484 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Jdne 5, 1885. 



no little information from it. From another brochure 

 which accompanies it we learn that the Society is about to 

 hold an Ai-ronautical Exhibition at the Alexandra Falace, 

 opening on June 15. The readers of the "Reports" on 

 which we are commenting will probably feel tempted to 

 supplement the theoretical information they will gain from 

 them by an inspection of the most recently-devised 

 apparatus for flying. 



The Voyagers Companion and Adviser. By Henry 

 John Webbbr. (London : The Author.) — This is as plain 

 and practical a little guide as any one can possibly desire, 

 and will repay its trivial cost a dozen times over to the 

 traveller about to make his first voyage without a super- 

 abundance of cash. Our author explains the relative ad- 

 vantages and disadvantages of sailing vessels and steamers ; 

 gives instructioHS for selecting your ship, and, subsequently, 

 your cabin and berth on board of her. Tells you what to 

 take for cabin furniture, what clothes to provide yourself 

 with, and how to amuse yourself at sea. He further gives 

 a popular description of the various parts of a ship, of the 

 compass, ic, and of some of the simplest nautical 

 mananivres. Then the question of weather is discussed, 

 and the sights and phenomena of the open ocean described. 

 Finally, those who suffer ^from sea-sickness will find a 

 remedy for that affliction set forth at length in Mr. 

 Webber's pamphlet. 



William Hedlnj, the Inventor of Railway Locomotion 07i 

 the Present Principle. By M. Archer. Third Edition. 

 (London: Crosby Lock wood & Co.) — If the question were 

 put in any assembly of educated Englishmen, " Who was it 

 who invented the locomotive-engine running upon smooth 

 rails 1 " something like ninety-five per cent, would answer 

 " George Stephenson," without any hesitation whatever. 

 And yet, manifold as were the services rendered by 

 Stephenson to mechanical science, and intimately indentified 

 as his name is with the inception of our railway system, he 

 did not, after all, invent locomotion on the present prin- 

 ciple ; inasmuch as William Hedley, the " Viewer " at Mr. 

 Blackett's Colliery at Wylam (a town to the west of New- 

 caatleon-Tyne), in May, 1813, had a locomotive running 

 on smooth rails on the W^ylaai Railway, and Stephenson's 

 first engine (which failed) was not tried at Killing worth 

 for a year afterwards. All interested in the history of 

 locomotion should read Mr. Archer's reclamation for 

 Hedley. 



Moffatt's Penny Atlas. Fifty-five Maps and Diagrams. 

 (London : MofFatt & Paige.) — This is one of the most 

 astonishing pennyworths that has come under our observa- 

 tion for many a long day. If they are not overburdened 

 with detail, the maps, at all events, are legible and correct. 

 Certainly no one is justified in pleading ignorance of 

 geography who has a penny in his pocket to buy this little 

 book with. 



The Pictures in 1885, and the Men ivho Paint them. (Lon- 

 <lon : Pall Mall Ga-ette Office) — This remarkably cheap and 

 artistic work is sufficiently catliolic, comprising, as it does, 

 sketches of the leading pictures in the Royal Academy, the 

 Grosvenor Gallery, the Society of Briti.ih Artists, the 

 Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours, and the Royal 

 Institute of Water-Colour Painters. These are prefaced 

 by a series of portraits and autographs, with views of the 

 studios of our most renowned painters. It is a book to be 

 studied and kept. 



A Brief and Practical German Grammar, for the use of 

 Science Students. By Emil Beyer. (London : David 

 Nutt. 1885.)— So much that is valuaVile to the student of 

 science lies enshrined in German, that he labours under 

 the gravest disadvantage should he be ignorant of that 

 language. As an introduction to its study, Ilerr Beyer's 



Grammar may be confidently recommended, breaking, as it 

 does, fresh ground in more than one direction. The new 

 German spelling is treated of at an early stage of the work, 

 and the second part (the Reader) contains essays on the 

 Theory of Heat, the Physical Cause of Colour, the Con- 

 struction of Galvanometers, Chemical Analysis, Animal 

 Electricity, and cognate subjects. A very complete voca- 

 bulary of technical words concludes the volume, which will 

 doulitless obtain the extensive circulation which it cer- 

 tainly deserves among those to whom it is primarily 

 addressed. 



The Great Crisis at Hand. By Rev. M. Baxter. 

 (London : Christian Herald Office.) — It is not easy to 

 understand what kind of public such utter ra'V'ing as this 

 addresses. Let us sincerely hope that the great crisis at 

 hand, so far as any believers in it are concerned, will in no 

 way be connected with the Statute IG & 17 Vict. c. 97 

 ?. G8. 



The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England ; the 

 Ninth Article, Hamartiology. By Rev. .Joseph Miller, 

 B.D. (London : Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 1885.)— Why 

 the work who.se title heads this notice should have been 

 sent to a scientific journal for review we confess our in- 

 ability to understand. As may be inferred from that title, 

 it is a Theological one purely and simply. How far the 

 connection between sin and physical death may be a legiti- 

 mate subject for scientific discussion, need not detain us 

 here. It would be impossible to advert to this portion of 

 Mr. Miller's argument without being led into much that 

 would be utterly foreign to our purpose. But our inability 

 to criticise the work before us in its theological aspect 

 need not prevent us from saying that the amount of out- 

 of-the-way learning and research on the part of its author 

 exhibited in its pages is really wonderful ; and that any 

 one desirous of studying the archa?ology of the ninth 

 clause of the Church's Confession of Faith may advan- 

 tageously do so in this volume. 



Imperial Federation. By the Right Hon. the Mar- 

 quis ov LoRNE. (London : Swan, Sonnenschein, & Co. 

 1885.) — That the British Empire, including, of course, in 

 that term her colonies and dependencies, should become one 

 stupendous whole, and that our fellow-subjects in Canada, 

 Australia, etc., should enjoy equal rights of citizenship and 

 equal resiionsibility with the inhabitants of these islands, 

 is the dream, or plan, or project which Lord Lome sets 

 himself to develop. He discusses suggested plans for 

 Federation, and gives his own views as to the most feasible 

 way of accomplishing it. His idea, however, presumably 

 founded on personal experience, that Canada is ripe for 

 federation, must have received something of a shock upon 

 the perusal of the following paragraph, which appears in 

 the papers as we write these lines : — 



A b.Tiiqnet has been held by the " National Club " of Montreal, 

 at which many members of the pro^'incial Parliament were present. 

 The toast of " The Qneen " was drunk in silence. The Mayor of 

 Montreal and six provincial Mayors responded to the toast of " The 

 Independence of Canada," which was received with enthusiasm. 

 Imperial federation was declared to be impracticable ; any further 

 federation must be with the United States. The object of the pro- 

 ceedings was to traverse the assertion that no prominent public 

 men favour these views. 



The noble Marquis heads his third chapter, " Go Slow." 

 This is going very slow in the direction of that federation 

 which ho apparently so confidently antici))ates. 



The Ifdiise of Commons on iStimtdants. — By the author 

 of " Study and Stimulants." (London : John Snow k Co. 

 1885.) — The author of this tract just succeeds in making 

 teetotali,sm ridiculous. He concludes by saying that " there 

 is nothing like a concensus of opinion among Members of 

 Parliament in favour of abstinence " ; having previously 



