204 



♦ KNO\VLEDGE ♦ 



[Sept. 5, 1884. 



am earnestly anxious that he should have it. When a 

 man voluntarily publishes a book, he, ipso facto, sub- 

 jects that book to the most searching, and, if need be, 

 damaging criticism (always supposing such criticism 

 to be honi% fide, and without malice) ; nor does the 

 patronage of Lord Shaftesbury, or even of the Lord Mayor 

 himself, exempt him from unfavourable comment. To two 

 expressions in the paragraph in question Dr. Kinns takes 

 especial exception. The first is this : " He claimed to have 

 the sanction and support of, inter alioa, members of the 

 staff of the British Museum, but this was promptly 

 denied and repudiated by more than one leading mem- 

 ber of that staff themselves." The members of the 

 staff who do appear to support Dr. Kinns are 

 Dr. Birch and Mr. Pinches ; who are, doubtless, ex- 

 cellent judges of the faithfulness of a translation of a 

 cuneiform inscription, but whose authority as astronomers, 

 physicists, geologists, and palwontologists may reasonably be 

 questioned. As for the repudiation by the Natural Science 

 staff of the Museum, see Mr. Carruthers' letter in the 

 Standard of Jan. 4, 18Si, and the mass of correspondence 

 which appeared in that journal, the Times, ic, about, 

 and subsequently to, that period, together with Dr. 

 Kinns's replies. The next expression to which Dr. 

 Kinns objects is " crass ignorance," which he alleges is 

 calculated to do him serious injury. As I would not 

 wilfully injure a human being, and assuredly not a total 

 stranger to me, I withdraw that expression entirely, and 

 invite Dr. Kinns himself to substitute for it, in these 

 columns, his own definition of the mental condition of a 

 man who could believe that refraction, in any form what- 

 ever, could cause the sun to appear above the western 

 horizon after the rotation of the earth had carried it — not 

 only beneath the observer's feet — but actually to its point 

 of rising 180° distant! I must, in fairness, add that, at 

 the time of my penning these lines the new edition of Dr. 

 Kinns' book has not reached me. Should it do so before 

 going to press, and I find that the astounding statement to 

 which I have just referred has been expunged from it, I 

 will take care to give the fact all the publicity in my 

 power. Dr. Kinns seems to be labouring under the curious 

 hallucination that his private character and personal honour 

 have been attacked. No such utterly baseless charges were 

 ever brought (or would for a single instant have been suf- 

 fered to have been brought) against him in these columns. 

 It was his judgment as an author, and that alone, which 

 was assailed, in conjunction with the policy of the action 

 of his committee. 



Celestial Motions : a handy book 0/ Astroitomi/. By TV. 

 T. Lynn, B.A., F.R.A.S. Second Edition. " (London: 

 Edward Stanford, 1884.) — Scarcely two monthshave elapsed 

 since our first notice of Mr. Lynn's capital little book, and 

 already the first edition is exhausted. In the second, the 

 two or three printer's errors, &c., which we noticed in p. 483 

 of our la.'it volume have disappeared, all numerical and other 

 detail is brought down to the very latest date, and a 

 diagram of the orbit of the November meteors has been 

 added. Mr. Lynn's tiny volume has honestly earned the 

 success it has met with. 



London Wafer : A Review of the Present Condition and 

 Suggested Improvements of the Metropolitan Water 

 Supply. By A. DE C. Scott, Major-Gen eral late R.E. 

 (London: Chapman &, Hall. 1884.) — When we read on 

 the first line of General Scott's work that, even in 1882, in 



addition to the supply from private wells, London consumed 

 daily 140,130,000 gallons of water ! the vast importance of 

 the subject which he undertakes to discuss is irresistibly 

 forced upon us. He gives us a .succinct history of the 

 Metropolitan Water Supply ; and shows very plainly in 

 what respects it breaks down ; discusses the various schemes 

 proposed for furnishing a supply of pure water — such as 

 Mr. Bateman's for bringing it from South Wales, Messrs. 

 Hemans and Hassard's, for deriving it from the Lake 

 District; Mr. Fulton's, for obtaining it from the Wye, ic, 

 as well as the idea of Messrs. Homersham and Barlow for 

 sinking very deep wells within the area of the metropolis 

 itself. He appears to be pretty definitely of opinion that 

 the monopoly of the Water Companies has been abused, 

 and that the sooner it is destroyed the better. General 

 Scott's book deserves the attention of every water-consumer 

 in London. 



Raihvay Accidents. By Clement E. Stretton. Third 

 Edition. (London : Simpkin, Marshall, <fe Co.) — This is a 

 carefully-written pamphlet on the cause and prevention of 

 those calamities which occasionally befal us to remind us 

 of the reality of the danger we more or less wilfully 

 place ourselves in day by day. It is notorious that com- 

 panies have frequently tried to shield themselves behind 

 their servants, and would sometimes have succeeded had it 

 not been for the timely interposition of Mr. Stretton, who, 

 having devoted time and money to the protection of the 

 servant, is acknowledged as their friend. We commend 

 the little pamphlet to the serious consideration of our 

 readers. 



The Electrician's Pocket-Book. By E. Hospitalier. 

 Translated, with additions, by Gordon Wigan, M.A. 

 (London: Cassell ife Company, Limited, 1884.) — This is 

 second year's edition of a work which is intended to be 

 issued periodically. It is a very useful volume, teeming 

 with valuable information condensed into a small com- 

 pass. It has the advantage of being very clearly printed, 

 one great feature being the unusual prominence given to 

 the headings of paragraphs. Reference is in consequence 

 made much simpler than it otherwise would be. 



Photography for Amateurs. By T. 0. Hepworth. 

 (London : Cassell i Co., 1884.) — Mr. Hepworth has done 

 his work honestly and well, and with the exception ot 

 that short chapter on the history of photography with 

 which the author of ne.arly every manual on the subject 

 seems to consider it incumbent on him to begin his book, 

 there is little that is not instructive to the worker, and 

 which may not be read with profit by the amateur. 



How to be a successful Amateur Photographer. By W. 

 J. Lancaster, F.C.S. (Birmingham : J. Lancaster k Son.) 

 — Yet another work on Photography ! This time by a 

 member of a well-known firm of manufacturing opticians, 

 who tells us nothing about Victor Niepce, Daguerre, nor 

 Fox Talbot, but who plunges at once in medias res, and 

 is most eminently practical from beginning to end. He 

 confines his descriptions of apparatus to those forms con 

 structed by the firm to which he belongs ; but, as the 

 reader will soon find out for himself, there is no real dis- 

 advantage in this. The exceeding cheapness of Mr. Lan- 

 caster's pamphlet places it within everybody's reach, and, 

 moreover, enables the intending photographer to sit down 

 and count the cost of his preliminary essay in the art ; a 

 consideration by no means to be lost sight of by the be- 

 ginner of limited means. 



Hygienic Bread is a description of the new hygienic 

 bakery of Messrs. W. Hill ifc Son. 



We have also before us The Practical Confectioner, The 

 Journal of Botany, and Amateur Gardening. 



