March 1, 1897.1 



KNOWLEDGE. 



11 



Fuel and Sefracfori/ Miitcriats. By A. Humboldt Sexton, F.I.C., 

 F.C.S. (Blaekie & Son.) Illustrated. 5s. A book that fills a void 

 is a desideratum, and in this connection we are indebted to Prof. 

 Sexton. Such exhaustive treatises as those of Dr. Percy and Dr. 

 Mills, and the scrappy bits disposed here, there, and everywhere iu 

 manuals of metallurgy, form two extremes which don't exactly suit 

 the student who is seeking the shortest route to a comprehensive 

 knowledge of fuel. Jlence, Prof. Sexton jumps into the breach, and 

 supplies, iu a convenient form, all that e\"eu advanced students of 

 metallurgy, engineering, etc., need know on this important subject. 

 Solid, licjuid, and gaseous fuels; furnaces for metallurgical purposes; 

 pyrometry; calorimetry; testing of fuels; heating power of fuels, etc., 

 etc., are all treated in the same straightforwai'd way —always inclining 

 towards the utilitarian aspect — and yet there is plenty of evidence 

 which clearly indicates that the work has been rapidly, and, perhaps, 

 a little carelessly, compiled. 



Fhi/sics Note Book: By J. C. P. Adolphus. (Macmillan.) 2s. 6d. 

 Apparently this book is intended for naval ollieers, and aims at 

 expediting practical work in the laboratory. Notes, formuhe, and 

 instructions for experiments are given, and space is left for sketches 

 and diagrams of apparatus, which the student is advised to make 

 from his own observations. The plan of the book will, it strikes us, 

 serve two useful purposes, namely, the elimination of a good deal of 

 writing in the laboratory, the time saved being available for actual 

 experiment; and, second, the necessary formula; being given, time is 

 again economized by obviating the irksome task of too frequent refer- 

 ence to books. 



Modern Optical Tiisfritiiients, and fUetr Construction. By 

 Henry Orford. (Wliittaker & Co.) ' Illustrated. The title of this 

 book scarcely gives a just idea of its contents, for its main subject 

 is the human eye, which, though certainly an " optical instrument," 

 is not distinctively " modern." But, considered as a treatise on the 

 eye, the book may be recommended as giving a clear exposition of 

 its nature as an optical instrument, of the defects to which it is 

 liable, and of the mides in which those defects are discovered and 

 corrected. In the main, Mr. Orford's descriptions are easily followed, 

 for the book contains an imusually large number of diagrams, which, 

 though poor as to drawing, are at least clear and simple. The literary 

 construction is faulty at times, and in one case at least the sequence 

 of the articles is open to objection, for Chapters XII. and XIII., 

 which deal very briefly with the optical lantern and the stereoscope, 

 are preceded by one on stereoscopic projection, which should surely 

 have followed them. All three chapters are, however, too brief to be 

 of any real value, and the few lines given on the spectroscope would 

 have been better omitted. 



British Patent Ijtic, and Patentees^ Wrongs and Rights, ^y Hubert 

 Haes. (Whittingham & Co. ) Is. 4d. Inventors, as a rule, are com- 

 paratively ignorant of the laws relating to patents, and so, generally, 

 commit the fruits of their genius to the safe keeping of a patent 

 agent, who, in many ways, may serve his client with apparent fidelity, 

 while in reality he serves himself a great deal more. A book such as 

 this indicates the many pitfalls, methods of pirating, and other ways 

 in which an inventor may himself remain poor while others are reap- 

 ing the advantages of his innovations, and on this account it can be 

 I'ecommended to all those who have anything worth protecting by 

 letters patent. 



We have received from Mr. Ouseley a little pamphlet entitled. 

 Era of Light : a Unicersal Calendar for All Time, or Perpetual 

 Almanac. The year, according to the proposed innovation, consists 

 of three hundred and sixty-four days, each quarter having ninety-one 

 days, or thirteen weeks exactly. By introducing an extra .Saturday 

 at the end of each year, and two extra Saturdays every foiu'th year, 

 the odd days ai-e conveniently disposed of so as to make the days of 

 the week fall on the same date every year, and the odd minutes and 

 seconds are at suitable intervals similarly eliminated, so that the same 

 sequence will obtain, with less than one day's error, in a period 

 extending over thi'ee hundred and sixty thousand years. 



Messrs. Home and Thornthwaite have put upon the market 

 Overstall's patent driving clock, a piece of apparatus suited for 

 equatorial telescopes. It has, however, been designed principally for 

 small telescopes, mounted either on a tripod stand or on the usual 

 pedestal, and it involves but a small outlay, so that amateurs with 

 limited means may enjoy the advantages of a hitherto inaccessible 

 auxiliary, chiefly through the prohibitive cost of the ordinary driving 

 clock. The right ascension circle is driven round by a simple weight 

 (about three or four pounds), which directly actuates a screw or worm 

 gearing with the toothed rim of the right ascension circle, and an 

 adjustable weight serves to balance instruments of various sizes. Such 

 an arrangement brings within the reach of the amateur a vast field of 

 useful investigation, for, with the aid of the simple camera md spectro- 

 scope, celestial photography can be studied with reasonable hope of 

 doing something of more than passing interest, even with a telescope 

 of no more than three inches aperture. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



The Collector s Manual of British Land and Freshwater Shells. 

 Second Edition. By Lionel Ernest Adams, B.A. (Taylor Bros., 

 Leeds.) Illustrated. 



Ireland. Edited by R. Barry O'Brien. (Unwin.) Map. 2s. 6d. 



Formation Mechaniqiie dn Sifstcme du Monde. Par L'Abbe Th. 

 Moreux. (Ganthier-ViUars et Fils, Paris.) Illustrated. 



Elementary Bofang. By W. Bland. (Bemrose.) Illustrated. Is. 



The Survival of the Unlike. By L. K. Bailey. (Macmillan.) 

 Illustrated. 8s. 6d. 



Histoire Naturelle de la France. (Mincralogie.) By Paul Gauhert. 

 (DeyroUe, Paris.) Illustrated. 5 fr. 



Seavg Trial Balances Made East/. Bv J. tr. Craggs, P.C.A. 

 (Scientific Press.) Illustrated. 23. 6d. 



The Photographer's Exposure Book. By P. W. Mills. (Dawbarn 

 & Ward.) Is. net. 



Stenopaic or Pinhole Photography. Second Edition. Bv E. W. 

 Mills and A. C. Ponton. (Dawbarn & Ward.) Illustrated. ' Is. 6d. 

 net. 



Exterior and Interior Photography. By F. W. Mills. (Dawbarn 

 & Ward.) Illustrated. 3s. net. 



A Dictionary of Birds. Bv Alfred Newton, assisted by Hans 

 Gadow. (A. & C. Black.) Illustrated. 3Us. net. 



Pioneers of Evolution, from Thales to Eu.rleg. By Edward 

 Clodd. (G-rant Eichards.) Illustrated. 5s. net. 



The Coasts of Devon and Lundy Island. By John Lloyd Warden 

 Page. (Horace Cox.) Illustrated. 7s. 6d. 



British Rainfall, ISK. Compiled by G. J. Symons, F.R.S. 

 (Stanford.) Illustrated. 10s. 



Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia. By F. C. Sclous. (Rowland 

 Ward & Co.) Illustrated. 



The Art of Wildfowlimj. By Abel Chapman, F.ZS. (Horace 

 Cox.) Illustrated. lOs. Gd! 



Microscopic Researches in the Formative Property of Gli/coi/en. 

 Part I.— Physiological. By Chas. Creighton, M.D. (A. & C.'Black.) 

 Coloured Plates. 7s. 6d. net. 



Our Weights and Measures. By H. J. Chancy. (Eyre & Spottis- 

 woode.) Illustrated. 7s. 6d. 



Modern Dogs. — Terriers. By Rawdon B. Lee. (Horace Cox.) 

 Illustrated. iOs. 6d. 



In yew South Africa : Travels in the Transvaal and Rhodesia. 

 By H. Lincoln Tangye. (Horace Cox.) Illustrated. IOs. 6d. 



The Law relating to Motor Cars. By H. Langford Lewis and 

 W. Haldane Porter. (Butterworth & Co.) Ss. 



Healthy Dwellings. By Sir Douglas Galton, K.C.B., F.R.S. 

 (Clarendon Press.) Illustrated. IOs. 6d. 



Outline of Psychology. By Edward Bradford Titchener. (Mac- 

 millan.) Illustrated. 6s. Gd. net. 



Advanced Mechanics. Vol. II. — fitatics. By W. Briggs, M.A., 

 and G. H. Bryan, F.R.S; (Clive.) Illustrated.' 3s. 6d. 



W/tat to do in Cases of Poisoning. Eighth Edition. Bv Wm. 

 Murrell, M.D. (Lewis.) 3s. 6d. 



Disease and Defective Souse Sanitation. By W. H. Corfield, M.D. 

 (Lewis.) Illustrated. 2s. 



Fruit Culture for Amateurs. By S. T. Wright. (L. Upcott Gill.) 

 Illustrated. 33. Gd. 



Italian Kighuiays. By E. Augusta King. (Bentley.) lUustrjited. 



Diseases of Plants induced by Cryptogamic P>xrasiies. By Dr. 

 Karl Preiherr von Tulieuf. English Edition by Wm. G. Smith, 

 Ph.D. (Longmans.) Illustrated. 18s. net. 



Our Place among Infinities. By Richard A. Proctor. New 

 Edition. (Longmans.) 3s. 6d. 



A Handbook to the Order Lepidoptera. Allen's Naturalists' 

 Library, Vol. III. By W. E. Kirby, P.L.S. (Allen & Co.) 

 Illustrated. 



Everybody's Guide to Photographi/. Bv " Operator." (Saxon & 

 Co.) Illustrated. 6d. 



The Story of the Weather. By G. P. Chamber... (Newnes.) 

 Illustrated. Is. 



Matriculation Directory, No. XXI. January, 1897. (Clive.) Is. 



Flowering Plants and Ferns. Two vols. By J. C. Wil is, M.A. 

 (University Press.) Illustrated. IOs. 6d. 



Star Atlas, with Explanatory Text. Bv Winslow Upton, A.M. 

 (Ginn & Co.) 8s. 6d. 



Smithsonian Report, 1S94. S. P. Langley. (Government Printing 

 Office, Washington.) Illustrated. 



Mountain Observations in America and Europe. By Edw. S. 

 Holden. (Smithsonian Institute.) Illustrated. 



Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 1896. Edited by E. J. Nolan. (Logan Square, Philadelphia.) 

 Illustrated. 



Is Natural Selection the Creator of Species ! By Dvuican Graham, 

 (Digby, Long, & Co.) 6i. 



