NATURE 
[ Dec. 2, 1869 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Nature contemplated Philosophically.—Dze Natur im 
Lichte philosophischer Anschauung. By Maximilian 
Perth. (Leipzig and Heidelberg, 1869.) Large 8vo. 
pp: vili. and 805. ‘ 
THE modern developments of the study of natural science 
have led to the separate and too exclusive consideration 
of branches of knowledge. This result necessarily follows 
from the defects inherent in our methods of investigation ; 
but everyone will admit the importance and advantage of 
contemplating Nature as a whole, instead of attending to 
a fragment of her works. Hence she must be contem- 
plated philosophically ; for it is the business of philosophy 
alone to work out the greater problems which are common 
to, and underlie, the great problems of the sciences. 
Such are the views which led Prof. Perth to write this 
book, a task for which he had fitted himself by many-sided 
study from boyhood, and the accomplishment of which 
has exacted the labour of several years. It is a purely 
philosophic work, belonging to a class of which there are 
few specimens, and cannot be easily read except by those 
who have some technical acquaintance with philosophic 
terms. The following are titles of a few of the topics 
treated in the volume :—“ Matter, Organism, Spirit ;” 
“The Relation of Nature to the Moral Idea;” “ The 
Chemical Process ;” “Species ;” “The Chronological 
Perfection of Organic Nature ;” “The Geographical Dis- 
tribution of Plants ;” “The Spiritual Life.” 
The author does not attach himself to any particular 
school of thought ; but Kant, Hegel, and Spinosa have, 
perhaps, a predominance. His information is universal ; 
but the erudition displayed is accompanied, as generally 
happens, by a want of point, precision, and climax. Here 
and there, a somewhat sad and sombre eloquence relieves 
and ornaments the picture. Baya: 
An Introduction to the Science of Heat.—By Temple 
Augustus Orme. (London: Groombridge & Sons.) 
‘Te-is not many years since the appearance of the first 
thoroughly-scientific treatise on heat in the English lan- 
guage, and now we hail the advent of a well-written intro- 
duction to more advanced works: a book intended for the 
beginner who is supposed to possess nothing but a fair 
knowledge of arithmetic and an average amount of intel- 
ligence. This book is full of excellent examples of the 
various laws of heat, in which the author makes use of the 
metrical system of measurements, and the centigrade scale 
of temperature; and the student who has worked through 
these questions cannot fail to have acquired a good prac- 
tical knowledge of the subject of heat, as well as an appre- 
ciation of the advantage of the metrical system. Nor 
are theoretical views left out, and although the treatise 
only professes to be an introductory one, we have a good 
elementary account of the dynamical theory of heat, 
including the grand laws of the conservation and dissipa- 
tion of energy. The author is undoubtedly right in 
accustoming the student at an early age to think of, and if 
possible apprehend, this great generalisation, for in truth it 
forms the appropriate supplement to and completion 
of the ordinary laws of motion, and should be studied 
along with these ; otherwise the student may be led to 
conceive that when two equally massive inelastic balls 
strike one another with equal and opposite velocities, the 
result is #z/, and to entertain many similar absurdities. 
And inasmuch as the laws of motion find their way into 
introductory treatises on natural philosophy, so should the 
laws of energy find a place in these. In the study of such 
laws, the student cannot too soon become accustomed to 
those technical terms which are necessary to give accurate 
expression to his conception ; and we are glad the author 
has introduced the terms £znetic and fotential, although 
we think that on one or two occasions he has used the 
word force where energy would have been preferable. 
Sicilian Fungi.—/unghi Siciliant. Per Guiseppe Inzenga. 
Centuria Prima. 4to. pp. 95, with 8 coloured plates, 
price tos. (Palermo, 1869. London: Williams and 
Norgate.) 
A WorRK which will be very welcome to English fungolo- 
gists, and especially to those who are interested in fungo- 
phagy. We have here descriptions of 100 of the more 
conspicuous Fungi of Sicily, with coloured plates of some 
of the more important or newly-described species, an 
account of their localities, and of the uses to which they 
are applied; and, what is of no small importance in a 
work on Fungi, a list of the synonyms belonging to each 
species. Sig. Inzenga has paid special attention to the 
economic properties of the Sicilian Fungi; among this first 
century he enumerates 30 species, which he can vouch for as 
being perfectly wholesome, more or less delicate in flavour, 
and easily distinguished from any noxious species, many 
of them being largely used as articles of food by the 
Sicilian peasantry, and sold in the markets of Palermo 
and Messina; while only eight are named as _ being 
absolutely poisonous, or so suspicious as to be prudently 
rejected. Our common mushroom, which is forbidden to 
be sold in the markets of Rome, is freely eaten in Sicily, 
though not so much esteemed as several other species. 
A. W. B. 
The Microscope and its Applications —Das Mikroskop 
und seine Anwendung. Von Dr. L. Dippel. Zweiter 
Theil. Anwendung des Mikroskopes auf die Histi- 
ologie der Gewachse. 8vo. pp. 328, with 188 wood- 
cuts, and 6 lithographic plates, price 12s. (Brunswick, 
1869. London: Williams and Norgate). 
THE first part of Dr. Dippel’s treatise on the microscope 
was devoted to a description of its different forms, with 
practical directions for its use and for the preparation of 
specimens ; in the present volume we have an account of 
its application to the observation of the minute parts of 
plants. It is divided into four sections. The first consists 
of investigations of cells as distinct organisms, including 
the cell-membrane, the cell-nucleus, the cell-fluid, pro- 
toplasm, and salts; the formation of cells; and their trans- 
formation into tubes and vessels. The second part relates 
to the more complicated tissues of the higher cryptogamia 
and of the phanerogamia. The third records the results 
of investigations on the elementary organs and tissues in 
polarised light. The fourth part is occupied by an account 
of the anatomical structure or comparative anatomy of 
the different compound organs, the stem, root, leaves, and 
organs of reproduction, With this volume the work 
closes for the present, but an additional one is promised 
at some future time on animal histiology. It contains a 
clear record of the present state of microscopical science 
as applied to the minute structures of the vegetable king- 
dom, free from those abstruse speculations which often 
fill so large a portion of continental works of this descrip- 
tion. The illustrations, both wood-cuts and lithographs, 
are of the excellence to which we are accustomed in 
German scientific works, and to each section is appended 
a list of all the important works and papers already pub- 
lished on the subject. A. W. B 
The Physical Phenomena of Life.—Les Phénoménes Phy- 
sigues dela Vie. Par J. Gavairet, &c. (Paris: Masson 
et Fils. London: Williams and Norgate.) 
WE do not quite see why this little book should have been 
written. It is too technical to be useful as a popular 
volume ; it is too diffuse, and yet too incomplete, to be a 
text-book; and it has neither the critical grasp nor the 
originality of an independent essay. There is a grand 
opening for some one to gather up all the recent advances 
in physiological physics, and weld them up together into 
a single book. When we took this volume in hand, we 
hoped to find something of the kind ; but it really consists 
of little more than a straggling discourse on animal heat, 
and another on muscular contraction. MoE. 
