April 24, 1902J 



A' A TURE 



583 



basis of design and construction, and by indicating the 

 different ways in which these principles have been applied 

 in practice. 



The volume may, in fact, be regarded as a guide-book 

 to what has been done, but its usefulness would have been 

 enhanced if more frequent references had been made to 

 the sources from which complete information on the 

 different subjects could be obtained, or if a list of the 

 works in which the subjects have been treated had been 

 given at the end of each chapter. It is true that in such 

 matters as harbours, docks and canals, with which the 

 author is most conversant, the references from which the 

 information is taken are plentifully given ; but these are 

 principally to the author's own works, and no mention is 

 even made of the works on these subjects that have been 

 published within the last few years in " Longmans' 

 Engineering Series," of which this book forms part. 



Besides a general introduction, the subjects are dealt 

 with under five heads, and include (i) materials em- 

 ployed in construction ; preliminary arrangements for 

 carrying out work ; excavation ; dredging ; pile-driv- 

 ing ; cofferdams ; foundations ; piers of bridges ; 

 roads and street-paving. (2) Laying out and formation 

 of railways ; bridges ; viaducts ; tunnels ; permanent 

 way ; light railways and tramways. (3) Control and 

 regulation of rivers ; canals and canalised rivers ; ship 

 canals ; and irrigation works. (4) Docks, river quays, 

 harbour works ; lighting coasts and channels ; land 

 reclamation and coast protection. (5) Sanitary engineer- 

 ing, including water supply and sewerage works. 



Rural Reader — Senior. By V. T. Murche. Pp. 292. 



Price \s. gd. 

 The Teacher's Manual of Object Lessons for Rural 



Schools^Senior. By V. T. Murche. Pp. xxiii^-396. 



(London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1902.) Price 



■2.S. 6d. 

 The schoolmaster in the country is just now very much 

 in want of a text-book to guide him in giving that kind of 

 instruction which is variously termed "nature know- 

 ledge" or "rural economy"; such elementary observation 

 and reasoning applied to common things, as will stimulate 

 the child's mind and yet serve as an introduction to 

 agriculture or horticulture later. Mr. Murche was ready 

 with two text-books very soon after the circular from the 

 Board of Education in 1900, and now comes forward with 

 two more for senior children, a reading book for school 

 use and a parallel series of object lessons set out for the 

 teacher's benefit. 



The scope of the books is extensive enough — a little 

 chemistry and botany, a few discourses on farming, then 

 comes a considerable section on insect life, with chapters 

 on fishes, reptiles, trees and ferns to the end. The get-up 

 is excellent, nice type and plenty of pictures, so that any 

 child will enjoy the varied course of the reader, and the 

 teacher may get many excellent hints from the object 

 lessons. But how fatally does the author miss the whole 

 spirit of the work, which is to make the child see and 

 think and find out things for himself From beginning to 

 end of the book the child is being told in dogmatic fashion 

 scraps of information about natural objects of the most 

 unequal degree of importance. The book is a typical 

 compilation ; in each subject the man who knows will 

 detect, if not mistakes, yet that want of proportion, that 

 emphasis in the wrong place, which mark the writer at 

 second hand. 



For example, on p. 63 the children are made to com- 

 pare the flower of the Deadly Nightshade, Atropa, with 

 the potato flower, to show them how a garden plant may 

 have wild relations. In the first place, there is little 

 superficial resemblance between the flowers, and Atropa 

 is a really rare and casual plant in England, whereas 

 every hedgerow contains the " Woody Nightshade," 

 poisonous enough and with flowers that are unmistakably 



NO. 1695, VOL. 65] 



the fellows of the potato flower. Again, we notice on 

 p. 127 an account of the mole cricket, with a picture ; 

 how many collectors, not to speak of children, have ever 

 found a mole cricket ? And so the book goes on through 

 the whole gamut of animated nature ; our feeling in the 

 end is one well known to examiners, " I suppose I must 



allow some marks for this, but " We have not yet 



found the text-book for country schools, and we are afraid 

 that Mr. Murche's is just a sufficiently middling sub- 

 stitute to block the way of the real article when it comes. 



A. D. H. 

 Poultry Management on a Farm. By Walter Palmer, 



M.P. Pp. 94. (Westminster : Archibald Constable 



and Co., Ltd., 1902.) Price \s. 

 The object of this work is to show that poultry in con- 

 siderable numbers can be kept on an ordinary farm with 

 profit. Mr. W. Palmer, M.P., on land of about 200 

 acres, has established a poultry department. 350/. have 

 been expended in buildings and the necessary appliances, 

 a skilled manager with three assistants have been 

 appointed, and the results of three years' work are very 

 fairly given in this well-printed and well-illustrated, but 

 very cheap, volume. Whether the results are such as 

 will induce many other agriculturists to go into the 

 pursuit or not may be regarded as doubtful, but the 

 volume is well worthy the attention of those who are 

 interested in the matter. Poultry farms pure and simple 

 have long been known to be visionary, those institutions 

 at present going under that name not being utility 

 poultry farms, but places for the rearing and sale of 

 fancy stock at fancy prices. Mr. Palmer is an enthusiast 

 in his subject, and it is needless to say that his work 

 presents the results of his experiments in the most 

 favourable light, but this is obviously done with a good 

 motive and in an exceedingly truthful manner. Many 

 practical farmers would, however, object to his figures. 

 Nothing is charged for the annual depreciation and 

 wear and tear of the plant. The annual value of the 

 manure of the two thousand birds is estimated at 100/. 

 Moreover, the author states that if the ninety thousand 

 farms in England were all to keep poultry on the plan 

 recommended by himself, the profit arising from this 

 source would be no less than four and a half millions a 

 year to the British farmer. These statements will be 

 differently estimated by different readers. 

 Lectures on the Lunar Theory. By John Couch Adams 



M.A., F.R.S. Edited by R. A. Sampson, M.A 



Pp. 88. (Cambridge University Press, 1900.) Price 



is. 

 We are glad to see that the famous lectures of Adams 

 on the lunar theory have been published so as to be 

 readily accessible to all. They have been well edited 

 and most lucidly presented to the reader. Prof Sampson 

 naturally, however, did not feel at liberty to extend the 

 subject-matter of the lectures, so that the work remains 

 in a slighter form than Prof Adams would, perhaps, him- 

 self have cared to publish it. 



This being so, we are led to ask — What class of readers 

 does this book specially cater for ? We do not think the 

 students, for the book cannot compete with Dr. E. W. 

 Brown's treatise, nor would it be of any great value to 

 the calculator who should wish to develop afresh correct 

 expressions for the moon's coordinates, for the chief 

 difficulties here consist in the correction of approximate 

 solutions, a section to which only four pages (pp. 30-33) 

 is devoted in the present work, and, moreover, the action 

 of the planets is not considered. Perhaps, then, the 

 class that will find this hook most interesting are the 

 astronomers, who from time to time want to refer to 

 small portions of the theory and obtain numerical values 

 for some of the quantities that occur. This was, perhaps, 

 not the design of the work, but we can recommend it as 

 serving this purpose thoroughly. 



