528 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Dec. 26, 1884. 



dealt with in a book which may be easily carried in the 

 waistcoat pocket. 



Derital Caries. By Henry Sewill, M.RO.S. and L.D.S. 

 (London: Baillicre, Tindall, & Cox. 1884.)— We have 

 heard a dentist declare that, fifty years hence, there will not 

 be a man, woman, or child in the kingdom with a sound set 

 of teeth in his or her head. Even if we regard this as a 

 species of professional hyperbole, the fact remains that 

 caries (or decay) of the teeth is becoming most alarmingly 

 common, and hence the interest of Mr. Sewill's book, not 

 only to the members of his own profession, but to millions 

 in every rank of life. He deals in great detail with the 

 whole subject, explaining the causes, symptoms, and effects 

 of caries in a very intelligible manner. Probably, though, 

 the chapter on " The Prevention of Dental Caries " is that 

 which is of the more immediate importance to the non- 

 professional reader, to whcse perusal we commend it. 



Methods and Results. Report of a Conference on Oravitij 

 Delerminations. (Washington : Government Printing- 

 office. 1883 ) — In consequence of a letter addressed by 

 Lieut. -Colonel Herschel, R.E., to the Superiotendent of the 

 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, relative to the 

 best method of prosecuting pendulum observations, and 

 their scientific value, a conference met at the Coast Survey 

 Office in May, 1882, the report of which lies before us. 

 Of the great importance of the results of accurately-con- 

 ducted pendulum experiments to the Geodesist, the Phy- 

 sicist, and even the Geologist, it is needless to insist here ; 

 and the very practical suggestions in this Report cau 

 scarcely fail to be of the highest value to all who are either 

 (jersonally engaged in such experiments, or may afterwards 

 have to employ their results either for study or calculation. 



Destiny; or Man's Will-means and Will ends. By 

 Arthur Young. (London: Houlaton & Sonc.) — This 

 astonishing work consists of thirty-one diagrams, with 

 accompanying (we hardly like to call it descriptive) letter- 

 press. Diagram 1 looks like the Union Jack reposing on 

 a circular diatom ; on each of the eight arms of which 

 is written the name of some axis — " spirit," or tlie like. 

 Then, after the repetition of this arrangement in diagram •_', 

 we have a series of black crosses, studded with discs, con- 

 taining eight armed crosses, each arm, or rather each 

 opposite pair of arms, being inscribed with the name of 

 some science, art, mode of feeling, &c. As a specimen of 

 the extremely intelligible character of the explanation (?) of 

 these marvellous hieroglyphics given by their author, we 

 quote, absolutely at random, from the bottom of page 7 : — 

 ^' G. The Deductive-Explications of Man's Intellect means- 

 •of-space, as Po.sitive Pole of his Will-Necessity-Means, con- 

 clude this reading, and give us the Generalisations and 

 Classifications of the Will-Means of Analogy as Concomitant 

 of his Trinity (Father, Mother, Child) of C.jllectivity's Voca- 

 tions of Aspiration," — Need we quote further .' 



The Assay and Analysis of Iron and Steel. By 

 Thomas Bayley. (London : E. ik F. N. Spon. 1884 )— 

 In a volume so compact and portable that it may be easily 

 carried in the pocket, ]Mr. Bayley has furnished the metal- 

 lurgist and assayer with a most valuable little manual on 

 the analysis of iron and steel. No one possessing a modt rate 

 acquaintance with practical chemistry need be at a lo^s for 

 a single instant with this work in his hands. The direc- 

 tions are as plain and perspicuous as they can be, and are 

 supplemented by woodcuts of all the apparatus employed, 

 tables of atomic weights, itc. Mr. Bayley has produced an 

 extremely useful book. 



Origin of Cultivated Plants, by Alphonse de Candolle, 

 International Scientific Series. (London : Kegan, Paul, 

 Trench, k Co., 1884.) — Indispensable to the professed 

 botanist. M. de Cmdolle's exhaustive work must com- 



mend itself to a wide circle of more general readers from 

 the mass of information it contains on a subject in which 

 we have all so direct a ])ersoi)al interest. No less than 247 

 species of plants are traced to their origin in the volume 

 btfore u^", which displajs an amount of erudition, to say 

 nothing of painstaking labour, which cannot fail to im- 

 press the reader, and give him confidence in the conclu- 

 sions of tlie author. Many of his results are sufficiently 

 striking. We learn, for example, that while wljeat, beans, 

 lentils, the tig, millet, the olive, and rice have been in culti- 

 vation for many thousands of year;*, the potato, the Jeru- 

 salem artichoke, tobacco, the capsicum, the pineapple, and 

 the tomato have only been cultivated within a compara- 

 tively I'ecent period ; while many of our ordinary vege- 

 tables occupy intermediate positi'ms in the chronology of 

 the subject. The study of a book so worthily sustaining 

 the reputation of its predecessors in the same series cannot 

 fail to indue economic botany with a new and additional 

 interest ; and to all who wish to learn the origin and 

 history of many of their mort familiar forms of food, 

 clothing, medicine, Ac, derived from the vegetable world, 

 we can commend M. de Candolle's book. His discussion 

 of the history of flax (pp. 119 to 130) will serve as an 

 example ot the thoroughnes,s of his research. 



Madness and Crime. By Clark Bell. Reprinted from 

 the Medico-Legal Journal, New York, 1884. — The mad 

 doctors (we humlily apologise, we mean the "Professors of 

 Psychological Medicine ' ) seem to be making a strenuous 

 elTort, at the present moment, to interfere with the adminis- 

 tration of criminal justice in a fashion which we venture to 

 think is opposed to some of the most rudimentary principles 

 of our jurisprudence. These gentry appear to hold a tacit 

 theory that no man ever commits a murder when he is 

 sane ; that tlieir dictum is to settle the question of the 

 amount of insanity which, so to speak, absolves a prisoner 

 from responsibility, and, in fact, that a judge and jury are 

 rather incumbrances and hindrances than otherwise, when 

 the qviestiou of punishing a more than usually savage 

 murderer is concerned. Of course, they do not say this, 

 totidem verbis. Their utterances are much more euphe- 

 mistic ; but they are certainly putting forth claims in the 

 direction at which we have hinted, the recognition of 

 which can scarcely fail to do serious mischief. If it goes 

 forth that eccentricity is an excuse for murder, no man's 

 life will be safe. The sole object of capital punishment is the 

 protection of society ; and if hanging one murderer s Jtfering 

 under a delusion (always supposing that he knows that he 

 is committing a crime) will save the lives of half a dozen 

 peaceable citizens only, then should he be hanged straight- 

 way and without compunction. 



Brickwork. ByF. Walker. (Wf ale's Series.) (London: 

 Crosby, Lock wood, &, Co. 1885.) — This is an admirable 

 practical manual for the bricklayer ; one of its di-tinctive 

 recommendations residing in the fact that it not only gives 

 explicit directions for the merely manual operations of 

 bricklaying, but explains the theory of theai as well. The 

 advantage to the artificer of not merely knowing how to 

 do a thing, but why to do it, is inestimable. The i hapter 

 on Geometry as applied to the art cannot fail to be useful 

 to the workman who aspires to excel in it. Nor is this 

 little volume without its value for every one about to build 

 either on a large or small scale ; as the explanations given 

 of the mode of getting out foundations, of the various 

 forms ot " bond," &c., may enable the owner to detect 

 scamping, and the improper use of the material employed. 



A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied 

 Mathematics. By G. S. Carr, M.A. (London : F. Hodg- 

 son. 1884.)— Sections X., XI., and Xll., of Mr. Can s 

 first volume lie before us, and include a miss of examples 



