AcGusT 1, 1888.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



237 



Ilistory of Sotilh Afnca (1486-1691). By George 

 McCall TnEAL. (London: Swan Sonnenschein it Co. 

 1888.) — Every one who wislies to understand the existing 

 condition of our South African colonies will derive vahiable 

 assistance from Mr. Theal's exhaustive history, of which the 

 first instalment lies before us. Beginning with the original 

 discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartholomew Dias 

 in 1486, he brings his story down to the time of the rule 

 of Commander (eventually Governor) Van der Stel, during 

 whose tenure of office so considerable an emigration of the 

 French Huguenots occurred : the narrative terminating 

 with the j-ear 1691. What the rule of the Dutch East 

 India Company in South ^Vfrica was may be well realised 

 from the vivid description given by our author of the occur- 

 rences during the period covered by the present volume. 

 It obviously embodies the results of a very large amount 

 of research indeed, and will well repay perusal. 



Facts about Ireland: a Curve-history of Recent Yeor.i. 

 By Alex. B. McDowall, M.A. (London : Edw. Stanford. 

 1888.) — In this little book Mr. McDowall has applied the 

 system of plotting curves, now so generally employed for 

 showing meteorological data gi-ajjhically, to the e.xhibition 

 of a variety of Irish statistics. As a rule, the years form 

 the abscissa' and the quantities dealt with the ordinates of 

 his curves, and in this fa.-hion he shows the fluctuations in 

 agriculture, education, crime, intemperance, emigration, 

 bank depiosits, and the like. The idea of thus popularising 

 a mass of numerical data is not a bad one. 



Disease : its Prevention and Cure by Simple Xatural 

 Means, <L-c. By Chas. G. Godfrey. (London : H. Grevel 

 k Co. 1888.) — The Increa<ie of Cancer in Englftnd. By 

 John Francis Chirchill, M.D. (London : David Stott.) 

 — If Dr. Churchill's statistics are trustworthy, a most 

 alarming incre.ise of cancer is in progress in this country, 

 an increase which he traces to the reckless use in modern 

 therapeutics of oxidisable phosphorous compounds, whose 

 employment he deprecates in the strongest manner. His 

 remedy must be sought in his book itself. Mr. Godfrey 

 propo.ses to cure cancer and a variety of other diseases by 

 the use of dry food, by common salt, and by a very large 

 diminution of the amount of liquid consumed. It is piteous 

 to read of the death of his only daughter after he had, as 

 he alleges, cured her of blindness (I) by his peculiar method 

 of treatment. 



A Fight vnth Distances. By J. J. Auberti.v. (Kegan 

 Paul, Trench, & Co.) — The '' distances " with which our 

 restless author fought within the narrow space of ten 

 months cover well-nigh the Xorth American Continent 

 and the chief W'est Indian islands. He brings himself 

 perilou.sly near Matthew Arnold's crowd of hurrying men 

 " who see all sights from pole to pole, yet never once 

 possess their soul before they die." The book has the 

 defects and merits of Mr. Aubertin's previous records of like 

 scampers in Mexico and South .Vfrica, but as he alwavs 

 adds to our store of information, and that in good-tempered, 

 unaffected talk, we forgive the intrusion of peddling details, 

 and commend the book to all lovers of travel-records, 

 especially to any who may be contemplating a similar trip. 



Lucians Dialogues. Translated by Howard Williams. 

 (Bell it Sons.) — Instead of adding to the over-translated 

 among the ancients, Jlr. Williams has laid us under obliga- 

 tion by this .admiralile and much needed translation of 

 the more important and best-known works of the great 

 " Pantagruelist of Samosata." The simplicity, racinass, wit 

 and common sense, which are the features of the Dialogues 

 of the Gods and of the Dead, have not vanished in the pro- 

 cess of transfer from Greek to English, and we hope that 



the present work will meet with success that shall 



encourage Mr. Williams to give us another volume. The 



translations are prefaced by an admirably full and clear 

 introduction, and enriched with abundant notes. 



ifemory. What it is, and How to improve it. By David 

 Kay, F.R.G.S. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, ik Co. 

 1888.) — Mr. Kay, having produced a work of high interest, 

 which affords evidence of extensive reading and research, 

 and abounds in a wealth of illustration, has made it almost 

 unreadable by the simple expedient of crowding almost 

 every page with footnotes 1 Anything more wearisome and 

 di.stracting we scarcely ever remember to have met with, 

 and the reader's irrifcition becomes greater as he often finds 

 the ipsissima verba of the text repeated in smaller type 

 below. Of course it is possible to skip these annotations, 

 and any one who will resolutely do so will find Mr. Kay's 

 volume interesting and instructive in a high degree ; but 

 the initial temptation to refer to them is as great as is the 

 annoyance incident on yielding to it. When the work 

 before us reaches its second edition, wo would venture to 

 suggest that such evidence of its author's erudition as 

 quotations may bs held to afford should be relegated to an 

 appendix, and not suffered to confuse the reader as they do 

 in their present position. With this emendation, we could 

 cordially recommend a book from which much is to be 

 learned of enduring value. 



Game, Shore, and Water Birds of Tndid. By Colonel A. 

 Le Mesurier, R.E. (London : W. Thacker & Co. 1888.) — 

 Compact in form, excellent in method and arrangement, 

 and — as far as we have been able to test it — rigidly accurate 

 in details, Colonel Le Mesurier's book should become the 

 vade-mecum of every .sportsman and naturalist whom duty 

 or pleasure may compel to visit India. The numerous and 

 excellent illustrations (of which no less than 121 appear in 

 148 pages) render the identification of genera a matter of 

 great simplicity. 



Restful Work for Youthful Hands. By S. F. A. Cai-l- 

 FEILD. (London : Griffith, Farran, Okeden, cfe Welsh. 

 1888.) — We grieve to have to utter anything in disparage- 

 ment of a little volume written with the laudable object 

 of showing how children in the upper and middle ranks of 

 life may profitably employ their spare time in benefiting 

 others. It is, however, rather with Mrs. Caulfeild's manner 

 than with her matter that we have any quarrel. The fact 

 is that texts and goodj-goodiness are somewhat too ob- 

 trusively introduced, and there can be no doubt that the 

 work would gain by their excision. Our own experience is 

 that a child like " Eose " who is always being preached and 

 quoted at learns at last to loathe the source of the quota- 

 tions rained upon her devoted head, and, as soon as she is 

 emancipated from the amiable and zealous fanatics who 

 make her a target for dischai-ging the contents of the 

 Scriptures at, rushes into the very extremity of worldliness. 

 A judicious parent might, however, teach her daughter 

 many valuable lessons from Mrs. Caulfeild's small book 

 if she would merely suppress such parts of it as labour 

 '' to improve the occasion." 



Notes on Shakspere's " King Eenry T." By T. Duff- 

 Barsett. (Boll it Sons.)— Just the thing for the teacher. 

 Immersed in teaching, and without the time needed to 

 digest and arrange and tabulate the information he has 

 been giving to his class, here he has to his hand the points 

 which most of all require careful attention, and concentrated 

 attention if his boys are to do well at their examinations. 

 ^Ir. Barnett is a practical teacher, and has shown as much 

 discretion in what he has omitted as in what he has inserted. 

 There is nothing in his book that a student of the play 



