March 1, 1900.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



59 



take refuge in agnosticism, we venture to delegate the further con- 

 sideration of wliat is certainly a verv remarkable work to the per- 

 sonal judgment of our reader^. 



"Kgyptian Magic." By E. A. Wallis Rudge, m.a. (Kegan 

 Paul.) Illustrated. 5s. 6d. Magical names, spells, enchant 

 ments. formulse. pictures, figures, amulets, and the ])erformance of 

 ceremonies accompanied by the utterance of words to jnoduce so- 

 called sujiernatural results, have held men and women in awe, 

 more or less. thr. ushout all ages. Still, it will be a revelation to 

 many who peruse the pages of this book to find how lofty was the 

 spiritual character of the Kgyptians who flourished at the dawn of 

 history — a strange religion mixed incongruously with magical 

 ceremonies, which savoured of gross and childish sui)erstition. In 

 those early days " unscrupulous but clever men took advantage 

 of the ignorance of the general public, ami pretemled to knowledge 

 of the .supernatural, and laid claim to the possession of power 

 over gods, and spirits, and demons. Such false knowledge and 

 power they sold for money ... to further any sordid transaction, 

 or wicked scheme, which the dupe wished to carry out." The 

 volume is the second of a series on Egypt and Chaldea, and, we 

 think, a most desirable series on matters relating to the archa»o- 

 logy, history, language, and religion of the Egyptians, Assyrians, 

 and Babylonians. 



"The Rise and Development of the Liquefaction of Gases." 

 By Dr. Willett L. Hardin. (Macmill.an.) Illustrated. 6s. As 

 the literature on this subject is in the main scattered in generally 

 inaccessible publications of learned societies, ,and ,as the roof of 

 the whole fabric has been put on by the researches of Pictet. 

 Cailletet, Dewar, and others, it is fitting that the complete story 

 ■should be gathered within the limits of a handy volume. The 

 ground covered is more or less common to most of the scienoe.s — 

 chemistry, physics, mechanics, and so on ; therefore, a distinct 

 individuality, as it were, in the form of a separate treatise is a 

 desideratum. Considering the immense difficulties to be en- 

 countered in such .an undertaking — a legion of sources to consult, 

 great discretion in the selection of facts, and .acute insight neues- 

 s.ary for the abridsment of detached articles — Dr. Hardin has done 

 his work well. The result is a book which will satisfactorily 

 meet the requirements of the popular reader, and certainly prove 

 a most valuable accession to the necessarily limited library of all 

 science stndents who aspire to .academic honours. Its utility is 

 immensely augmented by the free use of references to original 

 memoirs, all along the line, from Faraday's liquefaction of chlorine 

 in the year 1823, to Professor Dewar's mo.st recent papers on 

 hydrogen, as well as to the earlier researches of Van Helmont and 

 others on gases, as far back as the sixteenth century. 



"The Advance of Knowledge." By Lieut. Col. W. Sedgwick. 

 (George Allen.) 6s. A thoughtful work in which the author 

 valiantly grapples with problems of overwhelming magnitude. A 

 quotation from Buckle indicates the trend of the writer's attitude 

 as regards the advance of knowledge. He says — " ' Our facts have 

 outstripped our knowledge, and are now encumbering its march. 

 The publications of our scientific institutions, and of our scientific 

 authors, overflow with minute and countless details, which per- 

 plex the judgment, and which no memory can retain. In vain 

 do we demand that they should be generalised and reduced into 

 order. Instead of that," the heap continues to swell.'" AH this 

 is pregnant with truth, but, alas ! what does it mean ? Is it not 

 equivalent to saying — enough, ye hewers of wood and drawers of 

 water, let us now fashion our "materials, and build our scientific 

 temple? Colonel Sedgwick has herein done something in this 

 direction, as may be gathered from a short extract. He says : 

 "When a mason dresses a stone for building, we know that the 

 stone will lose some of its weight. . . . Thus we see that the 

 atom has fared, in the preparation it has undergone for molecule- 

 building, as the stone fares when it is prepared for wall-building. 

 . . . We can perceive that it (the atom) has fared in undergoing 

 preparation for molecule-building much in the same way as a 

 piece of metal sometimes fares .at the hands of a smith." 

 The reader who follows in the wake of our .author must be pre- 

 pared for dizzy heights and oppressive depths like these in the 

 murkv regions of speculation traversed. 



"Common Objects of the Microscope." By the late Rev. 

 .T. G. Wood. Second Edition. Revised by lE. C. Bousfield. 

 (Routledge.) Is. An old friend in new clothes. The work of the 

 reviser must have been a task of no mean order to preserve the 

 identity of the original, seeing that it is thirty-sLv vears since the 

 book &st appeared, and considering the great strides which have 

 been effected in microscopical science during that period. Never- 

 theless the volume in its new garb wiU, we think, more than sus- 

 tain its former reput<ation, and continue to pliiy the part of 

 " guide, philosopher, and friend " to thousands of miuroscopists 

 in tbeir initial efforts to unravel the mysteries of Nature by me.ans 

 of the magic tube. To the four hundred objects figured in the 

 first edition very many new illustrations have been added — es- 

 pecially in the popular department of pond life. 



"Newton's Laws of Motion." By Prof. P. G. Tait. (Black.) 

 Is. 6d. net. Professor Tait olfors a ratlier curious apology for 

 issuing this book. The laws of motion are, of course, of funda- 

 mental importance in the study of natural philosophy — -"its unique 

 basis." as he says. " llcncp the imperative necessity that the 

 student should, to some extent, be his own teacher in this all im- 

 portant special region." True; l)ut at the same time the student 

 must always, and in every subject, " be to some extent his own 

 teacher." In a three-year course of science if "all important 

 special regions" were amplified, as in this case, the student would be 

 appalled at the number of hooks to be perused and llie ground lo 

 be traversed. So long as Die day continues to be only of twenty- 

 four hours' duration, students having so much to accomplish in a 

 limited time cannot afford to linger over luxuries. If someone 

 would only find a means of slowing down the earth's spin on its 

 axis the sun would not return lo the horizon so quickly, and we 

 should then, iierhajis. be able to dispense with those books "pre- 

 sented in a form adapted to parrot-like repetition." 



" The Wonders of Modern Mechanism." Third Edition. By 

 Charles H. Cochrane. (Lippincott.) Illustrated. 6s. Mr. 

 Coclirane's book is already known as a ])opular exposition of the 

 scientific researches .and engineering triunii)hs of the nineteenth 

 centurv, together with a glimpse into the future, aided by in- 

 ferences drawn from the lines of research upon which great 

 minds are i)ent. When we mention that all the chief features of 

 electricity, flving m.achines, submarine boats, canals, bridges, steel 

 making, "sug.ar refining, photography, .and a host of other things 

 are dealt with in a volume moderate in size, it will be re.adily 

 understood tliat the reader accompanies the author in a balloon 

 voyage, so to spe<ak, and gets only a bird's-eye view of human 

 activity in the busy world below. " But it is a very picturesque 

 and instructive view, and we can recommend the book to all those 

 who .are familiar, by name, with the marvellous innovations of the 

 age, yet who are too busy to follow the press in detail. 



"Sylvia in Flowerland." By Linda Gardiner. (Seeley.) 

 Illustrated. 3s. 6d. An attempt to popularize .among girls .and 

 boys one of the many sciences. The device employed is of the 

 .l^sop's Fables order : the foxglove, nettles, bees, spiders, 

 and other occupants of the garden, are invested with the power 

 of speech. Some beautiful pl.ates by H. E. Butler adorn the 

 text "Beauty .and the Bee." "Plants on Tour," "Ten Little 

 Rose Plants," '" Jumping Seeds." are titles of chapters which speak 

 for themselves. A laboured effcjrt to make the plants tell their 

 own storv is often too olitrusive. We should like to see more 

 of that naive element, which tends to conceal tlie real motives of 

 the .actor, infused into the .author's style. 



"A Manual of Zoology." By the late T. J.'ffcry Parker. B.SO 

 P.E.S., and William A..IIaswell, D.SC, r.B.S. (Macmillaii.) 10s. (>d. 

 The cencral plan of tliis manual is similar to that f,>ll(i\vcil in llic 

 large"' Text-book of Zoology " by the .=amc authors, wliicli has already 

 been reviewed in these columns. The present volume provides a 

 course of work in zoology suitalilc for students preparing f<ir the highest 

 ''chool esamiiiations or for preliminary university work. The autliors 

 wisely decided U> restrict the range of subjects by neglecting certain 

 clashes of existing atiiiiials and omitting references Ui extinct genera. 

 Similarly the subj.-ct of eniliryology is only lightly touclied upon. 

 The text is accompanied by about three hundred beautiful illustra- 

 tions some of these, showing the circulation in different types, being 

 coloured in red and blue. Starting with tlie phylum Protozoa, the 

 Rliizopoda are first described, the Mastigoplioni, tlie Infusoria, and 

 the Sporozoa being then taken in order. After a section dealing with 

 the general chara.-teristics of the Mefazoa, separate cliapters are 

 devoted to the chief phyla from the Porifera to the Chordala. The 

 treatment is explicit throughout, and the book is sure to gain a wide 

 popularity. 



" Experiments on Animals," By Stephen Paget. With an Intr.>. 

 duction by Lord Lister. (T. Fisher Unwin.) fis, Tliere are two 

 sides to every question, and very often popular sentiment la on the 

 wrong side. While it is ditTicult to come across a, person wlio in a 

 case of painful emergency is unwilling te take every advantage of the 

 most recent expert opinion, it is unfortunately quite easy to iliseover 

 people— more especially people distinguished in walks of hte other 

 than scientific— who make a duty of denouncing and disparaging the 

 self-denying work of an army of devoted physiologists who un- 

 i^rudrdncly devote their energies, and in many cases their chances 

 of w"ealth, to the work of scientific experimenting having lor its 

 object the conquest of all the physical ills to which human 

 flesh has up to the present seemed to be the natural l.i-ir. 

 •ind in this work of denunciation, ignorance and misrepresentation 

 often pky a verv large part. Knowing this we heartily welcome 

 Mr Paget's little "volume. It will now be possible for the earnest man 

 or woman who comes within the sphere of lulluenee of the enthusiaslic 

 and ill-informed popular exponent of modern researches, m which 

 experiments on animals take a part, to learn the actual facts ot the 



