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NATURE 



{Jan. 30, 1879 



and fast lines of thought or operation, we are quite of 

 opinion that those who make original researches, or are 

 about to malce them, may gain much from orderly methods 

 of manipulation, and a knowledge of the right application 

 of logical inference. Bacon attempted to describe such 

 methods in his " Inquisitio de Forma Calidi," and failed, 

 because at that time there did not exist a sufficient basis 

 upon which to found an exhaustive experimental treat- 

 ment of the subject. 



Two interesting chapters in the first part of the boo': 

 are devoted, the one to the facts and propositions in 

 science, and the other to the criteria of scientific truth. 

 We are reminded herein of an interesting treatment of 

 these subjects in the "Philosophic M^thodique" of M. 

 de Strada, to which we venture to refer our author. 



Among the conditions of success in research Mr. Gore 

 very justly enumerates enthusiasm. Of this he quotes 

 several examples. Becher, of Phlogiston fame, after 

 speaking of the chemists as " a strange class of mortals 

 impelled by an almost insane impulse to seek their 

 pleasure among smoke and vapour, soot and flame, 

 poisons and poverty," adds : "Yet among all these evils 

 I seem to myself to live so sweetly, that may I die if I 

 would change places with the Persian King ! " The 

 fascination of original research is undoubted, the en- 

 thusiasm which it sometimes inspires is unbounded. We 

 remember an instance of a schoolboy who seriously pro- 

 posed staying at school for several days at the beginning 

 of the Christmas hoHdays, when " home, sweet home," is 

 doubly sweet, in order to continue a research. And truly, 

 were it not for the enthusiasm which it engenders, the 

 amount of original work done in the world would be 

 much less than it is, seeing that it is usually accompanied 

 by numberless vexations and disappointments, and that it 

 requires unwearied application and perseverance, joined 

 to the possession of an undaunted spirit. 



Of Mr. Gore's work as a whole we may say that it 

 exhibits great industry in the collection of facts and a con- 

 siderable amount of logical acumen in their discussion. 

 Perhaps, however, the arrangement might be simplified. 

 The mass of matter to be digested is so great that any 

 increased modes of classification of the subjects that 

 could be adopted would add to the value of the book. 

 This could best be effected by numbering the para- 

 graphs ; by adding marginal references giving the gist of 

 each paragraph, and by making some of the chapters 

 more aphoristic in character. These changes could be 

 easily effected in a second edition. 



G. F. RODWELL 



LEISURE-TIME STUDIES 



Leisure-Time Studies; chiefly Biological; a Series of 

 Essays and Lectures. By Andrew Wilson, Ph.D., 

 F.R.P.S.E., &c. With numerous Illustrations. (Lon. 

 don: Chatto and Windus, 1879.) 



THIS volume of Essays and Addresses does not pro- 

 fess to contain anything new, either in the way of 

 observation or theory. Neither is the author's style 

 sufficiently brilliant, or his treatment of the subjects 

 sufficiently original to raise them much above the level 

 of the average lectures of a well-informed naturalist. 

 They will, however, afford some useful and interesting 



information to the general reader, and may serve to 

 attract attention to the question of the introduction of 

 biology into ordinary education. This is the^ special 

 subject of the first address, which, however, though 

 somewhat lengthy and profuse, does not attempt to 

 grapple with the difficulty of finding competent teachers 

 of biology for all our schools. It is indeed suggested, 

 that ''the amount of knowledge required to pass even 

 the primary stage of the biological subjects, in the govern- 

 ment examinations, held under the auspices of the Science 

 and Art Department," should fit its possessor for impart- 

 ing elementary instruction in biology. But we greatly 

 doubt whether the examiners would be of this opinion ; 

 and we rather think it would be a distressing sight to 

 witness a teacher, whose whole knowledge of the subject 

 was derived from a course of study just sufficient to 

 enable him to pass such an examination, exposed to the 

 questions of a lot of intelligent country boys and girls, 

 whose practical acquaintance with native plants and 

 animals was far more extensive and accurate than his 

 own. If biology is to be taught in schools it must not be 

 by the regular school-teachers qualifying themselves by 

 a few months' training in London, but by the employment 

 of good naturalists to give lectures, demonstrations, and 

 out-door excursions to all the schools of a district in 

 succession. 



In the succeeding address, on " Science-culture for the 

 Masses," too much stress is laid on the teaching of science 

 as "a pleasant system of mental gymnastics." This 

 seems to us altogether a wrong ground to go upon. 

 Science is not to be taught in order to strengthen the 

 mind to do something else by and by, but because it 

 opens the mind to a more adequate conception of the 

 universe in which we live, and is in itself, truly, the 

 knowledge which is power. 



The lecture on "The Sea-serpents of Science" is 

 interesting, both as giving a very fair summary of the 

 most recent evidence on this subject, and as showing that 

 the age of incredulity is past, and that naturalists are now 

 prepared to admit that several distinct kinds of oceanic 

 monsters probably exist, of which no single specimen has 

 yet been obtained. Recollecting, however, the number 

 of clever hoaxes to which this subject has given rise, we 

 think that the newspaper account at p. 104, of the decla- 

 ration before a Liverpool J. P., made by the master and 

 crew of a merchant-ship, to the effect that they had seen 

 a huge serpent twice coiled round a sperm whale, and a 

 similar serpent with its head raised " sixty feet perpen- 

 dicularly in the air," should not have been inserted as 

 evidence without first ascertaining that such a declaration 

 was actually made before the magistrate named. The 

 trouble of writing a single letter would probably have 

 been sufficient, and would have settled the preliminary 

 question of whether the whole story, from beginning to 

 end, was not a pure newspaper canard. 



The article on "The Genesis of Life" repeats the now 

 often-told tale of the fluctuations of opinion as to sponta- 

 neous generation, and will be interesting to those who 

 have not read it elsewhere. Dr. Wilson tries his best to 

 be impartial, and to place before his reader the exact 

 position of the question at the present time. ' He acknow- 

 ledges that "isolation" and "destruction" are the two 

 great points of all experiments on the subject, and that if 



