Mat 22, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE • 



441 



Kfblfluef* 



SOME BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. 



The FaUaaj of the Present Theonj of Sound. By Hknuy 

 A. Molt, Jun., PhD., kc. (New York : Wiley it Sons. 

 Loudou : Triibner i Co. ISS.'i.) — There is no scousticist 

 but Hall, and Molt is his prophet, is the burden of this 

 queer book. Blaserna, Helniholtz, Mayer, Lord Rayleigh, 

 Rood, Sir William Thomson, and Tyndall, to take some 

 names mentioned by our author, can only " retain the 

 respect and confidence of all thinking people " by giving 

 up straightway the theory that sound is an etfect of atmo- 

 spheric undulations. Not a bit of it ! So far as we can 

 understand Dr. Molt (and he is not, perhaps, always quite 

 so lucid and intelligible as he might be), air has nothing to 

 do with conveying sound, and the stupid people who fancy 

 that a bell rung in an exhausted receiver is inaudible — 

 ought to hear it, that's all. Further (again with the same 

 qualification) it would seem as though Messrs. llall. Molt, 

 it Co. conceive that a given particle of air must proceed 

 from the immediate neighbourhood of the sounding body, 

 at the i-ate of 1,120 ft. per second, straight to the recipient 

 tympanum, if the existing theorj' be correct. Wave motion 

 seems a hopeless puzzle to our author. He is described on 

 his title-page as " Professor of Chemistry and Physics to 

 the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women." 

 We can only congratulate ourselves upon the fact that we 

 are deprived by the wrongs of our sex from receiving 

 instruction in such " physics " in that doubtless otherwise 

 valuable institution. 



The Elements of Inorganic Chemistry. Part II. (Ad- 

 vanced Stage.) By J. C. Buckmaster. New Edition; 

 revised in 188-1. (London : Mofl'att & Paige.) — Avowedly 

 compiled in accordance with the requirements of the sylla- 

 bus is-'ued by the Science and Art Department, Mr. 

 Buckmaster's small volume will be found useful by students 

 cramming to pass the examination at South Kensington. 

 In other respects, it is neither better nor worse than half- 

 a-dozen " Elements," " Manuals," and " Handbooks " that 

 we could name. 



The Science of Change of Air. By David S. Skinner, 

 M.D. (London : Tinsley Brothers. 1885.)— In this 

 pamphlet the author treats in his exordium of physiology, 

 and of the corporeal conditions under which change of air 

 is beneficial and requisite ; and after dealing with the 

 questions of atmospheric pressure, the watery vapour of 

 the breath, ozone, and electricity, concludes with some 

 meteorological statistics of certain English health-resorts. 

 The reader who may wish to learn whether, in his own 

 case, a visit to any of these is likel}'- to prove beneficial, 

 should procure Dr. Skinner's brochure. 



Bus : a Bundle of Bucolics. — (London : Wyman & Sons. 

 1885.) — When, by dint of long pestering, the old woman 

 at last got her minister to pray for rain, and a hail-storm 

 came and cut up all her cabbages, she is reported to have 

 exclaimed : " Oh dear ! that's just like Mr. Jones — he 

 always overdoes everything!" We may reiterate this 

 hi.storical complaint with reference to the author of the little 

 book before us. He overdoes everything. In a series of 

 short and really clever essays, descriptive of English country 

 life and functions generally, he attacks the land-laws in a 

 spirit worthy of Mr. George himself ; but to those really 

 familiar with the social conditions of the agricultural dis- 

 tricts, his exaggeration will defeat its own end hy setting 

 his readers against him, and blinding their eyes to truths 

 which may be not unprofitably learned from his pages. 

 Peers axd not all ex necessitate, idle and capricious idiots ; 



squires, not all fat, pompous, and underbred ; nor any b\it 

 the merest insignificant fraction of poachers — young men 

 " with a manly spirit and an empty body, tired of bread 

 and lard," who, one evening, on their way from work, 

 knock down rabbits in their path and take theni home to 

 eat. While, again, this sentence : " When the 'just laws' 

 are invoked against the labourer by the squire or parson, 

 those laws are administered by magistrates whn aro 

 the interested friends and neighbours of that louiie 

 and parson, often acting on ivformation privately sup- 

 plied by the good squire himself" (and notably the 

 words we have italicised) is so grossly and libel lously 

 false that wo can come but to one of two conclusions — 

 either that the writer penned them in total ignorance, or in 

 a spiteful and deliberate attempt to deceive urban dwellers. 

 There are good and bad peers, parsons, and squires, just as 

 there are conscientious demagogues, side by side with 

 .spouters who, for their own ends, scream for riot, rebellion, 

 and the seizure of property that they themselves never had 

 the providence to acquire. The concluding chapter may be 

 read with advantage by all who wish to know the sort of 

 vermin who are Vjeing sheltered by our "Cousins" across 

 the Atlantic. " Forewarned is forearmed," and the sooner 

 the gallows bears an abundant crop of " Smiths," the 

 happier for the world at large. 



lUuslraied Catalogue of the lioyal Society of Painters in 

 Water-Colours. (London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1885.) — 

 The exeellent examj)le, originally, we believe, set by Mr. 

 Henry Blackburn in his " Academy Notes," of supplying 

 sketches of all the notable pictures of the year, has been 

 followed by the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours 

 in their official catalogue. How pleasant a reminiscence of 

 an exhibition such sketches afford it is needless to say here, 

 for surely no one who can obtain such vivid reminders of 

 notable works of art as those contained in some of the 

 pages before us will ever be satisfied again with a bald list 

 of titles and artists' names. No inconsiderable portion of 

 these clever little pictures are well worth preserving, eveD 

 by those who may never have seen the originals at all. 



Advanced Studies of Flower-Painting in Water Colours. 

 By Ada Hanbury, and other Artists. (London : Blackie ife 

 Son. 1885.) — The reader who, by the use of the "Simple 

 Lessons in Flower-Painting," published in Vere Foster's 

 series (to which the present work belongs) has acquired a 

 certain amount of rudimentary technical knowledge, should 

 proceed to the study of Miss Hanbury's very beautiful 

 volume if he or she desires to attain proficiency in the 

 charming art of flower-painting. The authoress commences 

 with a section on the choice of materials and method of 

 work, followed by one on the botanical terms employed, 

 as is that in turn by disquisitions on flower-painting from 

 nature generally, composition, and grouping. And then 

 we come to the principal part of her work, consisting of 

 twelve facsimile coloured sketches of flowers (which it is 

 literally no exaggeration to term exquisite), with full and 

 explicit direction for copying them. Outline drawings, 

 too, of the various flowers delineated are scattered through 

 the text. Whether we view the work before us as an 

 efficient tutor in a delightful branch of art, or merely as a 

 perennial ornament to the drawing-room table, it has our 

 heartiest commendation. 



We have also on our table The American Naturalist, The 

 Sanitary Xevs, The Journal of Botany, The Christian 

 Million, The Tricyclist, Whcelvng, Society, The Medical Press 

 and Circidar, The Lancet, The Report of the Committee of 

 Mana.gem.ent of the Technoloyical, Industrial, and Sanitary 

 Museum, of New South Wales, The Country Breviers' Gazette, 

 The American Druggist, The Proceedings of the Geological 

 Society, and Parallax. 



