388 
NATURE 
[ FEBRUARY 25, 1897 
highest or the lowest class. The naturalist may search 
them through without finding any passage which throws 
new light upon an important question. Perhaps we may, 
rather doubtfully, put “A Year in the Fields” among 
the books that both amuse and instruct. Mr. Burroughs 
is most agreeable to read, and now and then he tells us 
something that we are glad to know. But he sacrifices 
a little too much to the necessity of pleasing, and his 
books are impressions rather than studies. Miss Merriam 
and Mr. Crawford definitely belong to the class which 
amuses and does not instruct. 
Mr. Burroughs has now found his public, and needs 
no lengthy notice at our hands. He writes as one who 
lives in daily contact with nature, occupying himself with 
her superficial aspects rather than with her problems. 
The reader of his books finds many pleasant pages, like 
the best descriptive passages of good novels, and occasion- 
ally a hint of some curious knowledge or reflection. 
Such a book as that before us (which, it is necessary to 
note, contains no new essays) is welcome to the naturalist 
in his less serious moods ; it is genuine literature with a 
strong flavour of the woods and fields. The volume is 
illustrated by twenty photographs, of which all but one 
contain the author's figure in some favourite haunt. It 
is cheerful to think that he has now escaped from the 
public office, and is entering old age as a fruit-farmer on 
the Hudson. 
Miss Merriam tells in a sprightly way her observations 
upon live birds in California. The Bronco is an old 
horse, from whose back she studied the birds with an 
opera-glass. The book is crowded with details, but they 
are hardly ever worth remembering ; it relies upon its 
literary qualities, which are good, but not excellent. 
There are many illustrations, chiefly of nests or birds’ 
heads. 
Mr. Crawford’s book is even thinner in substance than 
Miss Merriam’s. A facile writer could come home after 
sitting for an heur in a garden-chair, or sauntering along 
a lane, and write such sketches as these almost without 
effort. They incline to the sermon in some places, to 
the novel in others. The very best remark in the book, 
from the naturalist’s point of view, is this (p. 100) : 
“The feet [of the lark] are adapted for running. They 
cover so many of the grass stems at once, that not only 
does the bird get along very much as one does on snow- 
shoes, but the elasticity of the pressed-down herbage 
aids in the spring.” The illustrations have no natural 
history value. TL, (GaN 
OUR BOOK SHELF. 
Guide pour le Soufflage du Verre. By Prof. H. Ebert. 
Translated from the second German edition, with notes 
by Prof. P. Lugol. Pp. 191. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars 
et Fils, 1897.) 
THE utility and importance of even a small amount of 
knowledge in the art of blowing glass is perhaps best 
known to those who work in chemical, physical, and 
astrophysical laboratories. Tubes will crack, pumps 
will get broken, and many other similar mishaps will 
occur in the ordinary course of laboratory work. In 
such cases two remedies are available: either new 
apparatus must be bought, or it must be made. The 
former is doubtless the easiest, but the most expensive ; 
NO. 1426, VOL. 55] 
while the latter is, in many cases, a saving of both time 
and money. 
In England, Mr. Shenstone’s little book on the methods 
of glass-blowing is the one which is most generally used. 
Prof. Ebert practically based his first edition on this 
admirable little treatise, embodying in it both his own 
observations and methods and those of others. The 
second edition, however, was considerably altered ; in 
fact the book was practically reconstructed, as it was his 
intention to insert results of more recent experience, and 
give a strictly systematic course on glass-blowing. 
The book before us is a French translation of this 
second edition, and it will be found to give full details to 
its readers how to make all the more common glass 
apparatus in use in laboratories, and how to mend those 
when broken. Prof. Ebert has adopted a logical sequence 
of the chapters, leading the glass-blower gradually by easy 
stages to the more difficult operations. The reader is first 
made to understand the mysteries of the blow-pipe itself. 
He is next given exercises which involve the training of 
the hands, first singly and then together. More difficult 
exercises are then put before him, from the construction 
of a trap to some complicated forms of vacuum tubes. 
In each lesson the necessary steps are clearly described, 
and in many cases illustrations are given showing the 
appearance of the apparatus at its several stages. This 
is an important point, for the great difficulty that a 
beginner meets with at first is not so much the actual 
making of the apparatus (which is acquired after a little 
practice), but a lack of knowledge of the various steps 
that have to be accomplished before the final stage is 
reached. For example, to make a large bulb in the 
middle of a tube, the beginner generally tries to blow the 
bulb directly without adopting the more easy stages of 
blowing three small bulbs close together, and amal- 
gamating them into one large one. 
The appendix contains some additional information 
which will be found useful to those working with glass, 
such as engraving on glass, the graduation of tubes, 
&c. Some further notes have also been added by the 
translator. 
As a treatise on glass-blowing, Prof. Ebert’s book can 
be thoroughly recommended, and those who are unable 
to master the German edition will find Prof. Lugol’s 
translation an admirable substitute. WS a Saee 
Projectiles de Campagne de Siege et de Place: Fusées. 
By E. Vallier, Pp. 178. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars.) 
L Eclairage. Eclairage aux gaz, aux huiles, aux acides, 
gras, &c. By Prof. Julien Lefévre. Pp. 180. (Same 
publishers.) 
Les Succédanés du Chiffon en Papeterie, 
Pp. 179. (Same publishers.) 
THESE three volumes belong to the very practical series 
published under the editorship of M. Léauté, as the 
Encyclopédie scientifique des Aide-Mémoire. 
M. Vallier confines himself to dealing with the pro- 
jectiles from large guns. The first part of the book is 
concerned with field artillery (Arojectiles de campagne) ; 
the second with ordinary cast shells, shrapnels, and 
explosive shells (projectiles de siége et de place), and the 
third with fuses arranged to explode when the projectile 
collides, or at a given point of the trajectory. The volume 
is full of instructive information on the manufacture, pro- 
perties, and mode of employment of different types of 
projectiles used in ordnance pieces. 
In “ L’Eclairage,” Prof. Lefevre first describes the prin- 
ciples of various systems of illumination, excluding electric 
lighting. He deals with the many processes involved in 
the production of gas from coal, and shows how gas is 
distributed. The many methods employed to burn gas 
most effectively are also described. Lighting by special 
gases, and by acetylene, form the subject of two other 
chapters. #) In a similar way lighting with} candles, 
By V. Urbain. 
