222 



DISCOVERY 



end of the book, where an account of the author's Hfe is 

 given and his method discussed. Finally, questions are 

 asked and exercises set on \shat has been read. 



The printing and binding of these little books has been 

 well and tastefully done. They are of the pocket size, 

 and have been purposely made as unlike the traditional 

 school book as possible. Each contains a portrait of 

 the author of the text. 



So far, of the hundred volumes contemplated, the nine 

 given above have appeared, and it only remains to say 

 that they are delightful. The moderns are going to 

 be represented by such men as Conrad, Hardy, Tolstoy, 

 Stevenson, Anatole France, W. H. Hudson, and Edward 

 Thomas. The standard authors will be there too. 



The series promises to be a popular one, and it is a 

 pleasure nowadays to see books being sold at less than two 

 shillings each. 



The End of the World. By Joseph McCabe. (Rout- 

 ledge, 6s. net.) 



This is really a popular book on Astronomy, dealing 

 more particularly with the question, " When will this 

 earth of ours cease to be the home of man ? " So it is a 

 pity that what sounds like a quack title has been given 

 to it. But the book itself is a good one, and a very in- 

 teresting one too, and is sufficiently cautiously written 

 to give a reader a scientiiic account of all that has been 

 happening or being speculated upon recently in astronomy, 

 without being, in Mr. Kipling's phrase, too " filthily 

 technical." 



There are three conceivable ways, it appears, in which 

 the earth may come to an end. It may die prematurely, 

 it may be cut o0 by a violent accident, it may " pass 

 through the slow and chilling phases of old age into the 

 rigor of death." 



To discuss these possibilities, we must take the whole 

 universe as our parish, and talk calmly in terms of billions 

 of miles and in millions of years. We must not be dis- 

 appointed when we are told that the very vearest fixed 

 star is more than a quarter of a million times farther away 

 than the sun. We must try and visualise a comet with 

 a tail 100,000,000 miles in length, or a nebula which is 

 150,000,000,000,000 miles across. Once this sort of thing 

 is mastered, one of the most interesting of sciences be- 

 comes pleasant. 



Some of the subjects discussed by Mr. McCabe are 

 the destruction of life upon the earth by earthquakes and 

 volcanic eruptions, or by causes leading to the withdrawal 

 of the air we breathe or the land we live upon, or by 

 collision in space with comets, or by the dying of the sun. 

 And in addition he has distilled from the mass of recent 

 literature, and condensed for our benefit, a great amount 

 of information on astronomy. The bearing of the newer 

 views and theories upon the established truths of the 

 science is very clearly discussed. 



The conclusion of the whole matter is that, unless the 

 universe develops properties of which at present we are 

 in ignorance, this little planet of ours is quite safe for many 

 millions of years. 



A Textbook of Inorganic Chemistry. In ten volumes. 

 Edited by Dr. J. Newton Friend. Volumes 

 i, iv, V, viii and first part of ix. Price 12s., i6s., 

 15s., I2S. 6d., and i8s. respectively. (Griffin.) 



This is a series of books on chemistry on which the 

 editor, his authors, and the publishers should be con- 

 gratulated. It is a series that has been badly wanted, 

 and which no library which pretends to be scientific can 

 afford to do without. Chemists, as you know, arrange 

 the elements in groups numbering o to 8, so that a volume 

 on each of these nine groups, with an extra one to take in 

 the overflow of one, gives us the ten under notice. The 

 information is up-to-date, and references to the literature 

 are given at the bottom of each page. The printing and 

 setting are excellent. 



By 



Other Books Received 



Co-education and its part in a Complete Education. 

 I. H. Badley. (Heffer, 2s.) 



Chaos and Order in Industry. By G. H. D. CoLE. 

 (Methuen, 7s. bd. net.) 



The Historical Method in Ethics, and other Essays. By 

 John Handyside. (University Press of Liver- 

 pool, 5s. net.) 



What is Philosophy ? By G. C. Field. (University 

 Press of Liverpool, 2S. net.) 



Australian Meteorology. By Griffith TA^iT-OR, D.Sc 

 (Clarendon Press, 12s. 6d. net.) 



A Guide to the Observatories at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, 

 and Benares. By G. R. Kaye. (Superintendent 

 Government Printing, Calcutta, 3s. 6i.) 



The Quest of the Indies. By Richard D.vrk. (Black- 

 well, 6s. net.) 



The New Psychology and its Relation to Life. By A. G. 

 Tansley. (Allen & Unwin, los. 6d. net.) 



Everyday Chemistry. By \V. Robinson. (Methuen, 

 3s. 6d. net.) 



Vertebrate Zoology. By Prof. H. H. Newman. (The 



Macmillan Company, i6s. net.) 

 Applied Eugeuics. By P. Popenoe and R. H. Johnson. 

 (The Macmillan Company, 14s. net.) 



Early in the autumn Mr. Cecil Palmer will publish 

 " The Murder of Edwin Drood : Recounted by John Jasper. 

 Being an attempted solution of the mystery based on Dickens's 

 MS. and Memoranda," by Percy T. Garden, with an intro- 

 duction by B. W. Matz. The last chapters of Dickens's 

 novel were to be have been written by Jasper in his con- 

 demned cell, " as if told of another," and Mr. Garden has 

 acted on this hint of Forster's, working into the narrative 

 elucidating passages which he has discovered in Dickens's 

 manuscript. A large-scale plan is included of the 

 Cathedral Precincts of Rochester (Cloisterham), together 

 with several seaplane photographs of the city ; and 

 there are appendices and notes in which Mr. Garden ex- 

 pounds his conclusions. 



i 



