188 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[June 1, 1888. 



them ingenious and some of tbem new, these cannot fail to 

 give any intelligent boj or youth sound ideas on the subject 

 of elementary physics, and for this purpose Mr. Stephen's 

 little book may be confidently recommended. 



Volapiik, or Universal Language. By Alfred Kirch- 

 HOFF. (London; Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey, &, Co. 

 18SS.) — Kei/ to the Volnpiik Grammar. (Same Author and 

 Publishers ) — Whether a universal language iii attainable, 

 or even desirable, may reasonably be a subject for discussion ; 

 but that " VolapUk " will ever become that language is in 

 the very highest degree improbable. Medievally, Latin 

 was the means of communication among scholars of all 

 nationalities, as to-day French is the language of diplomacy; 

 but if any form of world-speech is now to be adopted, by 

 far the simplest plan would be to select the existing lan- 

 guage spoken by the greatest number of civilised meu, and 

 adopt tliat as the common vehicle of thought among the 

 different nations of the earth. It needs no superhuman 

 acumen to determine what that language must, ex necessitate, 

 be. Hen- Kirchhofl^, however, in this matter assumes the 

 attitude of the militiaman, who, being reminded by his left- 

 hand man that he was out of step with the entire battalion, 

 retorted, " Change yourn, then ! " We gravely doubt 

 whether he will get many Englishmen to take the trouble 

 to master his grotesque and cacophonous new language, at a 

 time when their own mother-tongue is .so rapidly spreading 

 in every part of the habitable globe. 



Discursive Essays on the Phenomena of the Heavens, 

 d-c, (tc, d-c. By Cosmopolites. (London : London Literary 

 Society.) — An evil fashion has sprung up of late years 

 among book compilers which deserves exposure. It pertains 

 mainly to the .school of cosmogonists, and gentry who come 

 forward with theories more or less new (and more rather 

 than less, idiotic) of the physical structure and dominant 

 forces of the universe. These people, unprepared by pre- 

 vious mathematical and physical training, begin by sedulously 

 cramming up the contents of a few books on popular science, 

 whose facts they empty wholesale into their pages ; and 

 then, upon this foundation, build their own preposterous 

 theories. If any one ventures to criticise their nonsense, 

 the stock answer is that their facts are irrefragable, as 

 though the granting of this postulate carried with it the 

 admission that their inferences must be also I Of (what we 

 may perhaps call, without offence,) this Kinnsian style of 

 argument (1), " Cosmopolites " is seemingly one of the latest 

 exponents. When we say that he sets forth as an 

 " axiom " that " every atom of matter in the solid, fluid, 

 or gaseous state throughout the entire universe, contains the 

 essence, or principle of heat, of which light is an emanation, 

 a quality, or manifestation " (page 47) ; that he treats cold as 

 an actual entity and not as the mere absence of heat; that 

 he regards certain aerolites as actually formed in our own 

 atmosphere — and so on, and so forth, we feel that we 

 should not be justified in further trespassing upon our 

 readers' time by any detailed criticism of these well-named 

 " Discursive " Essays. 



Lockwood's Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering Tirms. 

 (London : Crosby Lockwood ife Co. 1888.) — This carefully 

 compiled volume forms a kind of pocket cyclopaedia of the 

 extensive .subject to which it is devoted, and will be found 

 useful alike to the artificer and to the amateur reader of 

 technical works on mechanical m.anipulation. No word 

 having connection with any bi'anoh of constructive engineer- 

 ing seems to be omitted ; and, while we find a short article 

 on the " Occlusion of Gases " on p. 23G, the author does not 

 omit to define with equal care, on p. 377, so familiar an 

 object in the workshop as a " Tommy " ; the meanings of 

 " Unit of Heat " and " Jim Crow," too, alike finding their 



places in his pages. No more comprehensive work has been, 

 so far, issued. 



The Gene.ns of Federation. By Maurice H. Hervey. 

 (Sydney : John Sands. 1887.) — Mr. Hervey has a magni- 

 ficent scheme for the federation of all colonies, state.=, 

 dominions, and dependencies which at present acknowledge 

 British rule ; but as it comprehends, inter alia, the division 

 of the United Kingdom into four autonomous states of 

 England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, we need not discuss 

 it here. 



Internationales Archiv fUr ElJmographie. Band I. 

 Hefte I. and II. (London: Triibner cfc Co.) — The first two 

 parts of what promises to be a work of the highest value to 

 the ethnographer and anthropologist lie before us. Few 

 persons have any conception of the vast amount of unem- 

 ployed material in the shape of ethnographical collections 

 which reposes upon the shelves of so many museums, and it 

 is to render this available to the .scientific public that the 

 present series has been projected. Each part contains a 

 series of detached essays on the various branches of the sub- 

 ject to which the work is devoted ; the principal paper in 

 the first part being devoted to New Guinea, and the 

 corresponding one, in the second, to Liberia. Nothing 

 more beautiful than the coloured illustrations of weapons, 

 instruments, and implements h.as appeared for a very long 

 time. 



The Asclepiad. By B. W. Richardson, M.D., F.R.S. 

 (London : Longmans, Green, & Co. 1888.) — Once again 

 ■we welcome the quarterly number of Dr. Richardson's 

 excellent and valuable serial. As we have formerly had 

 occasion to remark, while primarily addressed to the medical 

 profession, it is almost impossible to find a part destitute of 

 matter of interest to the ordinary reader. To take the one 

 before us as an illustration : it contains an article on 

 embalming, and a biographical sketch of the famous Dr. 

 Mead, who introduced inoculation into this country, stood 

 by the death-bed of Queen Anne, and was physician to 

 George II. Assuredly this capital contribution to medical 

 literature exhibits no sign of decadence. 



Cassell's Technical Educator. (London : Cassell k Co.) — 

 If we are to accept the loudly-uttered assurance that the 

 future commercial s.alvation of this country depends upon 

 the spread of technical education, then surely the Messrs. 

 Cassell deserve our gratitude for their efforts for its advance- 

 ment. Nothing more comprehensive than the work before 

 us has, so far, appeared. In fact, were we disposed to cavil, 

 we should be tempted to object that it is really too com- 

 prehensive, embracing, as it does, fortification 1 among the 

 extremely diverse subjects of which it treats. 



Among the pile of educational books which crowd our 

 table may be mentioned Physiology, by J. M'Greqor- 

 Robertson, M.A., and Dynamics and Hydrostatics, by 

 R. H. PixKERTON, B.A., two of Blackie's excellent Science 

 Text-books. (London : Blackie & Son. 1888.) Both well 

 written and illustrated : the Physiology excellently and 

 profusely so. Physiography, by W. Mawer, F.G.S. (London : 

 John Marshall it Co. 1S8S ) ; Elementary Physiography, by 

 John Thornton, M.A. (London : Longmans, Green, A- Co. 

 1888), into which, and notably in the case of Mr. Thornton's 

 book, a great deal of information is packed. — Practical 

 Essay Writing, by A. W. Holmes-Forbes, M.A. (London : 

 Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey, it Co. 1888), containing much 

 that must be useful to the imperfectly crammed competitor in 

 an " Exam."— -^ Pupil Teacher's Handbook of Arithmetic, hy 

 Rev. A. D. Capel (London : Joseph Hughes. 1888). Cheap 

 and sound. — French Course, by G. H.Williams, M.A. The 

 Art Student's Second Grade Practical Geometry, by John 

 LowEES, revised by George Brown Moffalt's Selected 



