358 
NATURE 
[ Sept. 4, 1873 
sington Museum, runs some risk of being undone by the 
unintelligent intermeddling of Government. It would 
appear from statements recently made in the House of 
Commons that arrangements were being made for trans- 
ferring the management of the South Kensington, Bethnal 
Green, and similar institutions to the trustees of the 
British Museum. It is difficult for an outsider to see 
what Government means by contemplating such a step ; 
we believe no better means could be taken to cripple the 
efficiency of such institutions than by giving them over to 
the irresponsible management of the unpaid trustees of the 
British Museum, who have at present much work on 
their hands, which is the subject of constant Parliamen- 
tary inquiry. We cannot conceive that Mr. Cole would 
approve of any such step, a step which, we repeat, would 
be sure to mar the great work which, with untiring la- 
bour, all-conquering zeal, and advanced intelligence, he 
has accomplished. Report indeed has reached us that a 
National Committee is being formed to urge upon Mr, 
Gladstone’s re-constituted Government the necessity of 
putting the British Museum, the National Gallery, and 
Institutions supported by Parliamentary funds, and now 
Trustee-muddled, under the direct control of a respon- 
sible Minister. 
Sir Joseph Whitworth consulted Mr. Cole upon the 
establishment of Scholarships for Mechanical Science, to 
“take place after his death. Mr, Cole recommended him 
to establish them during his life, so that he might have 
the enjoyment of watching the progress of them. Sir 
Joseph followed this recommendation, and presented the 
country with 3,000/, a year for these Scholarships. 
Mr. Cole is now devoting special attention to the appli- 
cation of Science to Productive Industryin the yearly Inter- 
national Exhibitions, and we trust that he may long be 
spared to reap the honour which is his due and to help 
on the work of which he has laid the foundation. 
Theerection in Exhibition Road of the handsome Science 
Schools, one of the few buildings devoted to Science of 
which the country may be justly proud, which Mr. Cole 
has at length successfully achieved, is due solely to the 
persistency of his efforts, rendered more and more perti- 
nacious by the obstinacy and penuriousness of the 
Treasury, which in the most niggardly spirit is still stary- 
ing the work and preventing its proper development, 
simply because, we presume, it is a scientific work ; and 
it was the intention of the recent Chancellor, Mr. Lowe, 
that in this particular England should be distanced by 
the smallest Continental or American state. It is fair to 
add that Mr. Cole was supported in this particular direc- 
tion by the Duke of Buckingham, the Duke of Marl- 
borough, and the Marquis of Ripon, who have succes- 
sively been Lord Presidents since 1866. 
GEOGRAPHY 
Advanced Text-Book of Physical Geography. By David 
Page, LL.D., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in the Col- 
lege of Physical Science, Newcastle. Second and En- 
larged Ed. (Edinburgh and London: Blackwood, 1873.) 
‘pees Geography is one of those branches of 
knowledge which, without being a science in itself, 
makes use of many of the Sciences to explain and illus- 
trate the facts and phenomena with which it deals. So 
far as it is confined to the mere knowledge of facts and 
description of natural phenomena, no special acquaintance 
with any science is required ; but when it comes to deal 
with the causes of phenomena and the deductions from 
geographical facts, it is essentialythat the teacher should 
himself possess a good general knowledge of several 
branches of modern Science. In particular it is neces- 
sary that he should clearly grasp the main principles of 
Physics, that he should have a good acquaintance with 
the distribution of animals and plants, and so much 
familiarity with arithmetic and mathematics as to be 
able to avoid making statements which are palpably 
incorrect. 
After a careful examination of the present volume, we 
are forced to conclude that the author is, on all the above- 
mentioned points, unfitted to teach this particular subject. 
It is with much regret that we say this, having expected — 
something very different, not only from the popularity of 
Prof. Page as an author and a teacher, but also from the 
criticism of one of our first literary periodicals (used as 
an advertisement), that the work is “a thoroughly good 
text-book of Physical Geography.” In order to justify 
this difference of opinion from so high an authority, it 
will be necessary to point out what are the most promi- 
nent errors and defects in the volume. Some of these 
defects may, it is true, be mere oversights ; but most per- 
sons will be of opinion that, in the second edition of an 
educational work, the plea of “oversight” can hardly be 
allowed. 
In the second chapter —on the figure, motion, and 
dimensions of the earth—we find a series of curious mis- 
conceptions, blunders, or obscurities. At page 19 we 
have the globe “revolving and rotating in obedience to — 
the Jaws of gravitation and attraction,” and in the next — 
page these words are again used as implying distinct 
“forces.” On page 21 occurs the following :—“ But day — 
and night are of unequal and varying length according to — 
the seasons; and these seasonal successions are caused 
by the facts—first, that the orbit or path of the earth’s 
revolution round the sun is not a perfect circle, but an 
ellipse ; and second, that in performing this revolution 
her axis is not perpendicular, but inclined at an angle of 
66° 27)’ to the plane of her orbit.” This is simply absurd. 
The ellipticity of the earth’s orbit has nothing whatever 
to do with the fact of there being seasons, which would 
occur exactly the same were the orbit a_perfect circle, 
The actual effect of the elliptic orbit in slightly modifying 
the length and severity of winter in the two hemispheres, 
and which is of some importance as being an element in 
explanation of the cause of the glacial epoch, is never so 
much as alludedto. Ina recent public examination some 
of the competitors gave this very account of the seasons, 
and received few or no marks in consequence. They had 
probably got up the subject from Dr. Page’s volume. 
Three pages further we have a table of certain dimensions 
of the planets. This has no particular bearing on physi- 
cal geography, but as it is given it should have been 
correct. It is, however, full of gross blunders, which can 
be detected by observation alone. We have in three 
columns—the diameter in miles, the cubic contents in 
miles, and the volume, earth being taken as 1. Now the 
“solid contents” and the “volume” being the same 
