SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



53 



NOTICES BY JOHN T. CARRINGTON. 



Essa) s f George John Romanes, M.A..LL.D., F. R.S. 

 Edited by C. Lloyd Morgan. 253 pp. Svo. (Lon- 

 don. New York and Bombay : Longmans, Green 

 and Co., 1S07.I Price 6s. 



This is a new and cheaper edition of the collected 

 essays of the late Professor Romanes. In gather- 

 :m from the pages of various magazines and 

 reviews as few alterations as possible have been 

 made. Nothing has been added or cut out ; only 

 evident misprints adjusted. In these Essays, as 

 might be expected from the sources whence they 

 come, Dr. Romanes appears in his best popular 

 style. They are ten in number and treat of varied 

 subjects, such as " Primitive Natural History," 

 "Darwinian Theory of Instinct," "Man and 

 Brute," "Mental Differences between Men and 

 Women," " Recreation," " Hypnotism " and " The 

 Muzzling Orders for Dogs." All are of interest, for 

 Romanes could not be otherwise when writing for 

 the public There being so much variety leaves 

 no room for disappointment, whatever be the taste 

 of the intelligent reader. 



Icoustics : Lessons in Elementary Practical 

 Physics. By C. L. Barnes, M.A., F.C.S. Vol. iii., 

 part i, •• Practical Acoustics." 214 pp. Svo, illus- 

 trated by 82 figures. (London and New York : 

 Macmillan and Co., 1S97.) Price 4s. 6d. 



This book is the first part of Volume iii. of the 

 "Elementary Practical Physics " series, begun in 

 1885 at Owens College, Manchester, by the late 

 Professor Balfour Stewart and Mr. W. \V. Haldane 

 Gee. By the death of the former author, and the 

 transference of Mr. Gee's labours elsewhere, the 

 series fell into abeyance for some years. We have 

 now a new work issued in the series, which still 

 bsars the names of Stewart and Gee, that is 

 a credit to its predecessors. In it we find the 

 study of sound directed with care and judgment, 

 and facts of more recent discovery fully explained. 

 S'jund of nearly every kind is treated, from its 

 simplest origin to the more ob3truse and complex 

 its phenomena. The text is plainly 

 written for even the least initiated, who by aid of 

 the numerous diagrams cannot fail to follow the 

 author as he proceeds. 



The 1 Practical Wot Bj Lewis 



Wright 172 pp. Svo, illustrated by 4 plates and 



72 fig !on aid New York: Macmillan 



Price tv 6d. 



At first sight thin bxA may be passed as 



another popular account of the Rdntgen X rays ; 



t hat it is a 

 conci ■•.'■ '<il and a prac- 



tical v ■■ thai 



■A acquaintance with radiography is 

 common, a 

 >n all tha eel In 



■ lit": :it tli' 



mencement, fran< 



• 1 man, 

 . \\n: reality 

 Still, of the it 



effects under specified circumstances we here may 

 learn much valuable information in the easiest 

 possible manner. We are led on by the author 

 step by step in this little book, until a very complete 

 fund of modern knowledge of the subject may be 

 attained. The diagrams are of recent date, and 

 the book is well produced. 



The Concise Knowledge Natural History. Edited 

 by Alfred H. Miles, 7S7 pp. large crown Svo, 

 with 530 original illustrations. (London : Hutchin- 

 son and Co., 1897.) Price 5s. 



This is one of those remarkable efforts of 

 publishers which have in modern times astonished 

 the literary world. It is a co-operative work by 

 Messrs. R. Lydekker, F.R.S. (Mammals, Reptiles, 

 Amphibia, Fishes), R. Bowdler Sharpe, LL.D. 

 (Birds), W. F. Kirby, F.L.S. (Insects), W. 

 Garstang, M.A. (Lancelet, etc.), B. B. Woodward, 

 F.L.S. (Mollusca), F. A. Bather, M.A. (Starfish, 

 etc.), R. Kirkpatrick (Moss Animals), R. I. Pocock 

 (Worms), and H. M. Bernard, M.A. (Corals and 

 Animalcules), and the illustrations are by J. 

 Keulemans, F. H. Micheal, Ernald W. Miles, 

 Frank C. Aldworth, and others. A better title for 

 the book would have been " A Concise Knowledge 

 of Zoology," for it only deals with that department 

 of natural history. Of course, when so much is 

 crammed into so small a space, the conciseness 

 becomes very apparent. One cannot expect any- 

 thing more than a sketchy account of the general 

 subject. This gets more apparent as we turn 

 to some of the later pages ; but for those who use 

 this work for its proper purpose, as a dictionary, it 

 is useful. For instance, refer to the excellent 

 index, and turn to "Helix" ; then refer to page 643, 

 at the top of which stands "Snails and Slugs"; 

 the whole of the large and important family of 

 ' Helicidae ' is dismissed in the following five 

 lines: "The Helicidae comprise an enormous 

 number of forms : high-spired shells, as in the 

 genus Bulimus, which is confined to South America 

 and the West Indies ; or, as in the gaudily-painted 

 shells of the Philippine genus Hcliocostyla and our 

 own Cochlicclla ; shells with short spire, or no spire 

 at all, as in the big genus Helix, of which the 

 garden snail is an example." It is for the general 

 naturalist, who is not a specialist, and indeed for 

 the specialist who desires to know something of 

 other things in nature outside his own group. 

 The figures are seldom good, though generally 

 sufficient ; but some are so wanting in clearness 

 of detail as to be of little use. 



The Dictionary of Photography: For the Amateur 



and Professional Photographer. By E. J. Wall, 



F.R.P.S. Seventh edition. Revised and edited 



by Til .MA.s Bolas, F.C.S. , F.I.C. 632 pp. 8vo. 



Illustrated by 122 figures. (London : I-Iazell, 



Watson and Viney, Limited, 1897.) Price 7s. Gd. 



In a comparatively recent science, like that of 



raphy, we may expect numbers of new 



words im irporated in each new dictionary devoted 



to the subjei I Thru it is so, is shown by the fact 



that this new edition of Wall's well known 



>ary has required 150 additional pages and 



hea lings, with many addil i mal 



diagram., to bring ii up to date. Some of the 



ted in encyi lopaedlc Btyle, for 



instant e, " Portraiture " 01 1 upies ii teen pa 1 



1 thii ty page 1, " Bromide Paper," 



pagi "Enlarging, no less than thirty- 



f'.ur page - 11 thus bei imea 1 vorl ol 1 efei em e 



foi the photographer, to whom the lati ■ edition 



.ity. 



