May 1, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



377 



locked up in his own breast ; while a purely empirical art 

 of cookery flourished merrily. And even now, with the 

 land d.ittod with Board Schools, and young ladies of the 

 labouring classes having the latitude and longitude of 

 Seringapalani at their tongues' end, the number who can 

 boil a cauliflower (to say nothing of frying a sole) properly 

 is alarmingly small — a condition of things which must 

 persist so long as cookery is performed by rule of thumb. 

 Such of our readers as have seen that ])ortion of the volume 

 before us which appeared in these columns will recollect how 

 perspicuously and pleasantly Mr. Mattieu Williams ex- 

 plains the why and the wherefore of each successive step 

 in any given piece of culinary work : and the value of 

 knowing why anything is done it would be hard to rate 

 too highly. Every mistress of a household who wishes to 

 raise her cook above the level of a mere automaton will 

 purchase two copies of Mr. Williams's excellent book, the 

 one for the kitchen and the other for her own careful aud 

 «tudious perusal. 



The Moon and the Weather. By Walter L. Browne. 

 (London : Bailliere, Tiudall, k Cox.) — It used to be said that 

 no waiter was ever engaged at (the now long defunct) 

 Vauxhall Gardens, unless he could so carve a ham as to 

 cover an acre of ground with the slices. Upon a cognate 

 principle, Mr. Browne has spread over 120 pages what he 

 might well have said within the compass of fifty. His 

 style is diffuse to a degree, and his book practically void of 

 any arrangement, — in fact, it is not until we arrive at 

 p. 110 (!) that we get an inkling of what his hypothesis is. 

 That he has confidence in it is evidenced by the fact that he 

 gives predictions of the depressions and elevations of the 

 barometer which (he says) will occur in the British Islands 

 during April, May, and June of the present year. When 

 the lady in the story read that a raven lived for a hundred 

 years, she is reported to have said that she would buy one 

 and see. Those interested in the matter should purchase 

 Mr. Browne's predictions with a similar object. 



Voice Use and Stimulants, by Lennox Browne, F.R.C.S., 

 Ed. (London : Sampson Low, Marston, & Co., 1885.) — 

 In the volume before us, Mr. Lennox Browne has collected 

 a vast mass of statistics on the subjects of drinking and 

 smoking, from no less than 380 professional vocalists, 

 whose own replies to his questions he gives in a consider- 

 able number of cases. As the result of his investigations, 

 he comes to the conclusion that a singer should be a 

 teetotaler and a non-smoker. All vocal musicians, pro- 

 fessional and amateur, who are content to do without any 

 stimulants whatever, may find their justification for such 

 action in !Mr. Browne's book. 



The Child's Voice, by Emil Behnke and Lennox 

 Bkowne. (London ; Sampson Low, Marston, <fc Co , 

 1885.) — This is a work which must address a considerably 

 larger public than that which we have just noticed, and 

 which contains really valuable information as to the train- 

 ing of the voices of boys and girls. As in the preparation 

 of his " Voice Use and Stimulants," so, in the present 

 volume, Mr. Browne seems to have appealed to a very 

 extensive circle of professional vocalists for information ; 

 and their replies, of course, add both to the value and 

 interest of his book. It may be accepted as a safe and 

 trustworthy guide by all interested in the musical education 

 of the young. 



The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences. By the late 

 William Kingdon Clifford. (London : Kegan Paul, 

 Trench, k Co. 188.5.) — The great brain which conceived 

 and the hand which penned what forms the groundwork of 

 the volume lying before us lie still and cold in the dust 

 as, strangely enough, do those of the man who was origi- 

 nally selected to complete what Clifford left unfinished ; but 



the master-mind is evident in the work, even in the com- 

 paratively fragmentary condition in which it was left when 

 its author died, all too soon, at Madeira. In a preface 

 signed " K. P." (which we believe wo are justified in attri- 

 buting to Professor Pearson), the last editor or co-author 

 gives a succinct history of tho whole work, and refers to 

 his own share in it iu terms which u jicrusal of his con- 

 tril)utioiis shows to be quite needlessly apologetic. He has, 

 if we may so speak, caught th(! true Cliliordian sjiirit, and 

 much of his exposition i.s not unworthy of the master him- 

 self. Any one familiar only with the works on "Natural 

 Philosophy " of twenty or thirty years ago, who will take 

 up any recent work on physics, cannot fail to be struck 

 with the revolution which has taken place in the treatment 

 of the entire subject. It is as an introduction, if we may 

 so speak, to the physics of today that " Tho Common 

 Sense of the Exact Sciences " is intended to serve. 

 Clifford's original intention, wisely abandoned, was 

 to entitle his book " The Einst Principles of the 

 Mathematical Sciences Explained to the Non-Mathema- 

 tical," for certainly the book, as it stands, must go over the 

 heads of those who do not possess a certain familiarity 

 with algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. Not that such 

 knowledge need be profound, but, at any rate, in an ele- 

 mentary form, it must exist. The book is divided into five 

 chapters. I. and II. (on Number and Space), are substan- 

 tially as Clifford left them. He was also responsible for 

 half of Chapter III. (on Quantity), as he was for Chapter IV., 

 (on Motion), as originally left, but which has been practically 

 re-written by Professor Pearson, who is also the author of 

 the latter half of Chapter III. and the whole of Chapter IV. 

 (on Position). This last chapter, we may mention, is in 

 parts a really admirable example of scientific exposition, 

 which will suffer nothing in comparison with those preced- 

 ing it. Every one who wishes to enter intelligently into 

 the new world of physical science opened by those intellec- 

 tual giants. Sir W. Pi. Hamilton, Clerk-Maxwell, Sir W. 

 Thomson, and their compeer';, should obtain this latest 

 addition to " the International Scientific Series " without 

 loss of time. 



London in 1885. By Herbert Fry. (London: W. H. 

 Allen k Co.) — It would be difficult to find a book which 

 better fulfils its avowed purpose than this most excellent 

 compilation. Not only does it contain everything needed 

 in a stranger's guide to every part of the metropolis, 

 but it is so crammed with information as to be almost 

 equally indispensable to the veriest Cockney who ever lifts 

 his eyes from the pavement on which he is walking. As 

 a guide-book, it seems as though it could hardly be improved 

 upon. 



Bell's Ladies' Reader. By David Charles Bell. 

 (London: Hodder & Stoughton. 1885.)— The art of 

 reading aloud is far too much neglected in this country, 

 and to such ladies as wish to acquire this delightful accom- 

 plishment Mr. Bell's course of instruction will be found 

 very valuable. Commencing with the most minute direc- 

 tions for the management and use of the voice, pronuncia- 

 tion, accent, modulation, expression, kc, the author con- 

 ducts his pupil, step by step, through poetry of increasing 

 complexity and difficulty of recitation. The lady who has 

 practised and mastered his instruction and its illustrative 

 examples need have no fear of reading before the most 

 critical audience. 



Practical Guide to Photography. By Marion k Co. 

 New Edition. (London: Marion k Co. 1885.)— The 

 commendation which we 1>estowed upon the original edition 

 of Messrs. Marion's book (Vol. V., p. 483) may be re- 

 iterated and emphasised in connection with the present 

 larger and improved one. The most minute and detailed 



