542 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[September 1, 1886. 



reasoning faculties at all, then upon the same princijDle he 

 would not be justified in rejecting the Koran, or even the 

 Book of Mormon, as revealed to the Prophet Joe Smith. 

 Our author, from the supreme height of his own infalli- 

 bility, naturallv looks down upon such poor creatures as 

 Tyndall and our other great phj'sicists and men of scienc?, 

 and regards the atomic theory, or the notion of material 

 atoms at all, as a mere figment of the im;igination. The 

 entire volume consists of sermonising of a very dreary 

 character, and has been seemingly written under the vener- 

 able delusion that a statement is proved if it merely be only 

 repeated often enough. 



Solar Heat, Gravitation, and Sun-Spots. By J. H. Kedzie. 

 (Chicago : S. C. Griggs and Co. 1886.) — Mr. Kedzie's ideas 

 may be summarised by saying that he regards the ether 

 which fills all space, and whose undulations become known 

 to us in the form of light, heat, and electricity, as the trans- 

 mitter of waves from every sun in the universe ; such 

 undulations, if we understand him rightly, successively de- 

 grading through electricity, light, and beat until, when they 

 become slow enough from the enormous distance through 

 which they have travelled, they become manifest only as 

 mechanical force. When, however, these waves of energy 

 break upon a sun, they are at once converted into heat, and 

 hence, according to our author, the perennial supply of heat 

 to the centre and fountain of our own system. But, further, 

 as these waves of energy are travelling radially — if we may 

 so speak — from the confines of space, some of them must be 

 intercepted by bodies on which they impinge, and any two 

 given bodies (say the sun and the earth) must shield each 

 other, to a certain extent, from the impact of these waves, 

 and so be pushed together. Here is the explanation of the 

 force of gravitation in a nutshell ! Why, though, on this 

 hypothesis, mass should determine the amount of gravitative 

 power our author does not inform us. It would rather 

 seem that volume, or sectional area, should regulate the 

 force with which two bodies should approach, as the larger 

 the section of any sphere the more undulations it must inter- 

 cept. Sun-spots, itc, are explained by the shielding of parts 

 of the sun's disc by the planets, and so on. It must not, 

 however, be imagined from this brief resume of Mr. Kedzie's 

 book that he is a mere vulgar paradoxer. Heterodox he 

 may be, but it is abundantly evident that lie has devoted 

 an immense amount of thought to the hypothesis which he 

 sustains with unusual force and ability. At all events, his 

 book is worth reading. 



The Theorij_ and Practics of the Slide-Rule, with a Short 

 Explanation of the Properties of Logarithms. By Lieut.- 

 Colonel John R. Campbell, F.G.S. (London : E. & F. N. 

 Spon. 188G.) — Assuming the beginner to pos.sess a certain 

 familiarity with elementary algebra, he will find Colonel 

 Campbell an efficient and trustworthy guide to the use of 

 that very handy instrument for approximate calculations, 

 the slide-rule. The author begins by explaining the nature 

 and properties of logarithms, and then goes on to sliow how 

 the logarithmic scales are divided and used on the ordinary 

 carpenter's rule. In a short chapter Colonel Campbell sub- 

 seriuently describes the construction of the less familiar 

 " circular sliile-rule," and concludes his work with an ex- 

 planation and illustration of a method of making a magic- 

 lanteru slide to exhibit the principle and woiking of the 

 instrument to a large lecture audience. This is a useful 

 little book. 



Wit and Wisdom oj the Rev. Sydney Smith. Wit and 

 Wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. 

 (London : Longmans, Green, & Co. 188G.) — Recording the 

 utterances of two men, intellectually wide as the poles 

 asunder, the volumes whose titles head this notice may he 



regarded as a Thesaurus for the essayist and the public 

 speaker, as well as excellent companions on a railway 

 journej', among the mountains, or by the seaside ; since they 

 may be taken up and opened anywhere with the certainty 

 of finding amusement and instruction. Their trivial cost 

 might be mentioned as an additional reason for buying them, 

 but that no such reason is in reality needed. 



Plain Talk for Plain People. By John Tav(:;han. 

 (London: Joseph Toulson. 188G.) — This volume is made 

 up of thirteen sermons apparently preached in the Primitive 

 Methodist Chapel of which their author is pastor. If Mr. 

 Spurgeon or "General" Booth afi'ected written discour.ses 

 the}' might purch:i,se (and preach) Mr. Vaughan's with 

 advantage. 



Ber Bihliothekar. By Gistav von Moser. Edited, with 

 literary introduction and notes, by Franz Lange, Ph.D. 

 (London : Whittaker & Co. and George Bell & Sons. 1886.) 

 — This is the German original of " The Private Secretary," 

 over which so many of those who will read these lines have 

 laughed at the Globe The.atre. The introduction and notes 

 add to its value for the English student of German. 



I'he Kennel Review (London : 9.5 Strand) addresses all 

 who love and are in communication with dogs, either on 

 terms of intimacy or of merely general acquaintance. 



#ur CI)f£«£f Column, 



By " llEPursTO." 



The following games were played in the recent Tournament of the 

 British Chess Association : — 



White. 

 1. Gunsberg. 



1. P to K-t 



2. Kt to KB3 



3. B to B4 



4. P to Q3 

 .5. B to K3 



6. Kt to B3 (a) 



7. Q to Q2 



8. Castles QR 

 P to Qt {d) 



9 



Giuoco 



Black. 

 Zabertort. 

 P to K4 

 Kt to QB3 

 B to Bl 

 Kt to B3 

 B to Kt3 

 P to Q3 

 Kt to K2 {h) 

 P to B3 (c) 

 E to E4 



10. KttoKKt.5(c) 



Piano. 



White. 

 I. Gunsberg. 

 17. Kt to R7' 

 IS. P to QB4 (/f) 



19. Kt to B6 (ch) 



20. Kt X R 



21. P to QR3 



22. P to B4 



23. B to B2 



24. R to Q6 CO 

 2.5. P to B3 (Ji) 

 26. Q to Bi (0 



Tlac ; 



Black. 

 Zakertort. 

 R to K sq 

 Kt to Kt5 

 K to R sq 

 QxKt 

 Kt to B3 

 Kt to B4 

 B to K3 

 PtoQKt3(j) 

 BxQBP 



White. 



26. B to KtC 



27. R X P (ch) (j«) K to Kt sq 



28. R to R3 BxB 



29. Q to R4 K to B sq (h) 



30. P to B6 P X P 



31. P.P KttoQG (ch) 



32. R X Kt ■ Resigns 



NOTES. 

 (a) Th's move is preferable to 6 P to B .S. IE necessary, the Kt, 

 as usual in this openinor, may be transferred to the King side viil 

 K2 and Kt3. The advantage of this raanreuvre, however, has not 

 been reliably demonstrated by practical play. 



