72 



• KNOWLEDGE 



[Jan. 23, 1885. 



their communications dealt with in the " Letters Rfceived 

 and Short Answers" column, while their stamped envelopes 

 are simply dropped into the waste paper basket. Fourthly, 

 I am not a private tutor or "crammer," and cannot under- 

 take to recommend text-books for exaniiDations. Lastly, 

 I will not return any rejected communication unle.^s it be 

 accompanied by an envelope legibly addressed and suffi- 

 ciently stamped for that purpose. I do hope that would-be 

 coiitributors will save their time and my temper by atten- 

 tion to these hints. 



jRfbifUiS* 



SOME BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. 



The Engineer g, MilhcrigltCs, and jUachinisCs Practical 

 Assistant. By WiLLlAM Templeton. (Loudon: Crosby, 

 Lockwood, it Co. lSy5). — That Mr. Templeton's capital 

 and moat useful collection of tables and formula" should 

 have run into a seventh edition will surprise no one who 

 ias any idea of its multifarious and most diversified con- 

 tents. It is verily a )ieif«ct rade-mccvm for the mechanic 

 of every kind, be he professional cr amateur — as good as 

 it is cheap and portab'e. 



Tlie Reporter s Ilandl/ook and Vade mecum ; How to 

 gel Speed in Shortliand ; TJie Phonetic Journal (London : 

 iT. Pitman).— We class these thiee works together as 

 showing in their respective fashions the slow and silent 

 spread of the Phonetic system. With reference to the 

 first of them, though, we may add that it is of equal va'ue 

 to everybody whom duty or pleasure may call upon to con- 

 tribute narrative matter to the pres.=, whether he be a steno- 

 grapher, or pen his account in the longest of long-hands. 

 Its hints are really valuable to all such. 



An Introduction to French Conversation. By Antoine 

 CuAELlN (London : Hachette et Cie.). — This very exten- 

 sive collection of the most heterogeneous idiomatic French 

 phrases appears to be well calculated to help the earnes-t 

 student to proficiency in talking the language. Grammai', 

 iu the ordinary acceptation of the word, is ignored alto- 

 gether; not one single " rule " appearing between the two 

 covers of the book. The Englis'i sentences appear on the 

 Jeit-hand page; their French equivalents on the right-hand 

 one. Any one who will seriously work through M. 

 Charliu's work will have acquiied a colloquial knowledge of 

 the French language, hardly to be ob aintd without very 

 many months of ttudy under the ordinary unscientific 

 method. 



The London Science Class Pooks : Keg to Hydrostatics and 

 Pneumatics. By John Murphy. (London: Longmans, 

 Green, & Co. 1885.) — This little volume contains the 

 working out at length of every example in Magnus's 

 "' Hydro.statics and Pneumatics," and will be found alike 

 useful to the teacher and to the self instructed learner. 



Orerwork from the TeacJiers Point of Vieiv. By Mrs. 

 S. Bryant, D.Sc. (London: F. Hodg?on. 1885,)— 

 According to Mrs. Bryant, there is i)ractii ally no such 

 thing as " overwork " in schools — at all events, in girl's 

 schools. Those who wish to follow the train of reasoning 

 by which she has peisuaded herself of this should consult 

 her panjphlet. 



A Review of European Societij, dr. By J. Sketculet. 

 (London : W. Reeves.) — If any astute Conservative leader 

 wi^hed utterly to di=gust every man of the slightest degree 

 of education and culture with the doctrines of Socialism, he 

 <:o\dd scarcely do so better than by circulating broadcast 

 the ad captandum appeal to all that is low and .selfish in 

 the lower stratum (f societv, containi d iu the work whote 



title heads this notice. That the existing condition of many 

 of the labouring classes is referable to their own conduct, 

 never seems to have occuiTed to Mr. Sketchley, whose idea 

 of a perfect State would seem to be one of a condition of 

 things in which every one, clever and stupid, idle and in- 

 dustrious, drunk and sober, should share and share alike 

 under a State despotism as grinding as that of any Eastern 

 monarch ; as assuredly it must be whether administered by 

 " the People " or not. No greater fallacy can e.xist than 

 that hidden under the idea that a Republic is, ex necessitate, 

 a, free form of government. All modern Radical legislation 

 tends in the direction of interference with personal rights. 



Spon's Mechanic's Own Book. (London : E. i F. N. 

 Spon, 1885.) — This is, in reality, a compact encyclopedia 

 of the constructive arts, and forms a kind of little library 

 of itself for the mechanic, be he professional or amateur. 

 Mechanical drawing, casting and founding, forging and 

 finishing, soldering, sheet-metal working, carpentry, cabinet- 

 making, carving and fretwork, upholstery, ])ainting, grain- 

 ing, maibling, staining, gilding, polishing, varnisliing, the 

 various kinds cf mechanical movements, turning, masonry, 

 plastering and whitewashing, roofing, glazing, bell-banging, 

 gas-fitting, paperhanging, lighting, warming, ventilating, 

 foundation.s, roads and bridges, water-supply and sanitation, 

 and house construction are treated of in succession; a mere 

 list of some of the leading subjects discussed, which 

 will give a fair idea of the comprehensive nature of the 

 work. To the emigrant, or to any one else thrown on his 

 own resources in the matters on which it treats, the Messrs. 

 Spon's volume must be simply invaluable. 



The value of the storm-signal service in force on the Canadian 

 lake.? and thronghout the Dominion is shown by the recent report: 

 for 1884-, wherein if: is stated that out of Sil warnings issued, as 

 many as 658 were veritied. 



KoY.\L Victoria Hall, Watetiloo - Bridge - koad. — On Tuesday, 

 .January 13, Professor H. G. Seelcy lectured to an appreciative 

 audience, on Ancient British Glaciers. After defining a glacier as 

 a great mass of ice lying high up on a mountain, and saying that 

 there \^ aa a time when these islands were covered by huge glaciers, 

 Mr. Seeley explained how glaciers are formed. They are composed 

 of snow which, even in summer, exists in the higher regions of the 

 air, and covers the highest mountains, even in the warmest 

 countries. As you recede from (he Equator, the limit of perpetual 

 snow comes lower, being in Norway only 4,000 feet above the sea- 

 level. Some beautiful photographs of snow-flakes were exhibited 

 on the screen, each flake a crystalline star with six points. The 

 lecturer explained that the effect of compressing the snow (as in 

 makiT g a snowball) is to melt the surface of each flake, which on 

 the pressure being removed freezes again into ice. This process 

 Nature is carrying on on a large scale in the Alps. The snow 

 keeps melting and freezing again ; the ice thus formed glides 

 slowly down the valley, but with irresistible force, grinding and 

 scratching the rocks underneath, carrying along great masses 

 of rock and a vast amount of smaller fragments, and often 

 cracking with the strain, as it passes over a steep angle, forming 

 huge lissures or crevasses in the ice. This part of the lecture was 

 illustrated by beautiful photographic views of the Swiss glaciers. 

 The lecturer went on to say, that where we find a multitude of 

 huge stones rounded, grooved, or polished, and huge detached rocks 

 far from any others of the same kind, there we may infer ice-action. 

 From these tokens we learn that a huge glacier once extended 

 over a great part of Scotland, the north-west of England, North 

 Wales, and the north of Ireland. At that time the Irish Channel 

 and German Ocean did not exist, England was much more elevated 

 than now, and was united both with Ireland and with Norway. 

 Views of Loch Lomond, Snowdon, Llanberis, i'c, were here shown 

 on the screen, and the works of ice-action pointed out. This ice- 

 period was followed by a gradual subsidence of the land, which 

 caused the climate to become milder and the ice to melt away. 

 Another elevation of land ensued, not to the same height as before, 

 but sufiicient to produce smaller glaciers in difi'erent parts of the 

 country, which again disappear with a renewed subsidence of the 

 land. The audience joined in a hearty vote of thanks to Prof . Seeley. 

 The lecture next Tuesday will be by Mr. Wm. Lant Carpenter, and 

 will be cntitleil " Jtore about the Sun." 



