KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Ski 



. 11, 1885. 



of London were prompted "patriotically to rescue this 

 glorious tract of primitive land from the hands of the 

 speculator and jerry builder, and dedicate it to the 

 public for ever. Incidentally Mr. Heath gives a short 

 account of Stoke Pogis, rendered classical by Gray's 

 " Elegy in a Country Churchyard." Four engravings 

 from photographs of the " Beeches," four from the same 

 number of Mr. Burket Foster's charming vignettes, and 

 a map at once adorn and illustrate the volume. 



High-Class Cookery Recipes. By Mrs. Chaelks Clarke. 

 (London : W. H. Allen & Co. 1885.)— Mrs. Clarke, who 

 is the Lady Superintendent of the National Training 

 School of Cooke,ry at South Kensington, has produced a 

 work of unquestionable value in the volume before us. 

 Nothing can be at once more methodical and lucid than 

 her recipes, in which quantities, materials, and times are 

 given in a manner which renders a mistake practically 

 impossible. It must, however, be added that she fully 

 justifies her selection of a title, inasmuch as her recipes 

 are rigidly confined to high-class cookery ; and that the 

 struggling housewife with £200 a year pour tout potage 

 will find Mrs. Clarke's dainty and delicious dishes but 

 ill-adapted indeed to her pecuniary resources. All, 

 tTiough, capable of appreciating culinary artistic triumphs 

 (and of paying for them), should lose no time in pos- 

 sessing themselves of so sure and certain a guide as is 

 here offered to them by our authoress. 



Land Surveijing on the Meridian and Perpendicnlar 

 -System. By Wu. Penmax, C.E. (London : E. & F. N. 

 Spon. 1 885.) — The practice of land-surveying in England 

 is ordinarily conducted upon one of two extreme prin- 

 ciples. On the one hand it is performed (and this in a 

 large majority of cases) by the chain alone, sometimes 

 with the aid of the old-fashioned " cross-staff ; " on the 

 other, with all the elaboration of angular measurement on 

 the geodetjcal or trigonometrical system. The first method 

 is easy but moderately inaccurate ; the latter difficult, 

 tedious, and operose, but possessing the undeniable merit 

 of being rigidly correct. The Ordnance Survey of the 

 United Kingdom supplies an example of its application ; 

 while stewards and surveyors in country districts still, as 

 a class, adhere to the more primitive system. The object 

 of Mr. Penman in the work now before us is to exemplify 

 and recommend for adoption a trigonometrical system of 

 surveying, which shall secure all the accuracy needed for 

 practical purposes, without entailing the great amount of 

 labour involved in the ordinary geodetical method. He 

 gives minute instructions for the adjustments and use of 

 the theodolite and chain, teaches the student how to 

 measure his base line and obtain his primary and 

 secondary triangles from it ; how to determine its devia- 

 tion from the astronomical meridian of the place ; how to 

 connect distant points, &c. ; and finally, how to plot the 

 results of his observations, and to make a map from 

 them. All this is illustrated by the details of an actual 

 survey, the map embodying the conclusions of which is 

 appended to the volume. All the calculations are given 

 at length, while engravings are scattered throughout the 

 text. This is a book to be commended to the study of 

 ail who may have occasion to survey any moderately 

 large area of land, and who may be content to take a 

 (very) little more pains than usual to secure an accurate 

 delineation of it. 



London, Old and New ; a Sanitary Contrast. By Ernest 

 Hart. (London: AUman & Son.) — In this pamphlet 

 Mr. Hart gives a sketch of London from the date of 

 the Roman occupation of Britain down to the present 

 day; showing how the sanitary regulations and appli- 

 ances of the Romans fell into desuetude after they finally 



quitted Britain, and how media^vally filth became ram- 

 pant, and, in fact, to a great extent, synonymous with 

 religion. He then adverts to the improvement in sanitary 

 arrangements which was initiated about the time of 

 Henry II., and traces this down to the present day. The 

 effect of progress in hygiene may perhaps be illustrated 

 by the simple statement, that while from 1620 to 1643 

 the annual rate of mortality in London was 70 per 1,000, 

 during the past four years it has declined to 20-9 out of 

 every 1,000 inhabitants. 



Sensations of Tone. By Hermann L. F. Helmholtz, 

 M.D., <tc. Second English edition, translated bj- 



Alexander J. Ellis, B.A., F.R.S., &c. (London: Long- 

 mans, Green <fe Co. 1885.) — If we were asked to describe 

 this wonderful work of Professor Helmholtz in the most 

 succinct manner possible, we might well do so by speaking 

 of it as the Principia of Modern Acoustics. For assuredly 

 to the Great Physicist of Berlin are we indebted for the 

 most complete and exhaustive account in existence of 

 that branch of science towards the elucidation and esta- 

 blishment of which he has himself so largely contributed. 

 Beginning with the composition of vibrations, the wave 

 theory of sound is expounded both experimentally and 

 mathematically, the distinction between mere noise 

 and music pointed out, and a lucid explanation given of 

 what constitutes the quality of tone, and enables every- 

 one at once to distinguish between the sound of any 

 given note as rendered by the human voice, the piano- 

 forte, organ, violin, or flute, kc. The manner in which 

 what are called " Partial Tones " are separated from a 

 fundamental note sounded by any of these instruments 

 forms the subject of a succeeding chapter, and introduces 

 us to our author's extremely ingenious " Resonators," 

 by the aid of which these partial tones may be 

 picked out and, as it were, isolated. Subsequently 

 the qualities of tones are discussed, and the why 

 and wherefore of harmony and discord made clear. Inci- 

 dentally, the anatomy and physiology of the ear are 

 treated on, and a new theory of the functions of certain 

 of its anatomical elements discussed ; while, in conclu- 

 sion, the aesthetical aspects of the subject come under 

 review, and an attempt is made to show why one sort of 

 music is pleasurable and another painful to the ears. 

 So far, we have dealt only with Professor Helmholtz's 

 share in the volume before us ; but we should convey 

 but an inadequate idea indeed of its value and im- 

 portance if we stopped here. In point of fact, the ably- 

 executed translation from the original German occupies 

 but 371 pages out of the 576 of which that volume is 

 composed, the remainder being made up of Appendices 

 by Mr. Ellis — which will suffer little, if anything, by 

 comparison with the work which they so worthily sup- 

 plement — and a capital index. We may, moreover, add 

 that the translator has, in addition, enriched the work 

 throughout with foot-notes elucidating and illustrating 

 the text. In fine, he has, in conjunction with Professor 

 Helmholtz, produced a work which should, and soon 

 must, be on the shelves of everj^ physicist, mathematician, 

 and scientific musician in the kingdom. 



Audeography, the Neiv Shorthand. By Digamma. Litho- 

 graphed from MS. (London : Bemrose & Sons.) — This 

 is a work which may be commended to our occasional 

 correspondent, Mr. J. Greevz Fisher, and others who 

 fondly believe that they are practising a phonographic 

 system — in the rigid sense of writing words as they are 

 pronounced. " Digamma " knows better. " Whatever 

 attributes," he says, " Phonography may enjoy, its most 

 perfect exponent can never be accused of writing hy 

 sound." Having reduced matters to this comfortable stage, 



