September 1, 1897.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



215 



phenomena are all passed in review. Finally, the volume 

 closes with a useful catalogue of the auroras observed in 

 Europe below latitude 53^ N. from 1700 to 1890. Eighteen 

 plates illustrating typical auroral forms are distributed 

 through the book, and though some of them are too hard 

 in tone to be pleasing, they possess the advantage of being 

 copies of original drawings. 



Besults of Bain, Birer, and Evaporation Observations 

 made in New South Wales durinij 1895, with Maps and 

 Diaiirams. By H. C. Kussell, C.M.G., F.R.S. (Depart- 

 ment of Public Instruction, New South Wales.) The 

 numerous publications of Mr. H. C. Russell, the Govern- 

 ment Astronomer of New South Wales, testify to his 

 industry both as meteorologist and astronomer. The 

 volume before us contains the results of observations 

 made at one thousand three himdred and iifty meteoro- 

 logical stations in the Colony in 1895, together with 

 particulars of observations of river levels, evaporation, 

 wind, tides, etc., a general discussion of the results, 

 and an interesting paper on "The Periodicity of Good 

 and Bad Seasons." In this paper Mr. Russell brings 

 together a mass of evidence gathered from records of 

 weather in all parts of the world and at all historic times, 

 tending to show that droughts and also wet seasons 

 recur in a cycle of nineteen years. By classifying droughts 

 according to the number of years over which they extend, 

 instead of according to their intensity, it was found that 

 five sets of droughts could be distinguished, each of which 

 showed periodicity. An ingenious diagram with which 

 Mr. Russell illustrates his paper bears a resemblance to 

 the keyboard of a piano, and just as each note on the 

 board occurs in octaves, so the oblong slabs representing 

 droughts of each type follow one another at regular 

 intervals in time. The argument in favour of this nineteen 

 years' cycle is very plausible, but hardly convincing enough 

 to establish the conclusions. Nevertheless, Mr. Russell 

 deserves the thanks of meteorologists for his painstaking 

 effort to unravel the tangled skein of weather records. 



SJiort Studies in Phi/sical Science. By Vaughan Cornish, 

 M.Sc. (Sampson Low, Marston, & Co., Limited.) 

 Illustrated. 5s. Mr. Vaughan Cornish is favourably 

 known to our readers by contributions which have 

 appeared in these columns at various times, Several 

 of the popular science essays in this volume were first 

 published in Knowledge, one or two are reprints from 

 other journals, and the rest are new. The sixteen essays 

 are all instructive, and they present the matured views of 

 men of science on prominent subjects in mineralogy, 

 chemistry, and physics. Whoever reads the volume with 

 understanding will acquire a store of information, and 

 will perceive the trend of thought and work in modern 

 physical science. 



Hygiene for Beginners. By Ernest S. Reynolds, M.D. 

 (Lond.), etc. Illustrated. (Macmillan.) 23. 6d. The 

 contents of this little book should be known to every man 

 and woman in the kingdom, for both the individual and 

 the community would gam by the extension of the know- 

 ledge which the book contains. A rough outline of the 

 human body, and the functions of the various parts, forms 

 the first part of the volume, and makes an admirable 

 introduction to the second part, which is an interesting 

 and concise presentation of the extensive and varied array 

 of facts belonging to hygiene — the science of preventing 

 disease. 



Life Histories of North American Birds, from the Parrots 

 to the GracHcs. By Charles Bendire, Captain and Brevet 

 Major, U.S.A. (Washington : Smithsonian Institution.) 

 With seven Lithographic Plates. For this sumptuous 



volume we are indebted, as we have so often been 

 indebted before for fine works, to the Smithsonian 

 Institution. It forms the second volume of the " Life 

 Histories of North American Birds," by Major Bendire, 

 and contains a very complete and excellent account of the 

 Psittaceous, Picarian, Picine, Macrochirine, and Passerine 

 birds. The classification of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union is followed, and the volume is based on the 

 collections in the United States National Museum. The 

 coloured plates contain excellent figures of the eggs of a 

 number of the birds described in the text. We hear with 

 great regret of the death of Major Bendire, and we hope 

 that an able successor will be found to carry on the work 

 he has so satisfactorily begun. 



— •-♦-< — 



SHORT NOTICES. 



7s the Earth a Planet > By C. Robertson, M.D. (Elliot Stock.) 

 Illustrated. 2s. Students of mathematical astronomy will find iu 

 this little book some unique applications of Euclid's elements. 

 Demonstration by means of triangles is so persuasive, so rational, aud, 

 in ilr. Robertson's hands, so convincing that one might readily be 

 led to believe that the lesser really exceeds the greater. At any rate, 

 he has clearly shown (on paper) that "the apparent diameter of the 

 sun — about 32' of arc — represents a real diameter of about thirty-two 

 geograiihical miles." We are given to understand that this mathe- 

 matical deduction — founded on a series of prolonged observations, 

 chiefly made in India — is in perfect agreement with all geograjihical 

 facts observed in the phenomena of the seasons, and also in harmony 

 with the fundamental definitions, as well as with the practice of 

 nautical astronomy. *' Is the Earth a Planet ? " contains such stimu- 

 lating food for the mind, and, if novelty is any recommendation, the 

 book will certainly mark an epoch in astronomical literature. 



Practical Mectricity. By W. E. Ayrton, P.R.S. (Cassell.) 

 Illustrated. 9s. Great advances in the application of electricity 

 to industrial purposes have been made since this book of Prof. 

 Ayrton's was first issued as an aid to electro-technical teaching, in 

 which he has been to some extent an innovat:)r, his method of treating 

 the subject being analytical rather than synthetical. Most students 

 of electricity have but the haziest notions of the exact meaning of 

 high and low potential, the electrical analogues of hot and cold. We 

 do not number an electrical sense among our other senses, and hence 

 we huve no intuitive perception of electrical phenomena. Prof. 

 Ayrton, in the book before us, starts straight away with current 

 electricity, seeking to overcome at once the great difficulties involved 

 in the quantitative measurement of the imponderable Uuid — dealing 

 it out, so to speak, by the mile or ton, and gauging it, tracing its 

 direction of flow, or yoking it to seme machine to do useful work. 



Confidences of an Amateur Gardener. By A. M. Dew-Smith. 

 (Seeley & Co.) Illustrated. Confidences, as here exemplified, are of 

 comparative degrees — good, bad and indifferent. The several chapters 

 originally appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette as " Wares of Autolycus." 

 Ephemeral iu their origin, devoid of design iu structure, and trifling 

 in execution, it is ditficult to imagine for what purpose the papers 

 reappear in book form, except, maybe, as a curious specimen of 

 cultured foolishness. In each sketch of about two thousand words in 

 length there are useful bits of information which could be told in 

 detail in ten lines. All the rest is pepper aud salt, and who cares to 

 be feasted on these ingredients ? 



The Story of the Earth's Atmosphere. By Douglas Archibald, 

 M.A. (Xewnes.) Illustrated. Is. Mr. Archibald commences his 

 story with an account of the nebular hypothesis, and the reader 

 quickly finds himself enveloped, so to speak, in the sweltering atmo- 

 spheres of Jupiter, Saturn, the incandescent gases and vapours of the 

 sun ; and, in a while, he comes back to earth to study, in cool gi-oves, 

 the envelope of air, of the existence of which, perchance, he was 

 previously unconscious, since so many incidental illustrations are 

 used to convince one of its presence. In our opinion, the author has 

 lost a grand opportunity. His book in parts resembles a treatise on 

 astronomy ; in other respects it trenches heavily on meteorology ; and 

 then suddenly attains to the dignity of a work on aeronautics. Since 

 the book forms one of a series, and there is ample scope in the title 

 assigned, one would naturally expect overlapping of subjects to bo 

 avoided as far as practicable. 



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

 Edition. (Lcngmans.) 3s. 6d. Admirers of the late Mr. Proctor 

 will remember this litt'e book, which consists of a series of essavs 

 contrasting our little abode in space and time with the infinities 

 around us. The work, as a whole, deals less with the direct teachincs 

 of astronomy than with ideas suggested by astronomical and physical 

 facts — a book in which the skeletons of facts are clothed by the aid 



