Oct. 27, 1882.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



361 



Mr. Smit, and Miss Suft, are excellent and numerous. 

 They are also verj' fully and clearly described. 



A thoroughly excellent and enjoyable work from Frontis- 

 piece to Finis. 



A CONCISE CYCLOP.^DIA.* 



TuE first number of this Cyclopaedia has been sent to us. 

 It promises to be a very useful addition to the series 

 of educational -works for which Messrs. Cassell's house is 

 so well-known. The following extracts illustrate the style 

 of this convenient woik of reference : — 



" Acacia, a name incorrectly given to certain flowering 

 shrubs, often grown in English gardens, the correct title of 

 which is Robinia Pstud-Acacia. They are called locust 

 trees in America. (A good cut, showing leaf and flowers, 

 here given.) The real acacias are a genus of plants belong- 

 ing to the Mii/ios(r, a leading division of the Leguminous 

 order. The type is the Acacia Arabica, or gum-arabic tree, 

 which has doubly pinnate leaves, and heads of flowers like 

 velvety pellets of bright gamboge hue. The Acacia Catt:c/iu 

 furnishes CaUchu, a substance used in tanning leather." 



" Allegiance (from the Latin aUigo, I bind), the lawful 

 obedience which a subject is bound to render to his 

 sovereign. The bond of allegiance may, however, be said 

 to be mutual and reciprocal, the subject being bound to 

 obey the sovereign, and the sovereign to protect the sub- 

 ject" — [It should have been added that where there is no 

 personal protection, either needed or profiered, there is no 

 personal allegiance, — it is merely a feudal fiction. In a 

 country like England, for instance, citizens are protected 

 by, and therefore owe allegiance to, the state. In old 

 times personal allegiance or duty to a suzerain, though it 

 implied some degree of subjection, was a valuable quality, 

 as useful to the feudal chief as to his follower. In our 

 time, allegiance to aught but the state is little less 

 than treason to the nation, — or it would be, if it meant 

 anything but flunkeyism. There are some words — aUe- 

 (/itince, loyalty, and faith are among them — so noble, that 

 the honest mind is pained when they are used, as they too 

 often are, in a degrading, time-serving sense. — Ed.] 



" Accident (from the Latin aceidere, to happen). In 

 Logic, a term applied to any quality which does not 

 essentially belong to a thing, or form one of its invariable 

 attributes. For example, when we say of a piece of iron 

 that it is Kolid, we state one of its invariable characteristics ; 

 but if we say that it is hot, we are merely stating an 

 accidental circumstance connected with it. Again, in 

 speaking of a man, if we say that he has two leys, we state 

 an essential attribute, in tlie absence of which we cannot 

 conceive of him as a man ; but if we assert that he is a 

 native of Parii, it is a mere accident" (though if we were 

 speaking of American man, it would be an essential). 

 [The explanation of this logical term is clear enough ; no 

 one can well misunderstand it ; albeit, we may note in 

 passing that iron is not always solid, and some men are so 

 unfortunate as to have but one leg or none. — Ed.] 



The Cyclop.a'Jia will be very cheap, the monthly parts, 

 of which there will be twenty-seven, costing but Gd. each. 



ANATOMICAL STUDIES, t 

 Although this work is specially intended for medical 

 students, it is one which, for many reasons, has value for 

 the lay world. Every one ought to know where lie the chief 



• CaaselVs Concise Cydopadia. (Cassell, Pettor, Galpin, A Co.) 

 t Buvuin Morphology ; a Treatise on Practical and Applied 



Anatoviy. By Henry Albeet Kekve.s, F.R.C.S.Ed. Vol. I. (Smitb, 



Elder, 4 Co., London.) 



muscles, bones, and nerves of the human body ; the chief 

 internal organs, the arteries, veins, and so forth : although 

 not every one, fortunately, wishes to dissect and analyse 

 them. Now, if there is a good deal in this book which is 

 of interest only to dissecting students, there is much more 

 which shows, in a way we have never seen surpassed, just 

 those relations of the human body which every one ought 

 to know. The publishers, as the author remarks, have 

 been very liberal in the matter of illustrations, there being 

 no fewer than li\e hundred and sixty-four. A few are 

 somewhat rough, but even these are exceedingly instructive 

 to the student ; in fact, their very roughness shows what 

 they are — sketches from the hand of a master. 



The present volume deals with the limbs and pericar- 

 dium ; the second will deal with the thorax, abdomen, 

 pelvis, itc. ; and the third with the anatomy of the neck 

 and brain, and organs of special sense. The book is not 

 precisely one for the drawing-room table, but for the study ; 

 not wholly, however, for the medical man's study; it 

 teaches much which every man of sense ought to know. 



LIFE-HISTORY OF A PLANT. 

 By E. Vf. PREVOST, PhD. 



THE study of the life-liistorj' of a plant is of great interest, as 

 siiowing the elaborate arrangements whereby the mineral 

 matters of the soil and the gases in the air are brought together 

 to form one organism, which shall bo fit for the food of man or 

 beast. In the present article I do not intend to give any descrip- 

 tion of the structure of a plant, nor any account of the manner in 

 which its juices pass from one part to another, but rather to poinc 

 out the materials which form the plant-food, and the changes which 

 they undergo so as to produce what we recognise as a vegetable 

 structure. 



The plant possesses a distinct set of organs capable of absorbing- 

 mineral food dissolved in water, and there are also means wherebv 

 oxygen and carbonic acid gas can bo inspired and transformed 

 into tissue. The young sprout being at first incapable of seeking 

 for its food, is dependent on the seed for its supplies, con- 

 sisting of two distinct substances —nitrogenous or albuminous 

 matter, and oil and starchy matters. These two last might have 

 been classed separately, but it is unnecessary her© to draw any 

 distinction between them, for it appears that the oil is, daring- 

 germination, for the most part converted into starch. The effect 

 of moisture and warmth causes the seed to sprout, throw out astern 

 and root, but these being but feeble must be supplied ivith food 

 ready prepared, and it is under the influence of the oitygen which 

 obtains access to the seed, that a small portion of the albuminous 

 matters contained in the seed is altered, and the products act 

 as a ferment which attacks the insoluble starch, conTerting it 

 into a sngar that can pass with the water always present into 

 the small sprout ; when there it becomes again insoluble, and 

 adds to the structure of the rapidly-increasing seedling. The first 

 part of this change, such as the starch, has undergone, is well 

 exemplified in the malting of barley, which after its removal from 

 the malt-house, contains a largo amount of '•glucose," a kind of 

 sugar which is recognised readily by the taste. The transformation 

 of a portion of the albuminous matter into a ferment, not only 

 results in the conversion of starch into sugar, but at the same timo 

 the remainder of the albuminoids are rendered soluble and without 

 any change in their composition ; they can then accompany the 

 glucose during its passage into the seedling. Wo see then that the 

 seed is a storehouse for the young plant, proWding nourishment until 

 it is strong enongh to send down roots into the earth, and put 

 out leaves into the air to seek out food for itself. When 

 tho plant becomes strong, and is no longer dependent on the seed 

 for its food, the chemical processes which take place are still more 

 wonderful; how somo of the new substances are formeil, or why 

 tho absence of somo one ingredient of the soil (generally present in 

 but very small quantities), should produce certain well-known results, 

 is still unknown. Fi-om the soil, and by the roots, are derived tho 

 mineral matters and the nitrogen ; the latter in tho form of 

 nitrates, which in tho plant are completely changed in character, 

 being no longer a combination of nitric acid with a base, but the 

 base Im.s been separated, and the nitrogen of the acid, combined 

 with sulphur hydrogen and oxygen, is deposited in tho new form of 

 nlbumenoid matter,, which is insoluble in water: but being in- 

 soluble, and deposited in tho minute cells of tho plant, it 



