20 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Jantjaby 1, 1898. 



An Introduction to Geology. By Wm. B. Scott. (Mac- 

 millan.) lUuatrated. Ss. net. New strata of books, so 

 to speak, are being continually superposed on pre-existing 

 books of the same kind, and it too frequently happens that 

 they contain no fossils, as it were, to invest them with 

 special characteristics sufficient to differentiate them from 

 their predecessors. In a sense, Prof. Scott's work is of 

 this kind — that is to say, the book is not of any particular 

 value to English students, but rather a class-book for 

 American students of geology. The principles of the 

 science are elucidated in a manner closely corresponding 

 with our own standard works on the same subject. To 

 those, however, who have advanced beyond the confines 

 of an acquaLatance with first principles, and are prepared 

 for fresh fields and pastures new, we may say there is 

 here much that is worthy of careful study — matter to fill 

 many a gap, confirm or accentuate doubtful points, and, 

 above all, a panorama of familiar phenomena in a new and 

 attractive dress, which will lend a more extensive, more 

 diversified, and more persuasive view to the mental eye. 



Jdhn Hunter : Man of Scienre and Suryenn. By Stephen 

 Paget. (Unwin.) Portrait. 3s. 6d. Among the greatest 

 men that England has produced must be reckoned those 

 who have built up the science of medicine in its broadest 

 sense, and among savants of this kind Hunter was head 

 and shoulders above his contemporaries — one of the master 

 builders of the Temple of Hygiea. The whole secret of 

 his extraordinary achievements in life can be expressed 

 Ln a few words: "Don't think — try; be patient — be 

 accurate." A great deal, it is true, may be learnt by 

 thinking ; but when experimental facts are brought to 

 bear upon a certain theory, more exact conclusions can 

 be deduced than by mere speculative opinion without the 

 foundation stones of exact observation. As a boy, Hunter 

 was an observer of nature, and did not care much for his 

 school books ; and when he came to London to work 

 with his brother William, he studied hard for three years, 

 spending his time mainly in the dissecting rooms night 

 and day. Thus far, Darwin and Hunter, in so many ways 

 alike, went both of them along the same high road ; here 

 the road divides at a narrow angle. Hunter went forward 

 from human anatomy to all anatomy and physiology, and 

 from these to medicine and surgery, and from all of them 

 together to a profound study of life, alike Ln health and 

 disease, in all structures, at all stages. To the medical 

 student of the present day the correspondence here given 

 between Hunter and his famous pupil, Jenner, must present 

 a strange picture. Our museums now supply all the 

 requisites for study, but in Hunter's time every student 

 had to cater for himself : find specimens for dissection 

 where he could ; get his chemical knowledge from one 

 source, anatomy from another, and so on ; all outside the 

 hospitals, which were not organized for complete instruc- 

 tion. The book is one of a series — " Masters of Medi- 

 cine " — and will include among others : Harvey, Jenner, 

 Simpson, Helmholtz, Stokes, Bernard, Brodie, and 

 Sydenham. Provided subsequent volumes are of equal 

 merit with this one, the series will form a most delightful 

 record of the development of the healing art. 



Recent and Cominij Eclipses. By Sir Norman Lockyer. 

 (Macmillan.) Illustrated. 6s. net. By this time Sir 

 Norman Lockyer may be regarded as a veteran eclipser. 

 During the last quarter of a century he has captained 

 many expeditions, and anything he has to say on eclipses 

 will be sure to command the attention of all interested in 

 such phenomena. In describing what he saw in 1871 the 

 author gives us some idea of the imposing grandeur of an 

 eclipse in these words : " There, in the leaden-coloured, 

 utterly cloudless sky, shone out the eclipsed sun — a worthy 



sight for gods and men. There, rigid in the heavens, was 

 what struck everybody as a decoration— one that emperors 

 might fight for — a thousand times more brilliant even than 

 the Star of India, where we then were ; a picture of 

 surpassing loveliness, and giving one the idea of serenity 

 among all that was going on below ; shining with a sheen 

 of silver essence ; built up of rays almost symmetrically 

 arranged round a bright ring above and below, with a 

 marked absence of them right and left, the rays being 

 composed of sharp radial lines, separated by furrows of 

 markedly less brilliancy." Although the author, according 

 to the title page, purports to give in his book notes on 

 the eclipses of 1893, 189G, and 1898, considerable space is 

 taken up with the subject of eclipses generally. Seeing 

 that the sun itself is essentially a star, we quite expected 

 to find ample reference to stellar researches — a sort of 

 discussion on the comparative anatomy of suns — but we are 

 of opinion that such allusions as that found on page 105 

 are quite out of place in a popular book. Sir Norman 

 says : " I am glad to see that Sir William Huggins, who 

 appears to be ignorant of my quarter-of-a-century-old work, 

 has quite recently arrived independently at the same 

 conclusion." The arm-chair astronomer doesn't want 

 condiment of that sort. As regards the great diversity of 

 work to be carried on during the precious moments of 

 totaUty, we have in this handy book an admirable description 

 such as could only emanate from one thoroughly conversant 

 with every aspect of the phenomenon. Difficult as the 

 subject is, we can readUy follow the master through every 

 labyrinth. The heterogeneous mass of facts gleaned by a 

 multitude of observers in all parts of the world during 

 eclipses spread over half a century, are here put through 

 the intellectual mill and worked into a shape which one 

 can appreciate. We see how the sun and stars are, as it 

 were, comparable to the several orders of animals, aU 

 more or less alike, and differing from one another only Ln 

 detail. The large section dealLug with the coming eclipse, 

 however, appears to us foreign to the general reader, and 

 fitted only to the wants of the few who actually take part 

 in eclipse work. It bears a closer resemblance to printed 

 instructions from a leader to his followers than hterature 

 on a popular subject for the million. The Ulustraticns are 

 of very unequal merit. 



Electricity in the Service of Man. By E. WormeU, d.sc, 

 M.A. Eevised and enlarged by Mullineux Walmsley, d.sc. 

 (CasseU.) Illustrated. 7s. Gd. Perhaps the best evi- 

 dence of the worth of this work is its continued issue, 

 time after time, in improved form. Evidently no expense 

 has been spared Ln making the book a thoroughly reliable 

 exposition, in popular phraseology, of the principles which 

 underlie all the practical applications of electricity in every- 

 day Ufe. The publishers, in this case, certainly give a 

 maximum of value for a minimum of outlay — a circum- 

 stance which will be sufficiently apparent when we point 

 out that there are a thousand printed pages and as many 

 illustrations. 



Tlie Method (if Darwin. By Frank Cramer. (Chicago: 

 McClurg it Co.) This book is an analysis of the scientific 

 method of Charles Darwin. Darwin's works have been 

 chosen as a basis on account of— "(1) the desire to confine 

 the discussion to the wi-itings of a single author ; (2) the 

 fact that his works cover a wide range of subjects ; and 

 (3), above all, the fact that Darwin's Lnvestigations, and the 

 reasoning based upon them, have furnished the biological 

 sciences with their dominant principles "—and also 

 because " Darwin's custom of presenting all sides of a case 

 very frequently led him to expose the original course of his 

 thought and the order of his discoveries." The author 

 has chosen an excellent and certainly a neglected subject. 



