Febkuary 1, 1888.] 



♦ KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



93 



systematically. His profusely and beautifullj' illustrated 

 work is encyclopjedic in its character, and should be upon 

 the sheh-es of every student of the natural history and 

 structure of the inhabitants of our rivers, lakes, and streams. 

 And while the naturalist will find it an admirable work of 

 reference, the angler will derive much information of the 

 greatest value from its pages, and the gonrmet gain many 

 hints of modes of adding to his gastronomic pleasures. The 

 variety of the fish which people fresh water will come almost 

 as a revelation to the multitude who regard trout, jack, roach, 

 dace, perch, and eels as constituting the major proportion, 

 if not the entire bulk, of its denizens ; for they will learn 

 something of the history and structure of that strange 

 survival from palaeozoic times, the sturgeon ; of the shad ; 

 of such rudimentary forms of creatures as the lampem, kc. : 

 while those whose interest in fish may be said to centre in 

 " little dinners at Greenwich " will discover that their 

 favourite whitebait is nothing in the world but the fry cf 

 the herring. Doubtless Professor Seeley's work will become, as 

 it deserves to become, fhe text-book of the subject to which 

 it is devoted. The classification adopted is, in the main, 

 t'ae well-known and excellent one of Dr. Giinther. 



Thi? Realisfic Tem'h iinj of (ieoiiraphy. By AViLLi A>t .Jolly, 

 F.R.S.E., F.G.S. (London : Blackie k Son.) — A more ad- 

 mirably common-sense little book than Mr. Jolly's has not 

 recently appeared. It ought to be in the hands of every 

 teacher of geography in the kingdom. 



The Physiological Effects of Artificial Sleep. By Dr. 



Mathias Eoxri. (London : Bailliere. Tindall, i Cox. 



1887.) — Dr. Both has great faith in hypnotism, or 

 artificially induced somnambulism, as a cure for various 

 forms of neurotic disease, and in his small pamphlet gives 

 a selection of cases to show how wonderfully efficacious this 

 mode of treatment has proved. His brochure is worthy of 

 stud\- by all labouring under any form of nervous complaint, 

 from the but too familiar neuralgia to those more obscure 

 species of disorder in which the mind is more or less affected. 



Humanism versm Theism is a series of letters by 

 Egbert Lewixs, M.D. (London: Freethought Publishing 

 Company. 1887.) — There is no God but Lswins, andXaden 

 is his prophet, may fairly be held to summarise the contents 

 of this queer little tract. Mr. Montague Tigg in " Martin 

 Chuzzlewit " " didn't believe that he didn't believe, hang 

 him if he did," and Dr. Lewins seems drifting rapidly in 

 the Tiggian direction. 



Pneumatics. By Charles Tomlixsox, F.R.S., F.C.S. 

 Fourth Edition, enlarged. (London : Crosby Lockwood ife 

 Co. 1887.) — Few writers in the present day possess the art 

 of popular scientific exposition in a gi-eater degiee than Mr. 

 Tomlinson ; and in this fourth and enlarged edition of his 

 well-known treatise on pneumatics, in " Weale's Series," he 

 worthily sustains his reputation for rendering somewhat 

 recondite physical questions easily intelligible to the reader 

 ignorant of mathematics. 



The Practical Engineers Handbook. By Walter 

 Hlttox, C. and M.E. (London : Crosby Lockwood & Co. 

 1887.) — Arranged in a very convenient form for reference, 

 Mr. Hutton's excellent cyclopaedia of modern engineering 

 workshop pi-actice leaves nothing to be desired. Amoly 

 illustrated by no less than 371 woodcuts, and brought down 

 in every department to the latest date, this is a volume 

 which should be upon the shelves of everyone engaged in 

 any of the numerous branches of modern mechanical 

 engineering. 



The Modern Treatment of Disease by the System of 

 Massage. By Thos. S. Dowse. M.D., F.R.C.P. (London : 

 Griffith, Farran, Okeden, k WeLsh. 1887.)— Among the ; 



latest of medical " fads " the treatment of disease by 

 rubbing, pounding, and kneading the human body occupies 

 a conspicuous place, and in the volume before us Dr. Dowse 

 instructs us in the methods of '-effleurage," "'petrissage," 

 " tapotement," and so forth. This used, we imagine, to be 

 called sham-pooing, but possibly we have arrived at the real 

 thing at last. If, though, we ever, for our sins, were com- 

 pelled to undergo this peculiar process, we think that, like 

 Sarah Battle, we should prefer " a quiet rubber." 



Recent Advances in Ehctricity. Edited by Hexrt 

 Greer. (New York. 1887.)— In a series of articles by the 

 editor of the Ekctrician, Professor Thomson, and Professor 

 Edison, an account is given of all the more recent advances 

 in applied electricity ; and we have illustrated descriptions 

 of the latest devices for electrical storage, of the method of 

 telegi-aphing from a train in motion, of a navigable balloon 

 or air-ship electrically propelled (with a cheerful engraving 

 of the destruction of a town by shells or bombs dropped 

 from the car thereof), of Mr. Edison's contrivance for the 

 production of electricit)' direct from fuel, and so on. This 

 pamphlet will be found useful by all engaged, either prac- 

 tically or theoretically, in the study of electrical science 

 and art. 



Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission. Vol. 

 VI., for 1886. (Washington. 1887.)— In the 471 pages 

 which make up this volume will be found an enormous mass 

 of detail in connection with the breeding, rearing, catching, 

 curing, and even cooking fish, derived from information 

 supplied from all parts of the world. The interest and 

 importance of this will become apparent when we reflect 

 upon the incalculable wealth of food which fish might 

 supply, and to how very limited an extent we avail ourselves 

 of it. There is a certain fitness in our receipt of this 

 valuable work at the time when an Anglo-American Com- 

 mission on International Fishery is sitting in the United 

 States. 



The Microscope in Theory and Practice. Translated from 

 the German of Professor Carl Xaegeli and Professor S. 

 ScuwEXDENER. (Loudon : Swan Sonnensehein, Lowrey, ife 

 Co. 1887.) — This translation of a portion of Xaegeli and 

 Schwendener's well-known work (partly made by Mr. Crisp, 

 though mainly by Mr. J. Mayall, jun.) may supplement 

 our leading English text-books, but will assuredly never 

 supersede them. At almost inordinate length, its anthora 

 enter into details a large proportion of which are to be found 

 in such books as Dr. Heath's admirable " Geometrical Optics," 

 to the exclusion of matter of much moi-e real interest to — 

 because le=s accessible by — the observer with the microscope 

 proper. The small part of the volume devoted to technical 

 microscopy is huddled up to make room for all this and 

 cognate matter on polarisation. The portion on testing the 

 optical power of the instrument would be useful to our 

 opticians, but for the fact that the)- happen to be familiar with 

 it already. The really valuable part of the book is that 

 which is explanatory of microscopic vision, and which treats 

 of the theory of microscopic observation generally. All 

 those who conceive that the images of the markings on a 

 diatom are produced in the same manner as that of a church 

 spire in a landscape viewed with the naked ej-e, should study 

 this portion of the work before us carefully. The}' may do 

 so profitably and with advantage. 



Sprains. By C. W. Mansell Moulix, M.A., M.D., 

 F.R.C.S. (London: H. K. Lewis. 1887.)— It is a 

 common saying that a simple fracture is not half so 

 had as a serious sprain, although undoubtedly in a large 

 number of cases the gravity of the latter form of injury is 

 too much underrated. As Dr. Moulin says in his preface 



