November 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNO^WLEDGE ♦ 



21 



in this weird picture of an England which has relapsed into 

 barbarism, and in which only the scantiest relics of civilisa- 

 tion have survived as curiosities, not even an arch of London 

 Bridge being left on which jracaulaj's New Zealander might 

 sit to sketch the site of the vanished city. For in Mr. 

 Jefferies's vision London is covered by marshy oo/.e, from 

 whose putrid mass is exhaled mepliitic vapours fatal to the 

 man who nears its borders, and to the bird that dies across 

 it, and hanging as a low cloud over the rottenness of a 

 thousand years and of many hundred millions of human 

 beings festering under the stagnant waters charged with 

 sewage, and like foul matter. What natural causes opeiuted 

 to bring about this catastrophe are described in the first 

 part, and a piece of very powerful writing it is. The second 

 part introduces us somewhat abruptly to the domestic life of 

 the Aquilas, one of the few surviving families of nobles 

 dragging nn an Ishmael-like existence, and the prey of a 

 rapacious tyranny which has usurped sway over " Wild 

 England." As the foi tunes of Felix Aquila in his perilous 

 adventures for love's dear sake await theu- sequel, Mr. 

 Jefferies's readers may in the meantime exercise their 

 ingenuity in discovering whether anj' or what subtle 

 meaning underlies his fantastic story. 



Pendennis. Barnj Li/ndon. The Newcom.es. (Smith, 

 Elder, & Co.) — This convenient and pi-etty reprint of the 

 great master has beguiled us into renewed reading of works 

 that cannot pall, and that, while never obtruding their 

 moral, tend to lift us out of life s littlenesses into a larger, 

 whol&somer sphere. Whether the nioie expensive editions 

 be possessed or not, this pocket edition should have a corner 

 of its own. 



A New Theory nf Astrnnom;/. (Dublin: P. Dixon Hardy 

 &, Sous. London : Piper, Stephenson, & Co. 1857.) — We 

 fail to find the slightest justification for the insult offered to 

 a pcientific periodical in sending to it for notice such un- 

 mitigated trash as this twenty-nine years after the date 

 of its publication. 



Papers in Inorganic ChemiMn/, with Numerical Answers. 

 By Geo. E. R. Ellis, F.C.S. (London : Ptivingtons. 1886.) 

 Yet another aid to thegrievou.sly over-examined student I It 

 is only fair, however, to say that any one who can intelligently 

 answer the progressive series of questions contained in Jlr. 

 Ellis's volume (as carefully contradistinguished from answer- 

 ing them by rote) must have previously acquired a sound 

 knowledge of elementary chemistry. 



Philips' Planisphere, showing the principal Stars visible 

 for every Hour in the Year. (London : Geo. Philip it 

 Son.) — This extremely handy little planisphere is excellently 

 adapted to its purpose, which is to show at a glance the 

 visible heavens at any given hour of the day or night in and 

 about the latitude of London ; or, in fact, for practical pur- 

 poses, in any part of England. The disc on wliieh the con- 

 stellations are delineated rotate.s in a leather frame, which is 

 perforated with the elliptical projection of the horizon, the 

 the stai-s of course being visible through this 0{X)ning. It is 

 the very thing to lie on the astronomer's library table. 



Reading- Boohs for Home awl School: Suggestive Lessons 

 in Practical Lije. Second and Third Series. (Smith, 

 Elder, ife Co.) — 'These books, both in matter and style, deserve 

 unqualified praise. They are not made up of clippings after 

 the fashion of their kind, but of clear and informing 

 chapters which are the fruit of wide reading and of a life- 

 time's pi-actical experience in teaching. All the woodcuts 

 are good, and some of them superlatively delicate. 



The Junior Students' Algehra. By Alex. Wilson-, M.A. 

 (London : Crosby Lockwood ifc Co.) — Mr. Wilson has 

 obviously taken immense pains to render the fundamental 

 principles of algebra intelligible to the beginner. His 



book only extends to simple equations ; but his explanations 

 of the various little difficulties which beset the junior student 

 leave nothing to be desired. 



The Arithmdical Class P.ooh. Part I. By Rev. T. 

 MiTCliESON, B.A. (London : Bemrose and Sons. 1880.) — 

 Moffatl's Civil Service Examples in Arithmetic. By J. 

 Hall and E. J. Heschie. (London : Moffatt k Paige. — 

 Uxercises on Metisnration. By T. W. K. Start. (Loudon : 

 Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington. 1886.) — 

 Analysis Tables for Chemical Strulents. By R. L. Taylor, 

 F.C.S. (London : Sampson IjOW, Mai-ston, Searle, it Riving- 

 ton. 1886.) — German of To-day. By Dr. N. Heixe>[ann, 

 F.R.G.S. (London : Cassell k Co. \%%^^.)~Shakspeare's 

 Plays. Text and Literary Introduction in English and 

 German. "King Lear"; "Henry VIII." (London: 

 Whittaker & Co.)— Ze Verre d'Eav. Par E. Scribe. With 

 an Introduction and Notes by A. BarrIlRE. (London : 

 Whittaker it Co.) Yet another pile of school-books, all 

 more or less adapted to their purpo.se. Among those pos- 

 sessing some particular recommendation we may perhaps 

 select Mr. iVIitcheson's "Arithmetic" and Jlr. Taylor's 

 " Anal} sis Tables " as a little above the average. The rest 

 of the works named above call for no special notice. 



We have received Vol. VII. of the Dictionary of National 

 Biography (reserved for fuller notice). — Agnostic First Prin- 

 ciples, by Ignotus (Albert Simmons) (SVatts it Co.), an 

 accurate and much-needed summ.ary of Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer's famous work ; the tone of Dr. Bithell's intro- 

 duction is admirable. — Outlines of English History (Moffatt 

 it Paige), a useful whip to jaded memories, although pri- 

 marily intended to minister to the mind-killing system 

 of " cram." — The second volume of British Fungi, by Rev. 

 John Stevenson (Blackwood it Sons), completing the work. — 

 ]\Ir. Cole's Studies in Microscopical Science, August and 

 September (Birmingham : Hammond it Co.), to which every 

 microscopist should subscribe ; the plates alone are worth the 

 money. — Ross's Notes on Fairs, a gossipy, informing bro- 

 chure on those primitive mixtures of business and frolic. — 

 British Furuji, Lichens, and Mosses, by E. M. Holjies and 

 Peter Gray (Swan Sonnenschein it Co.), the latest addi- 

 tion to the useful and marvellously cheap " Young Col- 

 lector " series. — Mr. Harris Teall's British Petrography, 

 Parts v., VI., and VIL (Birmingham : Watson it Douglas), 

 enriched with admirable chromo-lithos of olivine-dolerite 

 and felspar from Derbj'shire, the Hel)rides, and Scotland. — 

 The Littk Asker ; or, Learning to Think, by J. J. Wright 

 (Swan Sonnenschein «t Co.), which utilises the more 

 attractive and striking facts of science for moral h ssons. 

 Commendably free from unprovable dogmas. — The Anti- 

 quary (Redway), giving papers of interest on the 

 orientation of churches in Hampshire, on the ancient 

 boat found at Brigg, with illustrations of the relic, 

 and continuing the late Mr. Cornelius Walford's useful 

 "History of Gilds." — Martin's Ambulance Work (Bailliere, 

 Tindall, it Cox), well worth its shilling for excellent sum- 

 mary of human anatomy and advice as to treatment of 

 accidents. — Professor Guthrie's wise and scathing Cantor 

 Lectures on Science I'eaching. — A batch of Cassell it Co.'s 

 useful serial issues : European Butterjiies ami Moths ; 

 Countries of the World ; Our Own Coimtry ; Library if 

 English Literature; Book of Health. — From America we 

 have the Proceediwjs of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 Philadelphia; the American Naturalist; and the Smith- 

 sonian Report, 1884, with its valuable resume of scientific 

 work and discover}', notable among which are the interesting 

 finds of the oldest known fossil-fish in the lower Silurian 

 beds of Pennsylvania, and of the oldest arachnids repre- 

 sented bv fossil-scorpions in the Upper Silurian of Gothland 

 and Lanarkshire. 



