74 



NA TURE 



[November 24, 1892 



judge strongly advocate it. Supported, therefore, as we 

 have shown it to be, by the legal and moral sanction of 

 the civilized and scientific world, it follows that the 

 " general conscience " of which Mr. Salt speaks must find 

 its local habitation in the minds of a class of persons 

 about as enlightened as those who fomented the riots 

 against the study of anatomy, a noisy and violent agita- 

 tion, which has died the natural death of ignorant 

 prejudice. 



For the refutation of the second proposition, viz. that 

 of the cruel wrong done to an innocent animal by sacri- 

 ficing it for the good of others, we must refer Mr, Salt to 

 his own principle of animals' rights, in which the freedom 

 conceded to them to live their own lives is very properly 

 made " subject to the limitations imposed by the perma- 

 nent needs and interests of the community," and we fail 

 to see how the logical application of an acknowledged 

 right can be supposed to involve the infliction of a " cruel 

 wrong." 



The contention of the scientific experimentalist is 

 exactly that which is here conceded by Mr. Salt, viz. that 

 the interests of individuals of the lower race must 

 morally be treated as subordinate to those of the higher, 

 and that while men are bound to benevolently regard all 

 harmless animals, and never to inflict pain upon them 

 wantonly, they not only may but ought to do so when the 

 suffering thus caused is but one-tenth in intensity and 

 one-millionth in quantity of that which it is designed to 

 avert from both mankind and the lower animals. The 

 whole matter is in truth a rule of three sum, and unless 

 the anti-vivisectionist can successfully demonstrate that 

 the scientific statement of accounts is false, his outcry is 

 but the confession of the immoral fact that, rather than 

 inflict an infinitely less amount of physical suffering upon 

 some individuals of a lower race, he wilfully prefers to 

 perpetuate a far greater amount of both physical and 

 psychical agony among the whole community of animals 

 and men. When such an avowal of callousness can be 

 seriously advanced in the name of humanity we are 

 tempted to believe that chaos is come again. 



We should not omit to mention that Mr. Salt appears 

 to be an ardent republican, and that he looks for the 

 advent of his animal millenniun upon the establishment 

 of an " enlightened sense of equality," but whether of 

 men with animals, of both with insects, or all three with 

 bacteria, he does not say, nor are we concerned to 

 enquire. 



ELEMENTAR V PH YSIOGRAPHY. 



A Description of the Laws and Wonders of Nature. 

 By Richard A. Gregory, F.R.A.S. (London : Jos. 

 Hughes and Co.) 



NOTWITHSTANDING the numerous text-books 

 that have been issued from time to time on this 

 subject, it seems to Mr. Gregory that there is still room 

 for another, for whose appearance, however, he apologizes 

 and offers an explanation. 



A work on physiography is not, as some people, who 



ought to know better, seem to think, limited to the study 



of physical geography. At least that is not the view, the 



author emphatically asserts, of Profs. JudJ and Lockyer, 



• NO. 1204, VOL. 47] 



whose opinion in this matter is final for the students 

 interested. Neither is it a work on astronomy, nor 

 chemistry, nor geology, nor any specialized science, whose 

 aim and scope are recognized and defined, though doubt- 

 less it is allied to all. As soon as an author treats of any 

 of these subjects in detail, he is travelling beyond the 

 record. To this fact Mr. Gregory is fully alive. His 

 object, if we have understood him correctly, consists 

 rather in showing that some knowledge of all branches of 

 physical science is necessary for the pursuit of one, and 

 this kind of general knowledge he considers comprised 

 under the generic term, physiography. It is the kind of 

 information which every so-called educated person ought 

 to possess, and without which he is not educated. 



It may not seem a very ambitious task to write a book 

 to meet the requirements of a syllabus, and our author 

 thinks it necessary to defend himself against the charge 

 of producing a cram book, addressed to the few ambitious 

 of possessing a South Kensington certificate. But the 

 task need not be the less useful or the less necessary on 

 that account. Indeed, there is one circumstance con- 

 nected with the appearance of this book which is very 

 satisfactory, and should be a subject for congratulation. 

 The author asserts that the book is rendered essential 

 from the fact that the examiners have found it necessary 

 or desirable to raise their standard for examination. 

 This means that the Department has proved, that the 

 general character of the education given to tnose classes 

 from which the candidates for examination are drawn 

 has so improved that a greater amount of information 

 can be demanded than was formerly the case. 



But independently of the fact that the author addresses 

 himself principally to those preparing for the ordeal of 

 examination, he has produced a very readable book, a 

 little too much like an encyclopaedia perhaps for ordinary 

 tastes, but replete with a vast deal of information, by no 

 means ill-arranged and generally expressed with exact- 

 ness ; but the effort to impart and to treat lightly and 

 discursively of many branches of information is apt to 

 give to the book a disconnected and incoherent aspect, 

 and this is the principal defect that can be urged against 

 the work. As soon as a subject is introduced it is neces- 

 sary to drop it, because to pursue it in detail would be to 

 enter into the domain of some science whose limits are 

 fixed, and to which further discussion properly belongs— 

 for instance, we have a chapter on water (its composition 

 and different states), which it might seem very desirable 

 to pursue at greater length ; but as soon as the student 

 gets interested, without a word of warning the subject is 

 dropped, and he finds himself introduced to the method 

 of measuring angular space and time. This naturally 

 leads on to some preliminary account of astronomy and 

 astronomical methods, ending with the measurement of 

 the day and year, and then, on turning the page, the 

 reader is not allowed to continue the subject, but is 

 invited to consider the composition and characteristics of 

 common rocks. This incoherency is perhaps insepar- 

 able from the subject ; but we think the author might 

 have developed his introductory chapter at greater length 

 and put his scheme and sequence of thought more fully 

 before his reader, so as to prepare him for these sudden 

 deviations from continuity. 



