Reviews — Yeats s Natural History of Commerce. 533 



The Palgeontologist, Mr. E. Etheridge, reports that 7,187 speci- 

 mens, illustrating most of the formations, have been carefully 

 examined and determined during the year. 



In the Mining Eecord Office, many new plans and sections have 

 been obtained, much information has been furnished to the public, 

 and every effort has been made by Mr. Robert Hunt, the keeper of 

 Mining Eecords, and his assistants, to produce the mineral statistics 

 in the most reliable condition. 



Dr. Erankland reports that the Chemical Laboratory has been 

 overcrowded with earnest and attentive students, their number has 

 during the year exceeded that recorded in any previous one, and the 

 limited accommodation has necessitated refusal of admission to many. 

 In the Metallurgical Laboratory, under Dr. Percy, there has likewise 

 been a marked increase in the number of students over that of the 

 previous year. 



III. — The Natueal History of Commerce ; with a Copious List 

 OF Commercial Terms, etc. By John Yeats, LL.D., F.G.S., 

 F.E.G.S., etc. ; assisted by several scientific gentlemen. London : 

 Cassell, Fetter, & Galpin, 1870. 8vo. pp. 436. 



SIGNS are not wanting, in the publications of the day, of the near 

 approach of a new era in National Education, which not only 

 promises to promote a great advance in all branches of secular 

 instruction hitherto in vogue, but even encourages us to hope that 

 the Natural Sciences will be admitted to form a part of the curri- 

 culum both of our public and private schools. 



Nor can anything tend more effectually to promote this much- 

 desired object than the publication of such books as the present 

 volume, in which is set forth the advantages to be derived by the 

 mercantile community from a general knowledge of the elements 

 and fundamental principles of Natural Science, when applied even to 

 the ordinary concerns of trade and everyday life. 



Dr. Yeats shows that a merchant may be a more able and a more 

 successful merchant if he is acquainted with the Natural History of 

 the Eaw Materials of Commerce in which he deals. 



He ought before he enters the Counting-house or the Manufactory 

 to possess a general knowledge of the raw products of the various 

 countries of our earth, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, and 

 the modes of their occurrence ; nor will this suffice, for he should 

 also be acquainted with the properties possessed by each, and the 

 uses to which they are applicable. Strange as it may seem, this 

 systematized knowledge of matter and its properties, long ago recog- 

 nized as a part of the education of every youth in Germany and 

 elsewhere on the Continent, has scarcely received any attention at 

 all in this country. 



Much that is contained in Dr. Yeats's book, although so full of 

 interest to the general reader, is beyond the scope of this Magazine, 

 but on turning to Chapter iii., entitled " The Effects of Geology on 

 the Industry of the British People," we find at once the text for an 

 ample and orthodox discourse. 



