Pebruart 1, 1899.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



36 



Elenunfary Practical Zoology. By Frank E. Beddard, m.a., 

 F.K.S. (London : Longmans, Green & Co.) 2s. 6d. This book 

 is intended as a guide to the elementary examination in zoology 

 of the Department of Science and Art. We are rather at a 

 loss to understand why Mr. Beddard calls his little volume 

 "practical." A somewhat prolonged search has discovered no 

 instructions for dissection, nor much guidance as to where the 

 animals described can be found. For instance, the reader is 

 informed that '' the crayfish is common in many streams of this 

 country, as well as on the Continent," and we believe no further 

 help is offered to a student in the provinces who is anxious to 

 obtain a crayfish and follow Mr. Bcddard's description with the 

 specimen before him. The author tacitly assumes that there is 

 no difficulty in obtaining the types, and that dissection comes 

 naturally to a reader of zoological narratives. But it is far 

 otherwise in actual experience. We have known students 

 working alone waste many valuable day.s searching for a vorti- 

 cella or a hydra, and who have had eventually to look up 

 advertisements and directories to find the name of a dealer 

 where they could purchase specimens. If Mr. Beddard's book 

 were really practical these difficulties would have been cleared 

 up. As a theoretical book we have little but praise for the 

 volume. The illustrations, drawn fi-om the best sources, are 

 clear and instructive, while the descriptions are concise and 

 interesting. 



The Groundirork of Science. By St. George Mivart, >I.D., 

 PH.D., F.R.s. (John Murray.) 6s. The author of this book 

 lays it down that any science consists of some truths which are 

 the results of other truths previously known, whether this 

 primary knowledge has served as an incentive to more careful 

 work, or as a premiss from which the newer truth has been 

 logically inferred. These fundamental truths form the ground- 

 work of the particular science imder consideration. Every 

 science, similarly, possesses such primitive truths, consequently, 

 even if it consists only of a colJeotion of all the fundamental 

 truths of the several sciences, there must be a groundwork of 

 science generally. But all science has been developed by the 

 human mind, and the groundwork of science must also be sought 

 here. The study is hence called epistemology, from two Greek 

 words meaning a discourse on the understanding. The ground- 

 work of science cannot be truths gained by reasoning, for such 

 are not ultimate ; nor can they depend on observation and 

 experiment alone, for these imply the recognition of fundamental 

 intellectual perceptions. The groundwork of science must, 

 therefore, be composed of facts and truths which carry with 

 them their own evidence. Such is, briefly, the object of the 

 volume before us. The reader is taken in due course through a 

 catalogue of the sciences and a consideration of the objects, 

 methods, and physical, psychical, and intellectual antecedents 

 of science. After the relations of language and science and the 

 causes of scientific knowledge have been discussed, the nature 

 of the groundwork of science is summarised in a final chapter. 

 The answer to the question, ''What is the groundwork of 

 science?" is given by Dr. St. George Mivart in the following 

 words : — " It is the work of self-conscious, material organisms, 

 making use of the marvellous intellectual first principles which 

 they possess in exploring all the physical and psychical 

 phenomena of the universe, which sense, intuition, and ratioci- 

 nation can anyhow reveal to them as real existences, whether 

 actual or only possible." 



From ifatter to Man — a Neic Theory of the Unicersc. By A. 

 Redcote Dewar. (Chapman and Hall.) Our author has selected 

 a subject so vast that the sum of human knowledge is despicable 

 in comparison therewith, and yet the fruits of his investigations 

 in this immense field of research are compressed into less than 

 three hundred very brief pages ! One might, perhaps, give a 

 fair idea of the manufacture of pins in the same amount of space, 

 but to exhibit the process of making man and, more particularly, 

 the universe with such a small expenditure in ink is either very 

 clever or ridiculously absurd. AVe find that " the bottom energy 

 of the universe is magnetiim ; every crystal, plant, animal, 

 and man is a magnet ; life is really magnetism, and thought 

 electricity." This is the general trend of the ideas advanced. 

 Some of the passages are very beautiful as prose poetry, but 

 dreamy and incoherent from a scientific point of view. 



Skiagrapkic Atlas. By John Poland, F.R.c.8. (Smith, Elder 

 and Co.) Illustrated. Ss. The inestimable advantages of the 



X-rays in future medical science will be apparent to those who 

 peruse this atlas. Already many marvellous facts have been 

 published relative to the disposition of the internal anatomy, 

 fracture of bones, location of bullets in wounds, and so on, and 

 in this book we have a series of plates showing the changes in 

 the relative positions of the bones of the hand from the age of 

 three to the age of seventeen — skiarjratns of diilerent hands. 

 The results exhibit a most instructive view of the process of 

 ossification as we pass from childhood towards man's estate. It 

 is encouraging to know that workers in the Rontgen ray process 

 have already shown in this way that previous views on the 

 evolution of ossification must now be modified in conformity 

 with the additional light thus brought to bear on the subject. 



Earth Sculpture, or the Origin of Land-Forms. By Prof. 

 James Geikie, Lr,.D., d.c.l., f.r.s. (John Murray.) 63. This is 

 a well illustrated volume on a fascinating subject. It may be 

 popularly described as a book showing the incorrectness of the 

 widespread behef in the "eternal hills" and " terra fir ma." The 

 land everywhere is at the mercy of never-ceasing and relentless 

 forces of denudation. As Prof. Geikie graphically narrates, 

 rain, frost, wind, running water, the waves, snow, and ice, all 

 conspire together to wear away the land, obliterating existing 

 features and sculpturing new contours. The perennial conflict 

 between the internal forces tending to raise the crust, and the 

 external forces to which we have referred, which by themselves 

 would soon, speaking geologically, blot out the land, is described 

 in the scientific and interesting manner of which Prof. Geikie 

 is an acknowledged master. Chapter by chapter, the way in 

 which the relation of hill and dale is affected by the arrangement 

 of strata — -whether horizontal, gently-inclined, highly-folded, 

 or faulted — is passed under review. Altogether, to the reader 

 with some previous acquaintance with geological terms, the 

 book will prove stimulating and suggestive. 



Whitaher's Almanaclc, 1809. 2s. 6d. Once again this useful 

 work — -the thirty-first annual volume^is available. A great 

 improvement consists in the expansion of the index, an innova- 

 tion which admits of about six hundred additional entries. 

 Among new subjects introduced are the new " Employers' 

 Liability Act," and the "National Debts of the World" ; also 

 a JMunicipal Directory of Scotland and Ireland. " Political 

 Geography " has, during the past year, been considerably modi- 

 fied — to wit, the eating into China ; the losses of Spain ; and 

 Khartum wrested from the Khalifa ; and new maps are intro- 

 duced into the geographical articles to indicate such changes. 

 As illustrating the tendency iu every section to expansion we 

 may mention that there are now nearly eight hundred closely- 

 printed pages in the present issue of the almanack. 



Chemistry for Schools. By C. Haughton Gill. (Stanford.) 

 Illustrated. 4s. 6d. A new edition — the tenth — of this popular 

 school book is before us. Much enlarged, and in great part 

 re-written to suit the later developments of certain branches 

 of chemisti-y, it is a straightforward resume of the fundamental 

 liriuciples of the science treated from a practical standpoint. 

 Its jiast history is a sufficient guarantee that, with emendations 

 considered needful to invest the work with a new lease of life, 

 it will be found a reliable guide to the acquisition of a sound 

 knowledge of the elements of chemical science. One thing, 

 however, is not very stimulating to observe, namely, the illus- 

 trations, hoary with age and decrepit in form. Why not 

 replace them with something in better keeping with present 

 practice, and more agreeable to the eye ? 



A List of European Birds. By Heatley Noble, (R. H. 

 Porter.) This list of the birds found in the Western Palasartic 

 area is intended to be of use to collectors for reference and 

 exchange of skins and eggs, and for labelling specimens. The 

 list is really nothing more than a copy of Mr. Dresser's well- 

 known list of 1881 brought up to date, with a supplement added 

 containing the names of those birds of disputed occurrence. 

 Had Mr. Dresser himself revised his list he would not have 

 repeated, as Mr. Noble does, such mistakes as the spelling of 

 Mistle-Thrush Missel-Thrush, or the naming of Limosa belgica 

 Liniosa cegocephala. L. cegocephala is undoubtedly a synonym 

 of L. lapponica. The copy of the book sent to us is bound m 

 cloth, wtiich is an unnecessary expense if the list is to be cut 

 up for labelling specimens. 



Messrs. Bacon & Co. have sent us two charts of colourad figures, 

 the one of iiritish Birds, the other of EdibU Birds. The charts 



