May, 1906.] 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



437 



marks, the popularity of the work h.os never waned. 

 If it were merely in respect of its value as a natural 

 history work that it has attained and maintained its 

 hig-h classic status, then we should expect at least to 

 find greater accuracy and greater systematisation in it. 

 Pennant, one of his correspondents, issued valuable 

 natural history works, but these have been quite super- 

 seded by more modern works. Why, then, this pheno- 

 menal success of White's " Selborne "? Certainly not 

 as a natural history book, although in the condition of 

 nature knowledge at the time of publication that may 

 have been then its chief attraction. There is some- 

 thing more in it than mere natural history, and it is 

 this — the soul of the work — which, in the present edi- 

 tion, has perforce been left out of account. We do 

 not recognise White in this re-arrangement. The same 

 feelings do not inspire one in reading this edition. Of 

 necessity the blending of one paragraph into another is 

 absent. There is a disjointedness which grates on 

 one's feelings when one has the original in one's mind. 

 So it has been called wisely, as I think, the natural- 

 ist's edition, although I fear even naturalists will feel 

 that certain explanatory or amending notes would have 

 made it more readable and reliable. 



Leaving aside, however. White's own personalitv 

 and the charm of the connected series of letters, there 

 are certain ad\aiitag<'s in this re-arrangement which 

 one would not wish to overlook. It was somewhat 

 daring of Mr. Mnrlcy to cut up a classic work as he 



Cottag;e.s in Selborne Street, raised above the level of the road, 

 which has been lowered by the "fretting down of ages," as in 

 the case of many of the hollow lanes around. 



has, but at ihe same time tin- ix'sult will be cxtrcmelN 

 uschil to those who, having an edition at hand with the 

 arrangement of the letters as in tiie hook when it left 

 White's hands, desire to know all that the author had 

 to say on some given topic. We have all wasted a 

 good deal of time when wishing to look up some particu- 

 lar passage of White's in not being certain in which letter 

 to find it. In this edition not only are kindred passages 

 brought together, but the marginal references indicate 

 thenumbers of the letters of which they formed poitions. 

 There has been difficulty in allocating certain 

 passages to the headings pro\ided for the chapters. 

 This is referred to in the authoi's preface, and is clear 

 on perusing the book. Probiblyno r ne's airanEenient 

 W(Uild agree with that of another. Mut one would think 



that the references to the formation of the chalk downs 

 should have been placed with the geological notes, as 

 also those dealing with the theory of an isthmus across 

 the Atlantic, upon which White pours so much scorn. 

 Why, also, is the reference to the letters in which are 

 printed W'hitc's monographs on the Hirundincs, which 

 formerly appeared in the " Philosophical Transactions," 

 not placed imder the heading of " Birds? " 



One point w^hich is brought out strongly by this edi- 

 tion is that White was before all things a student of 

 birds. .-Mthough the extracts run only into 259 pages 

 in all, no less than 134 pages are given to birds, the 

 subject most nearly approaching to it in extent being 

 meteorology, which claims but 30 pages, after which 

 come the mammals, with 21 pages. Botany has 10 

 pages, but three of these are scarcely botanical, as they 

 deal with what White calls a matter of domestic 

 economy, namely, the u.se of rushes for making rush- 

 lights, and how the housewives who were careful eked 

 out their scanty incomes. 



The only other re-arrangement of the letters which 

 has hitherto been attempted is that which was first ac- 

 complished by Sir William Jardine in 1833, in whose 

 edition both serie.s of letters are classified according 

 to date, those to Pennant being interposed amongst 

 others of similar dates to Barrington. This arrange- 

 ment of the letters was followed in later editions bv 

 Captain Thomas Brown in 1833, and Edward Jesse in 

 1 85 1, but Jardine in 1853 reverted to the original 

 arrangement of the letters. Buckland, however, in 

 1875 adopted the chronological arrangement of the 

 letters. Now we have a fresh classification under sub- 

 ject headings. It fills a vacant space, and all lovers 

 of Gilbert White will no doubt make an acquaintance 

 with it. It will remain a companion rather than a sub- 

 stitute for the older .uid original arrangement. 



,j^^^^^ 



Artificia^l Rvibies. 



The synthetic diamond is so small and the expense of 

 making it comparatively so great that it is not likely to 

 compete with the crystal made in Nature's laboratories. 

 That is not quite true, however, of the artificial ruby, 

 which can now be made of a " commercial " size, 

 though examination under a lens will usually reveal its 

 inferiority to the real article. Small crystals of a sili- 

 cate of alumina coloured by bichromate of potash have 

 been made for the last 15 years, and a method has been 

 found of increasing their size by " nursing " them, or, 

 in other words, by keeping the crystal in the mother 

 liquid till it grows larger by aggregation. The small 

 ruby to be " nursed " is placed on a turning-plate, 

 where by means of an oxy-hydrogen blowpip>e it is 

 rai.sed to a temperature of about i,8co deg. Centigrade. 

 Then with a pair of pincers there are added to it 

 successively tiny grains of artificial ruby. If the work 

 is carried on iminterruptedly without losing sight of the 

 crystal dexterous handling makes it easy to get fine 

 crystals, all of whose parts, though not of homogeneous 

 origin, are melted together and recrystalised into a 

 single form, which may be cut like a natural crvstal. 

 One of the difficulties of the work is that the crystals 

 often break while cooling, and one of the defects of 

 these manufactured crystals is the presence of air 

 l)ul)!)les which can be detected by a microscope. 



