July 2, 1888.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



213 



form of religious belief — leaving liim or her to decide 

 batween them. That, in the existing conditioa of the 

 theological world, thi^ idea must remain a purel}' Utopiaa 

 one, no one familiar with the intense sectarian bitterness 

 prevailing there can for an instant doubt. The eagerness 

 with which the clergv of one persuasion expose the artifices 

 of those of another was the subject of comment by Buckle 

 long ago, but to suppose, for example, that an upholder of 

 the Athanasian Creed will consent to the presentation of 

 that remarkable confession of faith side by side with the 

 Unitarian (to say nothing of the scientific) arguments 

 against it, is to imagine that human nature will change ^Jer 

 saltum, or like a conjuring trick. The present intellectual 

 attitude of every professor of the myriad forms of " faith " 

 with which the world is afflicted, from the Churchman down 

 to the Shaker, is embodied in words used to the writer by 

 one of the most ignorant young men among all his acquaint- 

 ance, " Other people only believe that they are right, but I 

 know that I am ; " and as long as this deplorable mental 

 attitude persists, any advance in the direction so ably 

 advocated by our author is hopeless. 



A 2'rcntise on Ekctrici'.i/ and Mai/netism. By E. Mascart 

 and J. JouBERT. Translated by E. Atkinson, Ph.D., F.C.S. 

 Vol II. (London: Thos. De'la Rue &: Co. ISSS.)— This 

 second volume of the great work of ]MJI. Mascart and Joubert 

 is devoted to the methods of electrical measurement, and to 

 the applications of e'.ectricity and magnetism. It treats 

 the whole subject exhaustively, both mathematically and 

 experimentally, and is a book without which the library 

 of the advanced electrician is distinctly incomplete. 



The Lonr/ While Mountain: a Joxirney in Manchuria. 

 By H. E. M. James. (London : Longmans, Green, & Co. 

 1888.) — The geographer, the ethnologist, the historian, the 

 theologian, aud the politician, alike with him who reads 

 merely foi amusement, will find a fund of matter for thought 

 in Mr. James's interesting, important, and very readable 

 volume. In these days, when books of travel are compiled 

 by so many who simply take a return ticket to the L^nited 

 States by a Cunard steamer, or who go a little ofi" the beaten 

 track in the Tyrol, it is positively refreshing to sit down to 

 the perusal of a narrative of the exploration of a country 

 practically wholly unknown to Eui-opeans, related in the 

 manly and straightforward way in which Mr. James tells 

 his storj'. A Bombay civilian, he became entitled in the 

 winter of 188.5 to two years' furlouah, and in company with 

 Lieutenant Younghusband, of the King's Drag03n Guards, 

 he determined to devote a portion of his leave to a journey 

 through Manchuria. A glance at a map of Asia will show 

 that this forms the north-eastern portion of the Chinese 

 Empire, being conterminous with the Russian dominions on 

 the north and east, and with the Corea on the south. Its 

 area is approximately 180,000 square miles, and our author 

 estimates its population as between 20,000,000 and 

 23,000,000. The reigning Chinese dynas^ty had its orij:;in 

 in one of the three provinces (Feng-t'ien) into which 

 Manchuria is divided. So utterly ignorant have Europeans 

 hitherto been of Manchurian geography that, in a map 

 issued not long since bj' the Royal Geographical Society, a 

 chain of snow-covered mountains some 12,000 feet high 

 appears which has no objective existence whatever ! In the 

 southern and eastern part of this strange country, though, 

 " The Long White Mountains " — which give their name to 

 the work before us — are actually to be found, and very 

 grand must be the landscapes in which they form a pro- 

 minent feature. A facsimile of a coloured sketch by Sir. 

 Younghusband of the so-called '■ Dragon's Pool " at the very 

 summit of the range forms an appropriate frontispiece to the 

 volume. At a place called Yingtzu, on their way from 

 Newchwang to Moukdeu, our travellers were joined Ijy IMr. 



Fulford, of the Consular Service, who as a good linguist 

 and first-class shot formed a valuable addition to the party. 

 We do not propose to follow them here through their long 

 journey of something like 3,114 miles in unknown regions. 

 a journej' often performed under circumstances of ditliculty 

 and peril well calculated to have deterred men of merely 

 average resolution and pluck altogether. The reader will 

 thank us for sending him to gather the details from Mr. 

 James's book itself ^Ve need merely say here that its 

 perusal will throw fresh and valuable light upon the condi- 

 tion of the Chinese empire, and on tlio nature of its rela- 

 tions with Great Britain. Some additional insight into 

 Russian policy in Asia may also be obtained from its pages. 

 A good idea, too, will be gathered of the kind and amount 

 of success attained by the various missionaries — Catholic 

 and Protestant — -who are making so heroic a fight for tbeir 

 own forms of faith in these remote regions. Finally, we 

 earnestly recommend every impartial inquirer to study 

 carefully our author'.s utterances on the opium question, 

 concerning which as much utter cant has appeared in this 

 country as has ever lieen written or spoken even about 

 total abstinence or vegetarianism itself. An excellent may 

 and an exhaustive index add materially to the value of 

 Mr. James's volume, which we have no hesitation in pro- 

 nouncing the book of travels of the season. 



The Naturalist in NicxrajiM. By Thomas Belt, F.G.S. 

 Second edition, revised and corrected. (London : Edward 

 Bampus.) — We heartily welcome this reprint of one of the 

 most fascinating and instructive narratives of travel ever 

 published, for the first edition is not only out of print, but 

 very scarce. Apart from the vivid descriptions of Central 

 American scenery which brighten its pages, it evidences 

 throughout to the powers of minute observation, and of 

 insight into the deep significance of the actions of the 

 humbler life-forms, especially of ants, which its lamented 

 author possessed, and which won for his work Darwin's 

 unstinted praisa. That " hall-mark " should suSice as in- 

 ducement to our readers to buy the book. The excellent 

 woodcuts, which were a feature of the first edition, have 

 lost none of their freshness. 



The Demon of Dyspepiia. By Adolpiius E. Buidger, 

 B.A., M.D., <tc. (London : Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey, 

 k Co. 1888.) — Under this somewhat affected title. Dr. 

 Bridger has produced a work of sterling value and use, and 

 one which may be read with pleasure and profit alike by the 

 dyspeptic and by the happy man possessing the ostrich- 

 like power of " digesting a tenpenny nail." Our author 

 enters very fully indeed into the nature of perfect digestion, 

 the value of various kinds of food, and the results, primary, 

 secondary, and tertiary, of deranged digestive powers. To 

 read his chapters on "Vegetarianism " and "Stimulants and 

 Stimulation " after the perusal of the rant of the Allinsons 

 and Wilfrid Lawsons is akin to turning from an essay 

 by a flit-earth man like Mr. John Hampden to Sir John 

 lierschel's " Outlines of Astronomy." 



The Farmer's Friends and Foes. By Theodore Wood, 

 F.E.S. (London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey, it Co. 

 1888 ) — Mr. Wood will be remembered as the author of 

 that well-written and interesting little book " Our Insect 

 Allies," and we may s;iy in the outset that the qualities 

 which rendered that work at once so valuable and readable 

 are possessed in a high degree by the volume before us. It 

 is one whicli should be in the possession of every agricul- 

 turist : farmers, as a rule, having but indistinct ideas as to 

 what forms of animal life it will best pay them to preserve. 

 The two solitary birds whose presence on a farm Mr. Wood 

 regards as an unmixed evil are the wood-pigeon and the bull- 

 finch, while he has a good word — in point of f;\ct a great 



