262 



♦ KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



[September 1, 1888. 



fail to discover wtiat its author is driving at. If the part 

 relating to the Stuart period in Pinnook's " Goldsmith's 

 History of England," an essay by Dr. Littledale, any of 

 the productions of Messrs. Blavatzky, Olcott, Sinnett it 

 Co., Limited, an odd number of "Li^ht," and a chapter 

 from Carpenter's " Mental Physiology," were passed tlirough 

 a sausage-machine, " The Trance of Fitzerse " might well 

 emerge as the result of the combination. Whether the 

 author of this curious hash intends it as a psychological 

 study, and as a more or less accurate narration of a peculiar 

 form" of mental alienation, or whether he has been addling 

 hi-nself with the drivelling nonsense of " Spiritualism," and 

 really believes that the incongruous and inconsequent series 

 of oacurrenc3S of which he tells might have happened, we 

 cannot divine. Of plot — in any legitimate sense of that word — 

 there is none. A Fitzerse, whose father loses his life in the 

 cause of that perjured and worthless ruler, Charles I., studies 

 medicine at Padua, performs experiments in transfusion, 

 and makes a bosom-friend of a certain Sal Tara Lai, study- 

 ing under the pseudonym of Saltario, and who subsequently 

 appears in London as Dr. Salter at the time of the Plague. 

 This e.xtremely uncanny person was — or is — a Yogi, or 

 Mahatma (" for which," to pai-aphrase the immortal Cap'en 

 Cuttle, " overhaul your Blavatzky, and wlien found make a 

 note of "), and he bottles up, so to speak, all Fitzerse's vi tality, 

 and throws him into a trance in the seventeenth century 

 from which he does not rouse until near the end of the 

 nineteenth, only to tind himself occupying the place of one 

 of his own lineal descendants. It is not surprising to learn 

 tiiat he is sent to a private asylum as the result of an 

 endeavour to impress the truthfulness of the narrative we 

 have sketched on his friends. We must say, though, that 

 they carried their incredulity very far on the occasion when 

 the author, wholly ignorant of, and without the slightest 

 ear for, music, extemporaneously performed a brilliant 

 capriccio on the violin which he must have learned in Italy 

 abaut 1658 or so. The bjok, as we have previously .said, 

 has no plot. A variety of characters appear and disappear, 

 having no connection with the story, and in nowise helping 

 it. Our pervading impression after its perusal is that its 

 author has made notes of various incidents that their 

 archwological correctness may give an air of vraisemblance 

 to his tale, and has emptied them bodily into his pages, with 

 a fine disregard for congruity. As a novel the book is 

 worthless ; but it will somehow repay reading for all that. 



Of " They Tw.ain " we may say, as the schoolboy did of 

 the milk-and-water, " This is indeed weakness ! " A young 

 woman of the middle class, who has been brought up amid 

 such refinement as is involved in five o'clock tea and dinner 

 at night, marries a farmer, and has her feelings hurt and her 

 aOfections estranged by his plebeian habit of taking his prin- 

 cipal mi3al at midday, and so on. ]!y-and-by her child dies, 

 she becomes reconciled to the manners and customs of the 

 agricultui-al classes, and they live happily ever afterwards. 

 Voild, tout ! 



Of works of a more miscellaneous character we have 

 already the second edition of Mr. S. Pi. P.otton'e's capital 

 Electrical Instrument-making for Amateurs, the first of 

 which we noticed on page 212. — Mining and Quarry- 

 ing. By J. H. CoLLixs, F.G.S. 2nd Edition. (London : 

 Crosby Lockwood i Co. 1888.) — A first-rate little manual 

 for the beginner. — The Medico- Legal Journal. (New York : 

 March 1888.)— A serial of considerable intere.st to all who 

 .study medical j\irisprudence ; containing, inter alia, a some- 

 what maudlin article by Dr. Bleyer on " The Best Methods 

 of Capital Punishment," with a report to match from a com- 

 mittee. — Ilylo- Idealism or Auto-Centricism. By (H. L. C). 

 (London : Watts & Co.) — " Crambe repetita " of Dr. Lewins's 

 craze. — A Special Constable's Story and other Tales. B'^ 



Henry Charles Moore. (London : Wyman & Sons. 

 1888.) Sketches-by-Bozand-water. — Annual Reports of 

 the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain for 1885-86. 

 (London : Hamilton & Co.) — Containing much that is 

 visionary. — Electricity v. Gas. By Johx Stent. (London: 

 Swan Sonnenschein & Co.) — An enthusiastic prediction 

 that coal gas and mineral oil as sources of light will dis- 

 appear before electricity. Page 56 is nonsense pure and 

 simple. — The Theory of the Tides. By James Nolan, 

 F.G.S.A. (London: Duku et Co.) — Worth reading. — 

 Internationales Archiv fiir Elhnographie. Edited by 

 J. D. E. ScHMELTZ. Band I. Heft III. (London : 

 Triibner & Co.) — Fully sustains its interest. The illustra- 

 tions .are as beautiful as ever. 



We have also on our table the two concluding volumes 

 of Miss Ajiy Baker's First History of the English People 

 (London : Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey, & Co. 1888), 

 biinging the narrative down to Queen Victoria's Jubilee; 

 two or three tracts liy Mr. Laurence Hargr.ave devoted to 

 flying machines ; their very full and complete Catalogue of 

 Photographic Apparatus fixsm Messrs. J. Lancaster & Son, 

 Birmingham ; divers tracts from the National Association 

 for the Promotion of Technical Education ; The Peport of 

 the Supirintendent of the American Xautical Almanac for 

 the year ending June 30, 1887, a record of a mass of valu- 

 able work; Physical and Industrial Traiyiing of Criminals. 

 By Hamilton D. Wey, M.D. Records of an attempt to 

 place the confirmed scoundrel in a position of very great 

 advantage over the merely honest hard-working man ; 

 "Atr/Seo-ros. By EoBT. H. Jones. (London : Crosby Lock- 

 wood & Co.) A description of the localities where .asbestos 

 is found, the method of obtaining it, and the uses to which 

 it is put; Cassell's Technical Educator {hondon: Cassell it 

 Co ) ; also among various educational works. Competitive 

 Examination Papers in Pure Mathematics (Stages I. -III.); 

 Letter.", Themes, and Essays for Composition, and Short 

 Stories, selected by J. M. Laine, M.A. (.all from Moffatt it 

 Paige); Hints to Calculators and Sensational Arithmetic. 

 By H. BfLL. (London : Hamilton, Adams, A Co.) Devices 

 for making ever}- man his own Bidder or Zerah Colburn ; 

 and The Elements of Logarithms. By W. Gallatly, M.A. 

 (London: Francis Hodg.son.) An excellent, thoroughly 

 plain and practical little manual. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY FOR SEPTEMBER. 



By F.R.A.S. 



HE spotless sun is whoHy void of interest as an 

 object in the telescope. Towards the end of the 

 month the zodiacal light m.ay be seen in the east 

 botore sunrise. September 22 is the theoretical 

 date of the equinox ; but equality of day and 

 night in London will not occur until the 24th. 

 Map ix. of " The Stars in their Seasons '' exhibits 

 the aspect of the night sky. Minima of the 

 v.ariable star Algol (" The Stars in their Seasons," 

 map sii.) will occur at llh. 2(;ni. p.m. on the 14th, and at 

 Sh. 15m. P.M. on the 17th, as well as on other occasions more in- 

 convenient for the ordinary observer. Mercury is an evening star, 

 but is poorly placed in Leo and Virgo for observation. Venus, 

 in Virgo, is, "of course, an evening star, too, but is just as badly 

 placed as Mercury. Mars and Jupiter are close to the western 

 horizon at dusk, while Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are quite 

 invisible. Hence, as far as the planets are concerned, the night sky 

 is a blank. The moon is new at 4h. 56.1m. A.M. on the 6th, entei-s 

 her first quarter at 9h. 59.9 P.M. on the 12th, is full .at oh. 24.3m. A.M. 

 on the 20th, and enters her last quarter at 8h. 30.2m. A.M. on the 

 28th. Four occultations of fixed stars by the moon will happen at 

 convenient hours for the amateur observer during September. The 

 first occurs on September 1, when the 6th mJignitude star 61 Gemi- 

 norum will dis.appear at the moon's bright limb 4m. after 

 midnight at an angle of 84° from her vertex. It will reappear 



