Jci-Y 11, 1S84] 



* KNOWLEDGE • 



37 



hours. It 18 followed (in an Appendix) by a Directory of 

 the Sanitary Officers, &c., District Asylums, and Hospitals 

 for Infectious Diseases in the metropolitan area. It is noted 

 l)y Mr. Chambers in his Preface that the Public Health 

 Act of 187"), under which every other rural and urban 

 t-anitary authority in the kingdom is governed, excluded 

 London ! a curious illustration of the result of that plethora 

 of empty verbiage and absence of real work which charac- 

 terises the House of Commons. 



Moffat's Class A'i'r/it'/rr- -Muffa/'s Half- time Register — 

 Amnnr's Inspector's Test (Ut.rds — Afalf heir's iini-xcelled Serifs 

 of Arithmetical Test Cards. (London : Motfat it Page.) — 

 These publications are adapted to the latest requirements 

 of the Education Department, and, as is generally the case 

 with works issued by Messrs. Muti'at ifc Co., are unexcelled 

 for use in Public Elementary Schools. The test cards are 

 designed to supply the examiner with a series of questions 

 (and replies to them) calculated to show the progress 

 of the pupils in the various standards. 



Sewing made Easij, with A'otes of Lessons on various 

 Stitches. (London: Moffatt k Page, 188-t.) — We have 

 purposely excluded this most practical work from the pre- 

 vious heterogeneous heading, inasmuch as its use is by no 

 means confined to the schools for which it was apparently 

 primarily intended. We have submitted it to a lady skilled 

 in needlework, for her unbiassed opinion, which we append. 

 "This," she says, "is an excellent little book, on a most 

 simple system ; by the aid of which sewing of all sorts 

 may be easily taught. No mistress should be without it. 

 There is a good list of cheap paper patterns, sold by the 

 publishers, at the end of it, illustrations of garments of 

 various sorts, and explicit directions for every kind of 

 darning and marking. You may very safely recommend it." 

 Which, on the strength of such te;timony, we hereby do. 



The Book of Health. Part I. Edited by Malcjlm 

 Morris. (London : Cassell tfc Co.) — This tirst part of 

 what promises to be a succinct Encyclopedia of Hygiene 

 contains an introductory chapter by Mr. W. S. Savory, 

 F.R.S., e.xtending over 100 pages, and the commencement 

 of an essay by Sir Risdon Bennett, M.D., F.R.S., "On 

 Food and its Uses in Health." It gives promise of being 

 at once a useful and a readable work. 



The Countries of the Wor/d. Part I. By Rohert 

 Brown, M.A., F.RXJ.S., Ph.D. (London : Cassell i Co.) 

 With its really admirable illustrations, and its chatty and 

 readable letterpress. Dr. Brown's pleasant introduction to 

 geography and ethnology can hardly fail to command an 

 extensive circle of readers. An excellent map of the world, 

 on Mercator's projection, accompanies this tirst part. 



Cassell's Popular Gardening. Part I. Edited by D. T. 

 Fish. (London : Cassell & Co.) — This profusely-illustrated 

 book supplies just the kind and amount of information re- 

 quired by every possessor of a garden, whether in lordly 

 jiroportions it may surround a country mansion, or take the 

 form of the two narrow .strips of " back and front garden" 

 of a suburban villa. Garden-pots and potting, ground opera- 

 tions, florists' flowers, ferns, kitchen-gardening, and green- 

 house plants are only some of the subjects treated of in the 

 number before us. 



Cassell's Household duide. Part I. (London : Cassell 

 k Co. ) — Here is the first instalment of another encyclopae- 

 dia — this time, however, devoted to domestic economy. 

 Domestic finance, house furnishing, cookery, domestic 

 surgery, household carpentry, dogs, gymnastics, chicken- 

 keeping, and decorative art, we may select at random from 

 the contents of this number to show its scope and character. 



European Butterflies and Moths. Part I. By W. F. 

 KiRBY. With coloured plates. (London: Cassell it Co.) — 

 This book, with its superVj illustrations, will doubtless soou 



be upon the shelves of every lepidopterist in the three 

 kingdoms. Supplying, as it does, the means of identitica- 

 tion of every leadiog form of European butterfly and moth, 

 it may well be commended to the traveller and the 

 sojourner in the country. Like the four previously 

 mentioned works, this is published at a price which sug- 

 gests the idea that it must almost entail a loss upon every 

 one concerned — save alwavs the fortunate purchaser. 



Amateur Mechanics. No. 18, Vol. '1. (Loudon: Iliffe 

 & Sou.) — A handy and useful monthly publication for the 

 amateur turner, joiner, fitter, and engineer. 



7'Ae Sanitary Engineer. British and Continental 

 Edition. (New York.) — A weekly paper containing much 

 that is interesting to all concerned with the question of 

 health, on both sides of the AtUi.tio. 



Illustrated Sports is a monthly journal made up of 

 articles on athleticj and advertisements in about tqual 

 proportions. 



I'he Laundry Guide, by W. J. Mexzies, referred to in 

 our last issue, is published by McCorquodale A: Co., Newton- 

 le-Willows. Price 6d. 



iHi^rrllaiifa. 



We hear that the delay in tlie issue of the current number of 

 Mr. F. G. Heath's " Ferri Portfolio" has arisen wholly from the 

 elaborate nature of the work and the great size of the stones em- 

 ployed ill the colour-printing. 



AMONGSTthe prominent Americans expected in London this month 

 (says our chatty aud readable contemporary Socictij) is the cele- 

 brated astronomer Dr. Draper, who will be accompanied by his 

 fascinating wife, one of the most charming of American women, as 

 accomplished as an Italian of the sixteenth century and as brilliant 

 as a Parisienne of the eighteenth. 



SUAKESPERHNA. — To the July part of the "Miscellanea Genea- 

 logica" Mr. Stephen Tucker, Somerset Herald, has communicated 

 a most interesting account of the Assignment of Arms to the father 

 of the poet. This account is illustrated by Hve facsimiles of docu- 

 ments from the Heralds' College Records. These have been most 

 carefully executed in pboto-lithography, and will be heartily wel- 

 comed by all those interested in Shakesperiana. 



Vivisection. — During the year 1883, according to the annual re- 

 port just issued to Parliament, five hundred aud sixty-nine experi- 

 ments were performed on living animals in the United Kingdom, 

 thirty-four of these being carried out in Ireland. Fifty-five ex- 

 periments were performed without ana?sthetics, and one hundred 

 and twenty-two under certificates giving permission to preserve the 

 life of the animal after recovery from anoesthesia. Concerning this 

 last class of experiments, the report states that in one hundred and 

 fourteen cases the operation consisted of inoculation with various 

 septic matters or morbific organisms, for the greater part con- 

 nected with an important inquiry into the nature of tubercular 

 affections. No pain was inflicted in these cases except in about 

 fourteen or fifteen instances, in which disease was produced, but 

 which was very trifling. In the remaining eight cases, in which 

 more serious operations were required, as these were effected under 

 aua?sthesia, the only suffering in the animals that survived would 

 be that which attends the ordinary repair of a " surgical injury." — 

 Medical Press and Circidar. 



The April E.^rthqu-ake. — Swiftly as the shadow of a snnimer 

 cloud sweeps over wide country tracts, so glided by the invisible 

 power, and ruins marked its course. When the actual active force 

 of the calamity had come and gone, then terror had its turn. A 

 mighty fear overcame most living things. Birds flew wildly hither 

 and thither, uttering sharp, startled cries. Beating in blind haste, 

 perhaps, against trees or walls, many a little feathered victim fell 

 lifeless to the ground. A flock of sheep being driven up a hill-side 

 could with difficulty be kept together, and one poor woolly matron 

 died within a few tninutes of the shock— her fate being shared by 

 two lambs of very tender age. Farmyard fowls huddled together 

 in abject fright. Dogs howled and cowered in amazement. Cot- 

 tage folk tell almost unanimously, how they " wholly looked to be 

 swallowed up !" And as for the womankind, rushing terror-stricken 

 out of their falling homes, it seems that with one accord, to use 

 their own emphatic phrase, " they shruck." " 'T must be London 

 blown up ! " was one man's scared suggestion ; but " Nay, mate," 

 made answer a more reasoning mind. " Not if all London u-as 



