222 
NATURE 
= - = 7 
s } 
[Fuly 9, 1885 
matter), and to every page its own private “ prop.” These 
are merits which the editor can rightly appropriate to 
himself (which he does in his Preface). 
On the dexter page, z ordine longo, come the “ refer- 
ences,” saving the pupil the horrid nuisance of turning 
back (as he lies prone on the ground) to see what “ def. 
15” is, and this kind (?) action is carried on to Prop. 48. 
So that if this one definition had obtruded itself into each 
proposition, it would have been printed forty-eight times 
and ever would it have greeted the student with a cheery 
“ Here we are again !” 
But this is a fault—unless all the first book could be 
printed on one side of a not too unwieldy page—which 
Mr. Arnett’s book must be content to share with our 
“ Revised Bible ” references to such words as “slave” for 
the A.V. “ servant.” 
Below the “ references ” come a very copious collection 
of riders. We have looked at the ludicrous side of 
matters, but it would be doing Mr. Arnett a very great 
injustice if we confined our attention to all the con- 
veniences he has got together to ease the work of this 
class of students, of whom (horres cimus referentes) we 
have had experience in time past, in getting up this 
particular subject. 
Throughout there is plenty of judicious explanation 
and illustration: the theorems are grouped in sections of 
subject-matter, as direct and converse theorems, so are 
the problems in sections, and there is a genealogical chart 
for the first twenty-six propositions. In fact nothing is 
scamped. 
To return to the dexter page, the riders are exceedingly 
varied and well-grouped, and are calculated to draw out 
the intelligence of a thoughtful pupil if such an one uses 
the book. 
If the first book of the glorious “ Elements” must be 
edited at such length, we commend Mr. Arnett’s edition 
to those who require such “ props” as are here supplied, 
feeling convinced that if they cannot master the “ props” 
with them, then the study of geometry is not their proper 
work. 
Botany. A Specific Subject of Instruction in Public 
Elementary Schools. By Vincent T. Murché. (Lon- 
don: Blackie and Son, 1885.) 
THE preface to this little volume states that “the three 
books which form this series are emphatically children’s 
books, and not text-books for South Kensington stud- 
ents.” As long as the author confines himself to that 
part of the science which is, in our opinion, best adapted 
to the mind of a child, his “ chatty, experimental method” 
may very probably gain the attention of youthful readers. 
The first forty-eight pages, which he devotes to external 
morphology, are unpretentious and successful. We may 
well wish that the author had confined himself to external 
morphology ; but he launches out into anatomy and 
physiology—branches of the science which are ill-adapted 
at best to the mind of a child: in this middle section of 
the book his success leaves him when he states that “ the 
epidermis of the orange consists . . . of a thick peel ;” 
that “there is in every plant .. . a peculiar vital fluid 
which is the source of all its solid parts;” this, we 
are told, is found in spring “in an active state be- 
tween the bark and the wood. In this condition it 
is called camdbium/” It is also stated (p. 58) that the 
cells of the pith “form the channel by which all the fluids 
absorbed by the roots are carried upwards towards the 
leaves and flowers,” while the part played in the transfer 
of fluids by the lignified walls is systematically ignored, 
and it is expressly stated on p. 78 that “there can be no 
passage of fluids up or down, except by the process of 
osmosis.” When the author leaves this part of the 
subject, on which he is, to say the least, not very sound, 
his success again returns: he describes simply and 
clearly the chief characters of the flower and fruit; but 
concludes with a condensed and not very satisfactory 
treatment of some of the lower forms of vegetable life. 
It is unfortunate that a book, parts of which might 
prove so useful, should be disfigured by serious blunders ; 
why should not the proof-sheets, in cases like the present, 
be submitted to some competent authority, who would 
easily sift out the grosser errors? FIO5B 
Fournal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 
Second Series. Vol. 21, Part I. (London: John Murray, 
1885.) 
THIS journal fully maintains the high character it has 
acquired under the able editorship of Mr. H. M. Jenkins. 
The part under notice is a bulky volume of nearly five 
hundred pages, and includes some eight or ten original 
papers by well-known agricultural writers, besides the 
always valuable annual reports of the entomologist, 
chemist, and botanist to the Society. Prof. Wortley Axe 
reports on a recent outbreak of abortion in Lincolnshire 
ewe-flocks, and Prof. Robertson on anemia in sheep. Mr. 
S. B. S. Druce, Barrister-at-Law, has a significant paper 
on the alteration in the distribution of the agricultural 
population of England and Wales between the returns of 
the census of 1871 and 1881. Dr. J. H. Gilbert, F.R.S., 
contributes a sympathetic memoir of the late Dr. Augustus 
Voelcker, the paper being accompanied by a graphic 
portrait. Sir J. B. Lawes, F.R.S., writing on sugar as a 
food for stock, concludes that even at its present low 
price, sugar does not appear to be an economical sub- 
stance to use when brought into comparison with other 
foods which are available to the farmer. Mr. H. Ling 
Roth writes on Franco-Swiss dairy farming, and Mr. W. 
Little on the agriculture of Glamorganshire, while the 
longest contribution to the curreut part is the first instal- 
ment of a report on Canadian agriculture, by Prof. Fream. 
The author confines his remarks chiefly to the prairie 
region of British North America, and after discussing the 
physical and geological features of this vast region, the 
character of its soils, the composition and value of its 
native herbage, and the peculiarities of its climate, he 
proceeds to give an exhaustive description of the agri- 
culture of Manitoba and the North-West Territories, and 
concludes with an expression of his opinions as to the 
probable future of prairie farming. The moderate and 
impartial spirit in which this paper is written will enhance 
its value to readers on both sides of the Atlantic, and lead 
them to look forward to the publication of the second 
part, in which it is proposed to deal with the agriculture 
of the Eastern Provinces of the Dominion. In the course 
of his inquiries, Prof. Fream appears to have discovered 
in “goose wheat” a novelty both of botanical and agri- 
cultural interest. This part of the /owvna/ also contains 
a report on the field and feeding experiments at Woburn, 
by Dr. J. Augustus Voelcker, in which the author gives 
evidence of the same attention to accuracy and matters of 
detail as were so eminently characteristic of his late 
father, to whose vacant post as consulting chemist to the 
Society he was recently elected by the Council. 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
[ Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to veturn, 
or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 
No notice ts taken of anonymous communications, 
[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 
as short as possible. The pressure on his space ts so great 
that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 
of communications containing interesting and novel facts.) 
“‘ An Earthquake Invention ” 
WITH reference to the correspondence on this subject in this 
week’s NATURE (vol. xxxii. p. 213), will you permit me to state 
that the gentleman to whose paper in the British Association 
Report for 1884 Prof. Piazzi Smyth refers has long been a 
