November 1, 1899.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



257 



It is impossible to s[ive a detailed review of such a book, but we 

 desire to draw attention to one feature, that of itself alone 

 would render the rolume an invaluable contribution to astro- 

 nomical literature. This is the bibliographical appendix to 

 each chapter and section, giving full references to all the prin- 

 cipal books, magazines and papers which contain information 

 bearing upon the subject treated. The illustrations are 

 numerous, have reference both to celestial bodies and to bodies 

 terrestrial, and are nearly all new. 



Funafuti : ur Tliree Mniiths on a Ri'mote Coral Island. By 

 Mrs. Edgeworth David. (Murray.) Illustrated. 12s. As far 

 back as 1842, when Darwin enunciated his hypothesis on the 

 origin of coral reefs and atolls, a lively interest in the structure 

 and distribution of these curious formations began to be displayed 

 by students of Nature. Funafuti is an atoll about twelve miles 

 from north to south, and eight miles in greatest breadth. Mrs. 

 Edgeworth David, who accompanied her husband to the island, 

 here gives an account of the 1897 Funafuti coral-boring ex- 

 pedition, and a charming account it is, not particularly of the 

 scientific operations conducted by her husband and others, but 

 of the inhabitants of this far-away little isle in the Pacific 

 Ocean — manners and customs of the people, amusements, morals, 

 superstitions, and so on. She expresses "a faint hope that this 

 book will enlist sympathy for the Funaf utians, and, perhaps, be 

 indirectly the cause of securing a medical missionary for the 

 island." Excepting some oblique efforts at punning — hollow 

 jokes like nuts without kernels — the book forms a fair chapter 

 in ethnography. 



Practical Zoolofjy. By the late A. Milnea Marshall, f.r.s., 

 and the late C. Herbert Hurst, rii.n. Fifth edition. Revised 

 F. W. Gamble, m.sc. (Smith, Elder & Co ) Illustrated. In 

 the new edition of this well-known work, Mr. Gamble has 

 " thought it well to recast the chapters on technique, and to 

 adopt many of the alterations and additions which have been 

 suggested by a constant use of the last (1895) edition." In other 

 respects no new matter involving a change in the plan of the 

 work has been added. A book of this kind, which has survived 

 four previous editions, scarcely needs the impetus of a Press 

 notice to impart to it a new lease of life. The animals selected 

 for detailed study include characteristic representatives of the 

 more important great groups, and a conscientious worker who 

 follows the lucid instructions here given will acquire a good 

 insight into the leading features of animal structure, and a sound 

 basis of the principal methods of research. Beginning with the 

 amoeba and hydra, and ending with the rabbit and pigeon, it 

 will be seen that the authors take the opposite course to that 

 advocated by the late Prof. Huxley — a course which, ascending 

 from the simple to the more and more complex, is now i-egarded 

 by most zoologists as being more easy and rational. Some veiy 

 useful and necessary information is given in an appendix on 

 reagents for killing, hardening, and preserving specimens ; 

 staining, clearing, and mounting media ; injection fluids, and 

 cements for fixing down sections cut in paraffin. The illustra- 

 tions, rather sparse, are clear — too clear, in a sense, for sections 

 in flesh and blood, and look so hard, cold, and symmetrical as to 

 give one the idea that they had been reproduced from wooden 

 models. 



Bacon or Shakespeare f An Historical Enquirij. By E. 

 Marriott. (EUiot Stock.) Is. Miss Marriott is a loyal 

 Shakespearian, who has here compiled a lucid and interesting 

 statement of the case against Bacon. We fear the confirmed 

 Baconian, impervious to the facts, is quite beyond the reach of 

 argument, but Miss Marriott's closely-reasoned work may be 

 heartily commended to anyone who feels in need of a fair and 

 comprehensive survey of an exhausted controversy. 



Womlers of the Bird World. By R. Bowdler Sharjje, 

 LL.D., F.r,.s. "(Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co.) Illustrated. 6s. 

 Dr. Sharpe has here put together the lectures on birds which he 

 has been in the habit of giving for the last ten years. The 

 book is written in quite a popular style, and is very pleasant 

 and instructive reading. Dr. Sharpe has chosen a good and 

 inexhaustible subject. Among the chapter headings we may 

 note : Decoration in Birds, Playing Grounds of Birds, Wonderful 

 Neats, Courtship and Dancing of Birds, Parasitic Birds, and 

 Migration of Birds. Dr. Sharpe quotes innumerable authors 

 and field naturalists for his facts, which are detailed and com- 

 mented upon in a very interesting manner. A few of the 

 stories told, however, can hardly be considered as anything more 

 than " yarns,'' and wc think the author would have done well to 



have omitted them in his book, though they, no doubt, were 

 well received in his lectures. Altogether the book is very 

 entertaining. 



Truth and Error, or the Science of Intellection. By J. W. 

 Powell. (Kegan Paul.) 9s. An attempt is here made to set 

 forth the origin and history of fundamental fallacies. The 

 failure to distinguish between properties and qualities, it is 

 alleged, is the rock on which modern metaphysicians are 

 wrecked. Our author says — " The war of philosophy is between 

 idealists and materialists. The philosophy here presented is 

 neither idealism nor materialism ; I would fain call it the 

 philosophy of science." Whatever name it is labelled with, 

 however, the work will remain unattractive. It lacks the 

 requisite continuity and sequence to enable the reader to follow 

 the reasoning clearly. Molecules, stars, stones, and ])lauts, we 

 are told, do not think ; only animals have minds ; ]>lants do not 

 have minds, but their particles have judgments as consciousness 

 and choice which are developed into psychic faculties only by 

 the organization of animate bodies. The total result of the 

 work does not, we think, strengthen the foundations of philo- 

 sophy, but it is rather a shifting from one slough into another. 



Early Chapters in Science. By Mrs. W. Awdry, edited by 

 Prof. W. F. Barrett. (Murray.) Illustrated. 6s. If accurate 

 information, vouched for by learned professors, constitutes 

 acceptable credentials for the reception of a new book, then 

 Mrs. Awdry 's volume should be welcomed by those who desire 

 to know a little of the procession of life and unfolding of 

 phenomena which it is the business of science to arrange in an 

 orderly sequence. Many of the stafl: of the Royal College of 

 Science, Dublin, have seconded what the authoress has to say 

 on the World of Life and the World of Experiment— a disserta- 

 tion of very wide scope, indeed, and Prof. Barrett says of the 

 book, " whilst more elementary and not covering so wide a field 

 as M. Paul Bert's volume, it is written in a more attractive 

 style, and avoids the kind of scientific ' pemmican ' which 

 characterises M. Bert's volume, and which must be to young 

 people so indigestible, and favourable to mere cram." If, 

 however, one receives too much mental food in M. Bert's book, 

 the reader in the volume before us gets only the smell, as it 

 were, of his intellectual fare, and, in our humble opinion, not a 

 very pungent or appetising smell. The several sections are too 

 laconic to form a useful introduction to general science. We 

 will not challenge the accuracy, but we venture to observe that 

 in these days when School Boards and County Councils are 

 disseminating science broadcast, the need for such books as this 

 is at a minimum, more particularly as it can only be regarded 

 as a primer which, to reach its proper constituency, should have 

 been published at sixpence or a shilling. 



True Tale>< of the Inserts. By L. N. Badenoch. (Chapman & 

 Hall.) Illustrated. The title of this work is somewhat mis- 

 leading. One would expect, from the all-embracing " The 

 Insects," a very comprehensive discourse, whereas the contrary 

 is the truth. The book in reality consists of a few essays, some 

 of which have appeared in serials, and as short articles for 

 illustrated magazines. The matter and style are very appropriate, 

 but we are not by any means of opinion that the re-publication 

 in such a luxurious form as here presented is a prudent step on 

 the part of the author, or a shrewd venture by the publishers. 

 Setting aside a little individuality in the manner of treatment, 

 which is very attractive in places, there is little or nothing new 

 about the insects dealt with, and a considerable portion of the 

 matter is too sketchy to add to the value of the volume — a mere 

 skeleton at the best. Great pains have been taken to impart a 

 good effect to the illustrations from an artists point of view, 

 but this result has been obtained at the sacrifice of much loss of 

 detail according to the practical entomologist's way of repre- 

 senting insect structure. 



Siddhdntd-Darpuna. A Treatise on Astronomy. By 

 Mah;'imahop;idhyaya Samanta Sri Chandrasekhara Simha. Edited 

 with an introduction by .logos Chandra Ray, M..\., Professor of 

 Physical Science, Cuttack College. (Calcutta, 189'7). Of all the 

 numerous works on astronomy that have been published within 

 the last few years, this is by far the most extraordinary, and in 

 some respects the most instructive. It is written in Sanskrit 

 by a Hindu of good family of Khandap:'ira in Orissa, and is a 

 complete system of astronomy founded upon naked eye observa- 

 tions only, and these made for the most part with instruments 

 devised and constructed by the writer himself. Those who 

 read the sixty pages of the introduction in English, which the 



