Jan. 23, 1879] 



NATURE 



265 



written from the American point of view ; but to an 

 English reader this adds little that seems peculiar, and 

 were it not for the price of the work, it might very -ffell 

 be put into the English market. Altogether it is highly 

 creditable to publishers and editors, as well as to Ameri- 

 can enterprise. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



The Fairy-Land of Science. By Arabella B. Buckley. 



(London : Stanford, 1878.) 



The modest preface which Miss Buckley has prefixed 

 to her attractive-looking volume almost disarms criti- 

 cism, her desire being, she states, simply to awaken a 

 love of nature and of science, while giving pleasure to 

 young people. In this aim Miss Buckley will, we have 

 no doubt, fully succeed. 



The substance of this volume was given as a series of 

 lectures to children last spring, at St. John's Wood, and it 

 is at the request of friends who were then present, that 

 the lectures have been printed. We could wish that 

 there were some one in ever>- town equally gifted in ren- 

 dering science attractive to young people and thus inciting 

 them to a farther and deeper study of natural knowledge. 



It would be easy to find fault with some things in this 

 book if we simply regarded it from the narrow standpoint 

 of the scientific critic, without taking into consideration 

 the aim of the author ; but as a reading-book to inspire 

 children with a love for nature, which is all the author 

 claims for it, we do not know of a more interesting nor 

 useful gateway to science. The really admirable illustra- 

 tions with which the book abounds and the pleasant, light 

 manner in which the author carries her readers along 

 from one subject to another will make the " Fair)'-Land 

 of Science " a welcome and useful addition to juvenile 

 literature. 



In the opening lecture Miss Buckley introduces us to 

 her fairies, showing how things far more wonderful than 

 those related in fair>'-tales are daily happening around 

 us, and also how this fairy-land of science may be 

 entered by any one with eyes and with a wish to use 

 these eyes. 



In concluding the series of lectures, after showing how 

 it is but the outskirts of this fairy domain which has 

 been touched, the results of a study of science are thus 

 summed up : — 



" Pleasant and happy thoughts may thus be conjured 

 up at any time, wherever we find ourselves, by simply 

 calling upon nature's fairies and asking^them to speak to 

 us. Is it not strange, then, that people should pass them 

 by so often without a thought, and be content to grow up 

 ignorant of all the wonderful powers ever active in the 

 world around them ? 



" Neither is it pleasure alone which we gain by a study 

 of nature. We cannot examine even a tiny sunbeam, 

 and picture the minute waves of which it is composed, 

 travelling incessantly from the sun, without being filled 

 with wonder and awe at the marvellous activity and 

 power displayed in the infinitely small as well as in the 

 infinitely great things of the universe. We cannot become 

 familiar with the facts of gravitation, cohesion, or crystal- 

 lisation without realising that the laws of nature are fixed, 

 orderly, and constant, and will repay us with failure or 

 success according as we act ignorantly or wisely ; and 

 thus we shall begin to be afraid of leading careless, 

 useless, and idle Hves. We cannot watch the working of 

 the fairy * life ' in the primrose or the bee, without learn- 

 ing that living beings as well as inanimate things are 

 governed by these same laws of nature ; nor can we con- 

 template the mutual adaptation of bees and flowers without 

 acknowledging that it teaches the truth that those succeed 

 best in life who, whether consciously or unconsciously, 

 do their best for others." 



\ 



This extract will be sufficient to show the happy way 

 in which Miss Buckley addresses her young hearers and 

 readers. At the same time the author would, in our opinion, 

 have done better had she not attempted to travel over so 

 wide a range of subjects as is embraced in her lectures, 

 for we skip from chemistry to physics, then to meteoro- 

 logy, physical geography, and geology, thence to the life 

 of a primrose, afterwards to coal, then to bees, and 

 finally to the fertilisation of plants. This discursiveness 

 leads to occasional looseness of statement, as, for ex- 

 ample, employing the terms positive and negative to 

 express the poles of a magnet ; it also causes a slurring 

 over difficulties, as in the attempt to explain the measure- 

 ment of the wave-lengths of light which, with the subject 

 of diffraction, had better have been omitted in a child's 

 book like the one before us. 



More durable and equally interesting information might 

 have been given by selecting some one branch of science, 

 examining carefully a few simple phenomena, and regard- 

 ing them under various aspects; Faraday's juvenile lee 

 tures at the Royal Institution— his lectures on a candle, 

 for instance— are the best illustrations of what we mean. 



In the study of nature there are very many statements 

 which a child must take simply on the assertion of his 

 or her teacher, with the explanation that their verifica- 

 tion is only possible when the child has grown older and 

 wiser; regions are thus opened up beyond its present 

 powers, and the first lesson in education has been learnt 

 — the consciousness of ignorance. We have no doubt, 

 however, that this lesson Miss Buckley would wish to 

 convey as much as we ourselves. 



New Commercial Plants, with Directions for their Growt7i 

 and Utilisation. By Thos. Christy, F.L.S. (London \ 

 Christy and Co., 1878.) 



This is the second of what is evidently intended to fomt 

 a series of pamphlets on plants either of entirely new 

 economic interest or those whose uses have been extended 

 or developed or are capable of being developed. It is a 

 matter of notoriety that numerous products of the vege- 

 table kingdom require only to be more generally or better 

 known to become more largely used. New products which 

 reach our markets often fall entirely through, simply for 

 the want of a proper appreciation of their \-alue or of 

 some one to take them up and properly test them. This 

 task Mr. Christy seems to have set himself to do, for 

 in his preface he asks for information upon new drugs or 

 plants, such as notes bearing upon their properties and 

 uses, and what is a verj- valuable point indeed, he appeals 

 to residents in tropical countries for flowers, leaves, and 

 fruits of any useful plant, all of which can be sent any 

 distance in perfect condition in jars or bottles filled with 

 salt and water. This advice is Avell worthy of considera-^" 

 tion by those in distant lands who have opportunities for? 

 sending home such specimens, for it often happens that. 

 much time, trouble, and expense are thrown away by 

 sending home specimens in such a manner that they rot 

 on the voyage. , " 



As an illustration of Avha;t is a " new comniercial " 

 product so far as this country is concerned, but which 

 has been known and used in India for a long time, we 

 may mention the Chaulmugra {Gynocardia odorata), a 

 full description of which, accompanied by a figure, is 

 given by Mr. Christy. It is not a little remarkable the 

 rapidity with which the oil from the seed of this tree 

 has become adopted by the medical profession in this 

 country for consumptive and cutaneous diseases. Amongst 

 the other plants treated of in the pamphlet under review 

 are Urostigmd vogelii, Miq., a new source of india-rubber 

 from West Africa, the Mahwa tree {Bassia latifolia, 

 Roxb.), a native of the East Indies, the flowers of which 

 are produced very abundantly and yield a large quantity 

 of spirit. 



