NATURE 



[June 30, 1898 



OUR BUCK SHELF. 

 Notes from a Diary, 1873- 1 88 1, By the Right Hon. 



Sir Mountstuart E. Grant Duff, G.C.S.I. Vol. i., 



pp. iv + 334 ; Vol. ii., pp. 394- (London : John 



Murray, 1898.) 

 The only scientific interest which these volumes possess 

 is due to the fact that a number of distinguished men of 

 science are referred to in their pages, and occasional 

 mention is made of botanical species found in the 

 places visited by the author. Chatty reminiscences of 

 this kind are always interesting, and they become much 

 more so when they are related by a man with a wide 

 circle of friends among leaders in many branches of 

 intellectual and political activity. Almost all reference 

 to the working-day part of the author's life has been 

 eliminated, though during the whole period covered by 

 the volumes the author was a member of Parliament 

 actively engaged in political affairs. The volumes are 

 concerned with the lighter and recreative side of the 

 life of a public man, and as such contain notes on many 

 amusing occurrences, as well as open expressions of 

 opinions by distinguished men. Whether it is desirable 

 to give a permanent form to stories told in private 

 conversation, or to record casual opinions, may be 

 doubted ; but, by bestowing care upon the preparation 

 of the notes for the press, Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff 

 has been able to avoid publishing anything likely to 

 give offence. 



The volumes will provide after-dinner speakers with a 

 wealth of capital anecdotes. In 1877 the author was 

 shown an egg of the great auk, and was told that on 

 account of its rarity it was worth 60/. Since then, a 

 great auk's egg has been sold for nearly 300/. Referring 

 to the auk the author says : " This was the creature 

 whose name brought down on the ornithologist who 

 used it at the Belfast meeting, the criticism of the lady 

 who remarked — ' He can't be an educated man, he 

 speaks of the great 'awk ! ' " The following entry in the 

 diary for March 24, 1878, is interesting :— 



" At",High ^Elms, Lyon Playfair, amongst others, being of 

 the party. A propos of the Algerian conjurors, who apply hot 

 metal to their bodies without suffering, he explained to us that, 

 if only the metal is sufficiently hot, this can be done with 

 perfect security ; and told an amusing story of how, 

 when the Prince of Wales was studying under him in 

 Edinburgh, he had, after taking the precaution to make him 

 wash his hands in ammonia, in order to get rid of any grease 

 that might be on them, said : ' Now, sir, if you have faith in 

 science, you will plunge your right hand into that cauldron of 

 boiling lead, and ladle it out into the cold water which is 

 standing by.' 'Are you serious?' asked the pupil. 'Per- 

 fectly,' was the reply. ' If you tell me to do it, I will,' said the 

 Prince. ' I do tell you,' rejoined Playfair, and the Prince im- 

 mediately ladled out the burning liquid with perfect impunity." 



Several stories are told in connection with Darwin. 

 The following is an entry on December 15, 1880 : — 



" Drove with my hostess to Liverpool. She told me that she 

 had lately explained to Darwin the state of her sight, which is 

 very peculiar. ' Ah ! Lady Derby,' said the great philosopher, 

 ' how I should like to dissect you.' " 



The volumes are full of accounts of similar amusing 

 incidents, and will serve to while away many leisure 

 hours. 



Elements of Descriptive Astronomy. By Herbert Howe, 

 A.M., Sc.D. Pp. 340 + xii. (London : George Philip 

 and Son, 1897.) 

 This is an elementary text-book which touches briefly 

 upon the more important principles, facts, and theories 

 of astronomy. In such a general treatment of a large 

 subject, opinions are bound to differ as to what should be 

 included and what omitted, but the author has on the 

 whole made good use of his space. The arrangement 

 of matter is only marred by the subordinate position 



NO. 1496, VOL. 58] 



given to the spectroscope and the principles of spectrum 

 analysis. While the telescope is treated of in a separate 

 chapter, the spectroscope is given a few paragraphs in a 

 chapter on the sun,^ an arrangement which is apt to be 

 misleading now that the astronomical applications of the 

 latter instrument are as wide as those of the telescope. 



The author wisely insists on the necessity for actual 

 observations, even without instruments, and draws 

 attention to the need for the cultivation of what is 

 happily called the " geometric imagination." Each 

 chapter is provided with a number of exercises which 

 seem to be well adapted to assist the student. The 

 illustrations, including a set of star maps, are, with one 

 exception, admirable. Though the colouring of the 

 plate of spectra is excellent, several of the details are 

 inaccurate : for example, the spectrum of sodium is 

 represented as consisting of a bright line and two dark 

 ones, having no connection with the solar lines, and the 

 hydrogen spectrum is quite unrecognisable. 



In spite of the necessarily meagre character of much 

 of the information, the book has many attractive features, 

 and will give the student a good idea of the principal 

 teachings of astronomy. 



South American Sketches. By Robert Crawford, M.A. 



Pp. XX -I- 280. (London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 



1898.) 

 Three-fourths of this volume consist of narratives of 

 amusing and exciting personal experiences ; the remainder 

 contains general information on the natural history, 

 climatology, and geography of Uruguay. The author 

 resided in Uruguay for three and a half years, during 

 which period he was engaged in the construction of a 

 railway, and had good opportunities of observing the 

 nature of the country and the manners of the people. 

 The life of a railway engineer is never without its adven- 

 tures, so it is easy to imagine that the author did not 

 lack exciting incidents. Of course he witnessed a 

 revolution, and experienced some of the discomforts 

 suffered during periods of political disturbances in South 

 America. The descriptions of these incidents of public 

 and political life, and of perils by land and sea, are well 

 worth reading. Referring to the change of character of 

 streams in a few hours, Mr. Crawford says : " I have 

 known a little stream that I have repeatedly jumped 

 across on foot spread out to a width of more than a 

 hundred yards, with a depth of from ten to fifteen feet, 

 in five or six hours, and fall again as rapidly." The 

 rivers, as well as the smaller rivulets and brooks, are 

 affected in a similar way. 



Though the volume is not expressly intended for 

 schools, it contains enough adventures to interest young 

 readers, and conveys at the same time a large amount 

 of information concerning conditions of life in Uruguay. 



The Making of a Daisy; " Wheat out of Lilies" ; and 

 other Studies in Plattt-Life and Evolution. A Popular 

 Study of Botany. By Eleanor Hughes-Gibb. Pp. 

 126. (London : Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1898.) 

 Under a cumbersome title, we have here a half-dozen 

 short papers containing elementary descriptions of the 

 parts of a few common flowers and their functions. The 

 object of the author has been " to help my readers to 

 form some idea of the principles on which the classifica- 

 tion of flowering plants are based, and at the same time 

 to give a view of the chief divisions marked out upon 

 these principles." There is, however, little novelty either 

 in the plan or execution of the volume ; and though a 

 certain amount of instructive information may be ex- 

 tracted from its pages, it is garnished with too many 

 platitudes to be interesting. For readers who like to 

 draw moral lessons from natural processes, the book will 

 be found attractive ; but as a popular work on botany 

 little can be said in its praise. 



