characters of the leading base in each 
group.” 
In the illustrations there is a novel feature:—The manner in 
which crystals are drawn and their faces shaded is peculiar, the 
shading or stippling being made to show at a glance the mutual 
relation of the faces developed on compound forms. The 
classification of the silicates has been made to depend on the 
crystallographic systems to which they belong. 
The work begins with a definition of minerals as distinguished 
from organic bodies, and an explanation of the difference be- 
tween mineral species and rocks, showing the respective spheres 
VOL. IV. (N.S.) 3Y 
