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KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[October 1, 1887. 



literature. Of course, Evelyn, Bacon, Sii- William Temple, 

 and other owners of famous gardens figure largely in his 

 pages, and much intere.'5ting information will be found as tc 

 the early cultivation in this country of vegetables now pro- 

 curable by, and familiar to, the very poorest of the popula- 

 tion. It is strange to read of the market-gardens at 

 Battersea, and of the nursery-grounds at Brompton (existing 

 during the memory of many who will read these lines), 

 where miles of streets, crescents, " gardens," and squares 

 now cover the ground. Something will be found in Mr. 

 Hazlitt's ]iages to interest every one, from the owner of the 

 lordl}' garden, with its acres of glass, to the possessor of a 

 window-box full of mignonette or tropoeolum. 



TJw, Fii.ngus-Ihmter's Guide and Field Memorandum Book. 

 By W. Delisle Hay, F.R.G.S. (London : Swan Sonnen- 

 schein, Lowrey, & Co. 1887.) — In the handy little volume 

 before us Mr. Hay gives descriptions, amply illustrated, of 

 all the British fungi, interleaving it with ruled paper for 

 notes and memoranda in the field. By means of two " keys " 

 prefixed the order and genus of any fungus may be found, 

 and then in the list of genera the "find" may be hunted down. 

 A valuable feature in Mr. Hay's book is the distinction of 

 fungi into esculent, doubtfully esculent, poi.sonous, supposed 

 to be poisonous, and unknown. No one who will carefully 

 note the letters appended to the description of each species 

 can have the slightest excuse for eating even an unwhole- 

 some kind of fungus, and on this ground alone the woi'k 

 may be commended to the gourmet as well as to the 

 scientific botanist. 



Humiary. By Arminius Vambery, with the collabora- 

 tion of Louis Heilprin. (London : T. Fisher TJnwin. 

 1887.) — If ever the history of a country could be epitomised 

 in the phrase of our liturgy, " Battle, murder, and sudden 

 death," it would be that of Hungary, as narrated by 

 Professor Vambery in the new volume of the " Story of the 

 Nations " series now before us. From the date of the 

 conquest of the Pannonians by Tiberius down to the days 

 of Kossuth, Gtirgei, and Batthydni, war, civil or exotic, 

 slaughter, and rapine appear to have formed the chronic 

 conditions of existence of the inhabitants of the country to 

 the west of the Carpathian Mountains. The patriotism, not 

 to call it the partisanship, of Professor Vambery lends a 

 colouring to the whole narrative; and the reader will 

 scarcely be surprised to find what is piaised in the Hun- 

 garian as bravery and justifiable artifice denounced as 

 cruelty and treachery when practised by his enemies. But, 

 allowance made for this, the student of history will find in 

 the work before us an interesting account of the persistent 

 struggles for freedom of a most gallant and interesting 

 nationality. 



Boijs and Masters. By A. H. Gilkes, M.A. (Ijondon : 

 Longmans, Green, & Co. 1887.) — Mr. Gilkes calls " Boys 

 and Masters " " a story of school life," but there is an 

 amount of imagination in this description which is not 

 always to be found in a narrative whose distinguishing 

 feature is its exiguity. Certainly Mr. Gilkes's boys are very 

 natural boys, and many of us will excite or revive reminis- 

 cences of our own school and schoolfellows in reading of 



o 



their sayings and doings. Presumably, too, the masters 

 are equally natural as depicted when, so to speak, ofl^ parade ; 

 but of this, for obvious reasons, we can speak less confi- 

 dently. Apparently Mr. Gilkes's aim seems to be to insist 

 upon the responsiljility of parents in connection with the 

 education of their children; but, if so, pretty sustained 

 attention is needed to discover it. Whether it was the 

 spreUe injuria formm that drove Dr. Scott to resign his 

 mastership, or what, we are as ignorant now as we were 

 before we opened the book. 



Matter and Energy. By B. L. L. (London : Kegan 

 Paul, Trench, & Co. 1887.)— " What," asked Punch, in 

 his imperishable epitome of metaphysics, " is mind ? No 

 matter. And what is matter ? Never mind." Pursuing 

 a parallel path, " B. L. L." regards matter as a mere figment 

 of the imagination, and energy as the sole entity in the 

 univer.se. We wholly fail to .see upon what ground our 

 author would be justified in predicating the objective exist- 

 ence of his father and mother, who must, upon his showing, 

 be simply resolved into a bundle of his own sensations and 

 into nothing else in the world. 



England's Ideal, t(-c. By Edward Carpenter. (London: 

 Swan Sonneiischein, Lowrey, <fe Co. 1887.) — This mass of 

 Communistic trash is pretty obviously the work of a man 

 who, failing to emancipate himself from his own social 

 stratum, proposes to regenerate society by di'agging every- 

 body down to his own level. The author's ignorance of the 

 manners, customs, and modes of thought and feeling of the 

 classes he so scurrilously abuses would be ridiculous were it 

 not so utterly contemptible. This is a species of literature 

 which may suit such as can read of the drunken loafers who 

 follow Hyndman, Champion & Co. into Trafalgar Square, 

 but can only excite disgu.st in, and wholly repel, any 

 tolerably educated, fair-minded Englishman, be his social 

 rank what it may. 



The London Weather Chart, 1887. By B. G. Jenkins, 

 F.R.A.S. (London : R. Morgan.) — Mr. Jenkins appears to 

 us to be, as nearly as may be, as often wrong as he is right, 

 which is only another way of saying that his predictions are 

 made upon no sound .scientific principle whatever. Taking the 

 month in which this is written (August) he summarises his 

 expectations thus : " Barometer rather low first half of the 

 month" (up to the 13th it was really very high), "bringing 

 rain and decrease of temperature " (the protracted di'ought 

 and great heat must be fresh in the memory of all our 

 readers). " Violent gale probably about the -Ith " (no 

 gale whatever happened ; there was a thunderstorm on the 

 1.5th-lGth). So far Mr. .Jenkins was ludicrously wrong. 

 " Fine the last half of the month, with, however, rain 

 towards the close," I'epresents a little, and only a little, more 

 accurately what really occurred. Now, if Mr. Jenkins's pre- 

 dictions had proved correct in any considerable majority of 

 cases the presumption would be that he really had hit upon 

 the law governing the weather of the metropolis. On 

 the other hand, if he were persistently wrong, it would 

 appear tliat he was on the track of a law, but had mistaken 

 its signification. When, however, he is, as we began by 

 remarking, about half wrong and half right, the conclusion 

 is irresistible that his vaticinations are about as valuable as 

 those of Murphy or Zadkiel, neither more nor less so. 



The Management of the Eye, Ear, and Throat. By 

 Henry Power, F.R.C.S., George P. Field, and John S. 

 Bristowe, M.D., F.R.S. The Management of the Skin and 

 Hair. By Malcolm Morris, F.P>,.C.S. Edin. (London, 

 Paris, New York, and Melbourne : Cassell & Co.) — These 

 two valuable little books are reprinted from that large and 

 elaborate work, " The Book of Healtli," issued by the same 

 publishers ; and may be confidently recommended as 

 thoroughly trustworthy guides to the self-management of 

 those organs of the human body of which they respectively 

 treat. On the importance of the preseivatiou of sight, 

 hearing, and speech throughout life, it would be idle to 

 insi.st ; and the non-professional reader will find in the first 

 volume of those whose titles head this notice, the jjlainest 

 and most explicit dii'ections for that purpose. Mr. Malcolm 

 Morris's work should in addition become popular with the 

 fair sex, inasmuch as in the skin and hair reside some of the 

 most striking and important elements of female beauty; 



