Oct. 13, 1887] 



MATURE 



555 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Longmans^ Shilling Geography. (Longmans, 1887.) 



This book is dated 1887. It would have disgraced 1862. 

 On the first three pages a volcano is defined as " a 

 mountain from which smoke, flames, ashes, and lava are 

 thrown," the words "continent" and "hemisphere" are 

 treated as synonymous, and the unqualified statement is 

 made that Yorkshire is the basin of the River Ouse. On 

 p. 94 the tributary States of India are styled indepen- 

 dent, and on p. 137 the warm water which drifts towards 

 the Pole is placed " low " (deep ?). The mass of the book 

 is of the old vicious type — composed of lists of names 

 and disconnected remarks ; and what remains is a dis- 

 orderly compilation of statements intended to be scien- 

 tific, but from which the essential point is often omitted. 

 The maps are numerous, but not of a high order. On 

 some of them dials are inserted, showing relative time ; 

 but why this should be done for European countries 

 where the difference of time from Greenwich time is 

 counted in minutes, and yet not for the United States, 

 India, or Australia, is not quite obvious. The book 

 is careless and ignorant, and its plan radically bad. We 

 hope that teachers will not be deceived by the title, and 

 imagine that they have here a shortened form of " Long- 

 mans' School Geography" by Chisholm. H. J. M. 



Les Plantes des Champs et des Bois. Par Gaston Bonnier. 

 (Paris, 1887.) 



It is an accusation which has been justly brought against 

 the botanists of this country that they habitually write in 

 an austere style, which will repel rather than attract the 

 general public ; it would be difficult to point to any 

 among the younger men representative of the science 

 who have taken the trouble to please or interest the laity. 

 It is true Miss Plues and Mrs. Gatty have made the 

 attempt, but theirs are books which date many years 

 back. The French are much less open to this charge, 

 having a peculiar and in some cases even a dangerous 

 aptitude for dressing science in popular colours. The 

 "Vegetable World" of Figuier, well known to us from 

 its English translation, has done good service in the past, 

 and now Prof Bonnier has produced a popular book, 

 made attractive by numerous illustrations, and written 

 in a style which will be readily followed by those who 

 as yet know nothing of the science of botany. 



The plan of the book is well adapted to the object 

 before its author : an introduction of some 50 pages suffices 

 for the definition of terms, and of the fundamental points 

 in organography, together with a brief sketch of classifi- 

 cation. Armed with this limited but sufficient know- 

 ledge, the reader may enter upon his studies in the field. 

 The author divides these into four parts, according to 

 the season of the year, and starting with spring. The 

 description of the plants likely to be found is so arranged 

 as to form a series of progressive lessons, and when 

 autumn is reached the attentive reader will have acquired 

 a fair knowledge of the external form and relationships 

 of many common plants, both Phanerogamic and Crypto- 

 gamic. The book is not, and does not pretend to be, any 

 contribution to the sum of knowledge ; nevertheless, by 

 means of the easy text and suitable illustrations, the effort 

 of its author to make the rudiments of his science accept- 

 able to the eye, as well as to the understanding, of the 

 general public, should meet with the success it well 

 deserves. F. O. B. 



The Hand-book of Jamaica for 1887-88. By A. C. 



Sinclair and Laurence R. Fyfe. (London : Edward 



Stanford, 1887.) 

 The compilers of this "Hand-book" have brought to- 

 gether a great mass of trustworthy and useful information 

 about Jamaica. A good description of the island is 

 followed by an historical sketch, after which comes a 



chronological history, brought down to June 30 last. 

 Then we find all the necessary facts about the political 

 constitution, the revenue, and expenditure, the various 

 departments of the public service, and many other sub- 

 jects. The articles which appeared in previous editions 

 have been revised, and a good deal of new matter has 

 been introduced. Most persons who may have occa- 

 sion to refer to the volume will be glad to find in it 

 an account (reprinted from the fatiiaica Gazette) of the 

 cyclone of last year, by Mr. Maxwell Hall, the list of 

 medicinal and economic plants of the colony prepared by 

 Mr. Fawcett, and the list of sugar-canes prepared by 

 Messrs. Fawcett and Morris. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



\The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he under- 

 take to return, or to correspond with the writers of, 

 rejected manuscripts. No ttotice is taken of anonymous 

 com m un ic at ions. 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their 

 letters as short as possible. The pressure on his spcue 

 is so great that it is impossible other-wise to insure the 

 appearance even of communications containing interesting 

 and novel facts. '\ 



The Natural History of the Roman Numerals. 



That the Roman numerals, in their primitive forms, 

 articulately symbolized a quinary notation based on the hand 



sign \/ > is the view which the following observations are 



intended to explain. 



A system of enumeration which arose naturally in the pro- 

 gress of the race would be moulded by the kind of expedient 

 adopted in learning to count, by the methcds employed in 

 communicating numbers, and by the difficulty of retaining in the 

 memory more than a very few similar signs or sounds repeated 

 in succession. It is not generally doubted that primitive man 

 learned to count, like the child, on his fingers, first on the one 

 hand, and then on the other. The first stage of numeration was 

 thus reached at five, the second at five and five. Numbers were 

 thought of as represented by fingers and hands. Froai mental 

 helps these bodily members naturally passed into communicative 

 signs : the uplifted finger or finger.-, the outspread hand or hands. 

 This would be followed by the use of numerical language. At first 

 only three numbers would have names, there would be a name 

 for one, for five, and for double five. In communicating num- 

 bers four times would seem to have been the limit wthin which 

 the same sign or sound could be repeated in succession without 

 risk of confusion. If this influence alone had been at work, a 

 new name and sign would have been reached at five, at five 

 limes five, and at five times five times five, and a perfect and 

 consistent quinary scale would have been the result. But to the 

 primitive man the two hands together would as naturally repre- 

 sent in thought and in communication two fives as the single 

 hand would five ones ; so that after double five the next stage 

 would be five double fives, or five times the outspread hands. 

 For this a fresh sound and a new sign would have to be found. 

 It would be vain to conjecture the name, but surely not un- 

 reasonable to suppose that this sign would be made by some 

 manner of placing the hand between the feet. 



Having reached this point, and in so doing exhausted the 

 simple IxKlily signs which would naturally be made use of, 

 recourse would be had to marks drawn with the finger upon soft 

 earth or sand. The first written symbols would almost certainly 

 be numerals: nor is it unlikely that from their use arose the 

 idea of an alphalet, and from their shapes the first forms which 

 letters assumed. And these shapes could be nothing else than 

 imitations of the gesture signs. The finger sign would give the 



stroke I , the five fingers in the unity of the hand wotdd be repre- 

 sented by five strokes converging together, y^/ ; this, again, 

 would be doubled and conjoined, ^^1/^^/ , to resemble the 



