2G0 



♦ KNO^AALEDGE ♦ 



[June 1, 1886. 



pictures as compared with those of the old masters is very 

 apparent even to tlie unprofessional eye, and the reason of 

 this is to be found in the f;ict that most modern painters 

 are ignorant of the chemical composition and reactions of 

 the jiigmeuts they employ, and therefore not only use 

 impure pigments adulterated by the trade, and sold to 

 supply the demand for cheap materials, but also make 

 dangerous immixtures of pigments and vehicles, so that 

 their pictui-es become in reality self-destructive. In his 

 present valuable little work Mr. Standage gives the chemical 

 name and composition of each pigment, with particulars as 

 to its artistic use, the conditions under which it is permanent 

 or non-)iermanent, the general adulterations and the tests 

 for tlie discovery of these, and adds a most useful chapter on 

 reactions between two or more pigments and between 

 pigment and vehicle, &c. Another chapter is on mixtures 

 of pigments, to produce various colours ; and he also gives 

 very good advice as to the respective value of different pig- 

 ments for nse in portrait, flower, and marine paintings. 

 The remarks made in Chapter VIII. as to the necessity 

 of making a scientific nomenclature and scales of colour 

 are very much to the point. When we come to define a 

 tint or colour, we are almost invariably at a loss for words, 

 and .some convention should certainly be made on this im- 

 portant subject. The matter should be taken up by the 

 Eoyal Society or the Society of Arts, and ISIr. Standage's 

 suggestion that the hues of well-known fruits or flowers 

 should 1)6 taken to form the foundations of scales of colour 

 is a very feasible one. 



Doijs, in Health and Disease, as Tijpijied b)/ the Greij- 

 liinuid. By John Sutcliffe Hurndall, M.RC.V.S. 

 (London : E. Gould & Son. 1880.) — The medical system 

 advocated in this work is homoeopathic, and very full and 

 explicit directions for the treatment of every canine ailment 

 on that system are given by Mr. Hurndall. Whether agree- 

 ing with the doctrine of Hahnemann or not, the dog-owner 

 mav, however, glean some useful information from these 

 piges, as it is pretty obvious that the author has entered 

 deeply into the question of canine pathology, and has an 

 intimate p?rsonal acquaintance with the various types of 

 disease which afflict man's ftiithful companion. 



Tlie '• Comppiitive Examination Papers" in Pure Mathe- 

 «i((//cs (Stages I. -III.). By N. C. PoTTEit. (liondon: Moflatt 

 it Paige.) — Loaded up to the muzzle, like an overcharged gun, 

 and then let off' at his " exam.," the miserable competitor 

 but too often quits the examination room as empty as the 

 discharged gun to which we have likened him. Just so 

 long, however, as the present system exists will the mise- 

 rable system of cramming survive too ; and if we are to 

 admit the necessity of the evil, Mr. Potter's little book will 

 enable the student to fill his mind effectually with the kind 

 of " knowledge " which passes muster in Cannon Row and 

 at South Kensington. 



Bemrose's New Code Draiuinr/ Cards, Second and Thiid 

 Series. (London: Bemross and Sons.) — These cards con- 

 tain " copies " for students, the first set curved forms for 

 free-hand drawing, and t'ne second geometrical figures. 

 They fulfil the requirements of the " Science and Art 

 Department,'' which is prosumabl}' what they are intended 

 for. 



A Manual of Jfec/tanics. By T. M. GooDEVE, M.A. 

 (London : Longmans, Green, A; Co. 1886.) — In simple 

 language and formuhe, illustrated by equally simple ex- 

 amples, Mr. Goodeve introduces the beginner to tlie elements 

 of mechanical philosophy. As may be expected from so 

 thorough a master of his subject, nothing is omitted which 



will smooth the path of the young student ; who is led on 

 step by step until, with the most moderate attention on his 

 part, he possesses a competent knowledge of the elements of 

 applied mechanics, and is in a position to attack works of a 

 higher and more pretentious character. This is a capital 

 little book. 



Notes on School Management. By George Collins. 

 (London : Moff'att & Paige. 1886.)— Mr. Collins's book will 

 be found useful by teachers in public elementary schools, 

 as also by the managers of such schools ; in fact, by all 

 interested in elementary education. It contains a large 

 quantity of well-arranged information. 



An Old Mistake corrected by Modern Science. — While 

 Science is quite unable to say definitely the order in whicli the 

 several races actually bei)an, she is able to say most positively that 

 these several races did not come into existence as races in any order 

 whatsoever. Not to consider for a moment the absolutely over- 

 whelming argument when mammals are compared with, say, reptiles, 

 or vertebrates with insects, or eitlier witli molluscs, and to put on 

 one side the still more crushing argument from the comparison of 

 animal with vegetable life, take the case of two existent species — 

 men and horses. Science cannot determine whether man came 

 before the horse, or even say where, along the lines of development 

 from anthropoid apes to man on the one hand or from the EoLippus 

 to the horse of tu-day on the other, it couhl truly be said that man 

 or horse had actually appeared on the earth. But science can say 

 most positively that neither did the development of the horse 

 precede that of man, nor, i-icc rersd, did the development of man 

 precede that of the horse. Both developments went on together — 

 this being no theory, but the direct teaching of the records con- 

 tained in the later tertiary and earlier quaternary strata of the 

 earth. The very natural mistake of the old Babylonian folk, which 

 quite as natm-ally their much less intelligent Jewish captives were 

 not able to detect ami con-ect, lay in supposing that not merely 

 whole species, but whole genera, were formed at once, each being 

 fully completed before the next took its turn. Whether the com- 

 pletion of each required a da_v of twenty- fours hours, as theologians 

 once taught, or a period of indetinite length, as the}' are good 

 enough to assume now (being obliged), this mistake shows that 

 those who made and maintained it really knew nothing about the 

 origin of lite, animal and vegetable, upon this earth. As, indeed, 

 how should they ? What an absurdity it is, if we come to think of 

 it, to make our interest in tlie old Hebrew writings depend in the 

 slightest degree on the question whether the oldAccadians, to whom 

 tiie earliest records in the cuneiform inscriptions were due, really 

 knew what it has taken modern races, who have specially devoted 

 themselves to the inquiry, many centuries of research to ascertain ! 



M. Eexas and the Bible. — AVhat M. Eenan has said with 

 regard to the literature of the ancient Hebrews (considered by them, 

 and accepted by other than Hebrew races, as sacred) is fair enough 

 when he is considering its history. He points out clearly, for in- 

 stance, what every competent judge must notice, that some books 

 are altogether inferior to the rest, and even "mere rechauffes, very 

 unintelligently done, from the ancient historic" This description 

 applies in particular to the two books of I'hronicles, as anj' one will 

 tind who carefully compares tliese with the corresponding parts of 

 the books of Samuel and of Kings. The books of Ezra and Nehe- 

 miah show similar shortcomings. But in dealing with ancient 

 literature as a whole, M. Renan is unfair to modern literature in 

 regarding the Hebrew and the Hellenic literatures as the two sole 

 " sources of unconscious and impersonal beauty " for the world. 

 " The literary history of the world," he says, "is the history of a 

 double current, which has descended on the one side from Homer to 

 Virgil, on the other from the Hebrew Bible to Jesus. Since then 

 we have lived upon them." If this is meant only in the same sort 

 of sense as— for example — one might say "Newton owed all the 

 scientific power which has made his name illustrious to his father 

 and mother," one need take no exception to the remark. A Shak- 

 speare and a Goethe may be the mental offspring of the Aryan and 

 Hebrew stocks of poetry. But M. Kenan's words imply much more 

 than this. They suggest that in his opinion the literature of modern 

 times (i.e. of times since Virgil and Jesus) has been no more than 

 a re-working of the material collected by the older writers — the 

 Isaiahs, Jeremiahs, Hesiods, and Homers, of old races. This is not 

 only a paradox, but a most perverse one. — Newcastle Chronicle. 



