254 Notices of Books. (April, 
lightning. Deaths from lightning were most numerous in 1870, 
202 deaths were recorded throughout the whole country: the 
deaths from sunstroke are twice as numerous. ‘The instan- 
taneous appearance of rigor mortis in the case of persons killed | 
by lightning appears to be well authenticated. A curious slip of 
the pen may be noticed on p. 289, where the author, in men- 
tioning the fact that the Emperor Augustus used to retire to a 
cave on the approach of a thunderstorm, puts him and his 
adjective in the accusative case:—‘‘divum Augustum.” The 
Romans considered seal-skins a preventive to lightning, and the 
emperor Tiberius caused himself, on the approach of a storm, 
to be crowned with laurel, believing that lightning never struck 
the plant sacred to Apollo. 
An interesting and novel chapter is devoted to ‘‘ The Pri- 
meval Atmosphere.” In this the author points out that during 
the Silurian epoch—the earliest of all—the atmosphere must 
have been as transparent as it is now; he questions whether the 
air during the luxuriant carboniferous epoch can have had much 
more carbonic acid in it than it has now, for Liebig has shown, 
that if all the carbon contained in all living vegetation and in 
the coal measures was in the atmosphere again in the form of 
carbonic acid, the quantity of that gas in the air would scarcely 
be doubled, and would not be unfit for the respiration of the 
higher animals. While the composition of the air may not 
have undergone much change the temperature certainly has, for 
coal has been discovered in the Arctic regions, and in it plants 
that could only grow in a temperate climate. Again, during the 
Miocene Period, the temperature of Europe must have been at 
least sub-tropical; the flora somewhat resembles that of South 
Carolina, while apes abounded in the Pyrenees and in Greece. 
The latter chapters of the work are devoted to flying and 
ballooning. . 
The work, from beginning to end, is pleasantly written, and is 
very readable; it is crowded with facts derived from every avail- 
able source, and however dry they may be in the abstract, they 
are clothed here in popular language, and their true interest is 
shown. The work is well printed, and beautifully illustrated by 
chromoxylographic plates, and by a good map and woodcuts. 
It belongs to the ‘‘ Guillemin ” and ‘‘ Flammarion” class. Such 
books do much to induce a love for science and for Nature, and 
we cordially recommend this work to the notice of all our readers. 
Science Primers. Astronomy. By J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S. 
Illustrated. Macmillan and Co. 1874. 
Tuis little work forms the sixth of the series of Science Primers, 
edited by Professors Huxley, Roscoe, and Balfour Stewart. 
Although modestly called a Primer, it contains an immense deal 
