Aug. 29, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



183 



jRtbi'eiBS* 



Introduction to Science Kate Book. By C. H. Hinton, 

 B.A. (London : JohaHaddon & Co. 1884.) — The Science 

 Note Book is a kind of copybook ruled in squares of 

 various sizes. In his " Introduction " Mr. Hinton shows 

 how the rudiments of Co-ordinate Geometry, Mensuration, 

 and various facts of size, shape, and number may be taught 

 in the most simple way. The idea is a good one, and 

 the system well adapted for teaching the Elements of 

 Mathematics. 



The Elements of Euclid. Books I. to VI. By J. 

 Sturgeon Mackay, M.A., F.R.S.E. (London : W. i R. 

 Chambers. 1881.) — Following, to a great e.xtent, Simson's 

 editions of Euclid, Mr. Mackay has not done so slavishly ; 

 and in certain respects has improved upon that time- 

 honoured editor of the immortal " Elements." His altera- 

 tions are certainly, so far as we have tested them, all iu 

 the direction of perspicuity ; and are calculated to remove 

 those little difficulties which beset the incipient efforts of 

 the student of geometry. The figures are capital. 



I'iciuresque Wales. By Godfrey Turner. (London : 

 W. J. Adams & Co.) — This very cheap, readable, and 

 prettily-illustrated description of the various points of 

 beauty and interest accessible by the Cambrian railways 

 may be advantageously studied by those who, declining to 

 subject themselves to the untold miseries of Continental 

 quarantine, are ignorant of the wealth of glorious scenery 

 to be enjoyed in their own country. The tourist, undecided 

 where to spend his holiday, may invest sixpence in Mr. 

 Turner's little book very profitably indeed. 



The Moselle, from the Battlefields to the Rhine ; Tourists' 

 Travel Talk. Holiday Handbooks. (London: 125, Fleet- 

 street. ) — If, however, undismayed by foreign sanitary 

 regulations, the traveller should determine to quit his own 

 country in search of health and change, he will find all 

 needful information as to the best means and cost of 

 visiting the theatre of the Franco-German \\3.\ and the 

 glorious scenery of the Moselle generally in the fir.-t brochure 

 whose title heads this notice. The second should enable 

 him to make himself sufficiently intelligible to get about. 



Expository Tlioughts on the Creation. By James Robert 

 Smith. (London : Printed for the Author by Elliot 

 Stock.) — In the preface to the mas.s of hopeless nonsense 

 ■whose title heads this notice, its author deprecates adverse 

 criticism, on the somewhat incoherent grounds that it was 

 ■written "when the writer was but temporarily engaged in 

 his calling;" that "neither leisure nor learning (properly 

 so-called) has been brought to bear upon it," that the " life- 

 experience" of its ■writer "has been mainly gained in another 

 and far different sphere — viz., in a department of the legal 

 world," and " to a consequent lack of sufficient knowledge 

 of natural history and other branches of learning and 

 research." It is really difficult or impossible to conceive 

 tlie mental condition of a writer who can put forward his 

 ignorance of a subject on which he presumes to attempt to 

 instruct others as a reason why such an attempt should be 

 tenderly dealt with ! For ourselves, we refuse to accept 

 such an utterly irrelevant excuse. The inexorable rule 

 which excludes the discussion of all purely theological sub- 

 jects from these columns, prevents us from referring to 

 Mr. Smith's polytheistic exordium : let us then see what 

 his Science (Heaven save the mark I) is like : In limine he 

 adopts the fifty times exploded idea that the " day " of 

 Genesis " is age or era " ; ignoring wholly that " the 

 evening and the morning were the first (and each succeeding) 

 day," and calmly putting Exodus xx. 8, 9, 10, and 11, out of 

 sight altogether. However, having got his " ages or eras," 



let us see what our author does with them. Prior to the 

 commencement of the first, the female Deity, by a " cor- 

 poreal act," originated the compound elements of nature, 

 " which were .... five in number — viz., aeriform vesi- 

 cular matter, wind, watery vesicular matter, oleaginous 

 vesicular matter, and salt." Then the wind, salt, tc, 

 "began moving and rotating." Globules were poised in 

 space, the air, at first thin, became thick, " the sea began 

 to be developed," and "by virtue of the generating 

 elements composing it, and those of air, being in constant 

 and two-fold motion, there gradually started into being 

 multitudes of animalcuhe and microscopic life." With this 

 " start " the transition to shell-fish and " many marine 

 creatures .... who attained unto immense size," presents 

 no difficulty at all — or, at all events, as little as the method 

 in which their deposits formed " at last by far the greater 

 portion of the earliest earth-crust — namely that composed of 

 chalk and lime." Geologists and Pak-eontologists will be as 

 interested to hear that Icthyosauri, Plesiosauri, and Mega- 

 theria(!) existed during the "third age" (or day) as phy- 

 sicists will that " the air was formed by the aggregation of 

 innumerable globules or vesicles .... consisting princi- 

 pally of aeriform unctuous matter and watery unctuous 

 matter " ; or zoologists, that the same third day witnessed 

 the creation of the penguin, petrel, dinomis, kestrel- 

 hawk, sparrow, and red-pole. It will also, in all 

 probability, be new to mineralogists to learn that 

 during the fourth day (or age) there was a " lead 

 formation in the northern hemisphere," and the " forma- 

 tion of tin in the southern ; but that subsequently, on the 

 fifth day (or age), there was " a copper formation in the 

 northern hemisphere," and a brass ! ! ! one in the south. 

 " Pig-iron and dense iron," by the bye, came into existence 

 on the sixth day. The generation of Adam " solely by a 

 female gorilla," after all this, will scarcely cause any sur- 

 prise. We would rather not trust ourselves to describe the 

 genesis of Eve, as set forth by our author. At first sight 

 it may appear that an apology is really due to the reader 

 for occupying his time with such trash as that from which 

 we have culled a very few specimens ; but we have done so 

 in order to show where the latest attempt at reconciliation 

 between the irrefragable facts of natural and physical 

 science and the legend in Genesis lands us. The harm to 

 religion done by those who have, so far, essayed to effect 

 this " reconciliation " can hardly be over-estimated. To 

 address advice to the author of a book such as that on 

 which we are commenting, can scarcely be anything but a 

 waste of time. Inasmuch, however, as he seems to pay 

 great deference to texts (with ■which his earlier pages bristle), 

 ■we would urge that he should read, mark, learn, and in- 

 wardly digest Matthew xv., 14 v. as soon as may be. 



Messrs. Hodder k, Stoughton send us, under the title 

 of Health St-udies, a reprint, in three separate shilling 

 volumes, of Dr. Paterson's work, of which we were able to 

 speak so favourably in p. 461 of our last volume. 



We have received from Messrs. Cassell J: Co. the current 

 parts of European Butterflies and 2foths, CasseU's Household 

 Guide, CasseU's Popular Gardening, The Book of Health, 

 the Library of English Literature, and the Countries of the 

 World, each and all of which are as pleasant to the eye as 

 they are profitable to the various classes of readers whom 

 they severally especially address. 



We have also on our table Le Franklin, Bradstreets, 

 The TricycUst, Naturen, The Australian, Society, The 

 Medical Press and Circular, The Medico-Legal Journal, 

 del et Terre, The American Druggist, The Dyer, The 

 Factory News, The American Naturalist, Sunday Talk, 

 Oiir Monthly (published in Rangoon), and The Hindu 

 Excelsior Magazine. 



