40 



NA TURE 



\_Nov. 20, 1873 



a member of the Berwickshre Club), Mr. T. B. Lloyd 

 Baker (the well-known originator of the " Reformatory 

 System ''), Dr. Daubeny, of Oxford, Hugh Strickland, and 

 some others, who met " at the Black Bull Inn, in Birdlip, 

 a village on the summit of the Cotteswold range over- 

 looking the vales of Gloucester and Worcester, about six 

 miles south of Cheltenham, and seven south-west of Glou- 

 cester." There the club was inaugurated, Mr. Baker being 

 elected the first president. " The labours of the club have 

 been most conspicuous in geological investigation, for 

 which the district offers such a rich field. Many of the 

 members have, by their recorded observations, attained 

 to high distinction. In the words of the president, ' It 

 will suffice to mention the names of Daubeny, Strickland, 

 Woodward, Maskelyne, Wright, Moore, Buckman, Jones, 

 Lycett, Brodie, Synionds, Maw, and Etheridge, all mem- 

 bers of the club, to recall at once names of writers well 

 known in the scientific annals of the county, and of whom 

 some have by their works obtained a more than Euro- 

 pean reputation.' " 



The Woolhope Club, in Bedfordshire, whose publi- 

 cations are also well known as among the most valuable 

 of those of provincial societies, was formed in 1S51, and 

 derived its name from the mass of Silurian rocks described 

 by Sir Roderick Murchison as the " Woolhope Valley of 

 Elevation." This club and the Cotteswold have occa- 

 sional joint field days, and their example is followed by 

 several other societies, and might, we think, with advantage 

 be followed much more extensively than it is. 



The Worcestershire Naturalists' Club originated in the 

 same year as the Cotteswold, followed the year after by 

 the Huddersfield Na:turalists' Society, and in 1S49 by the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Club. Besides the four field-clubs 

 mentioned, other six societies originated in this decade, 

 most of them distinctly scientific, including the Torquay 

 Natural History Society, the Bristol Microscopic Society, 

 and the Isle of Wight Philosophical and Scientific So- 

 ciety. 



In the decade between 1850 and 1S60, twenty-two 

 local scientific societies were founded, of which six. 

 teen are field-clubs, including such well-known names as 

 the Woolhope, just mentioned, the London Geologists' 

 Association, the Liverpool Naturalists' Field Society, the 

 Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, and 

 the Malvern Field Club. 



(7a be continued^ 



HARTWIG'S "SEA AND ITS WONDERS" 



The Sea and its living Wonders. A popular account of 

 the Marvels of the Deep, and of the progress of Mari- 

 time Discovery from the earliest ages to the present 

 time. By Dr. G. Hartwig. Fourth edition, enlarged 

 and improved, with numerous woodcuts and eight 

 chromo.xylographic plates. (London: Longmans, 1873.) 



NO other evidence is needed beyond the publication of 

 the fourth edition of this work to prove the de- 

 mand there is in Great Britain for this kind of literature. 

 The reading public want to know what about the sea, and 

 all that is in it ; and, in their eagerness to know, they buy 

 even such books as this. When will scientific men turn 

 their attention towards teaching the public as far as it can 



be taught, in a correct, yet popular manner, the rudiments 

 of biological science ? When they do the time for such 

 books as the one we must now notice will have passed 

 away, and the resources of the great publishing firm who 

 issue it will be engaged on more truly solid and im- 

 portant work. As an indication of what we mean, let us 

 contrast the popular works of Hartwig or Figuier with 

 Ouatrefages' " Souvenirs d'une Naturaliste," or Gosse's 

 " Devonshire Rambles ; " or let the reader imagine what 

 a delightful work the one before us would have been if 

 written by, say Huxley, AUman, Gtinther, or Wyville 

 Thomson. But to return to this volume, which consists 

 of three parts ; (i) the Physical Geography of the Sea ; 

 (2) the Inhabitants of the Sea ; (3) the Progress of 

 Maritime Discovery. The latter part commences with 

 the maritime discoveries of the Phrenicians, and ends 

 with a reference of sixteen lines in length to the numerous 

 scientific voyages of circumnavigation of the present 

 century. 



Before proceeding to very briefly notice Parts 1. and II., 

 we have to object most strongly to the woodcuts not being 

 drawn to any scale ; thus, on page loi the Rorqual is 

 figured as rather smaller than the Herring, while, on the 

 same page, and just above these figures, will be found a 

 Whale Louse, and a Lepas represented as bigger than 

 either. Surely figures like these must terribly mislead the 

 ordinary reader, who, though he may possibly have some 

 notion of the size of a herring, cannot be supposed to 

 be aware of the dimensions of the whale's parasites. 

 Many of the woodcuts are very good, but several of them 

 are bad, and the majority of them are not seen in this 

 volume for the first time ; this we would not so much ob- 

 ject to if the woodcuts were selected to illustrate the text 

 and not, as is too often the case m this work, the text written 

 so as to make some forced allusion to the woodcuts. 



Though the Dugong is illustrated by copying the 

 woodcut from Tennent's work on Ceylon, yet scarcely a 

 word is to be found about it in the chapter on the Cetacea. 

 The Tailor birds' nest is figured on page 143, but no allu- 

 sion whatever is made to it in the text. The great Auk is 

 figured, and in the accompanying explanation is said to 

 congregate in vast flocks on the rocky islets and head- 

 lands of the Northern Coasts. Surely a little careful 

 supervision would have prevented such mistakes as these 

 occurring. But leaving the subject of the woodcuts, we 

 come to consider the letterpress ; and here, too, not only 

 a more careful supervision, but some more acquaintance 

 with the subject would have been desirable. Why, among 

 the Fishes, should the Anchovy have five lines devoted to 

 it, when not one word is to be found about that equally 

 important little fish, the Sardine ? and surely half a page 

 would not have been too much to devote to that interest- 

 ing living wonder of the sea, the Whitebait. It would be 

 an easy, but withal a useless task to point out other errors 

 of omission and commission among the other classes. 



Among the Corals and Sponges the author had enough 

 to guide him, for he has borrowed wholesale the really 

 beautiful woodcuts illustrating Prof Greene's Manuals ; 

 if he had borrowed equally largely from their text, he 

 would have made this the most trustworthy portion of his 

 book. 



No notice is taken of such important new forms as 

 Rhizocrinus, or Brissinga, nor do we find mention under 



