SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



26-- 



N0TICES BY JOHN T. CARRINGTON. 



By Rcadside and River. By H. Mead Briggs, 

 204 pp. Svo, illustrated by frontispiece. (London : 

 Elliot Stock. 1S97.) Price 3s. 6d. 



The sub-title of this work is "Gleanings from 

 Nature's Fields." ard, like the author's former 

 work. "By Tangled Paths." the book must rank 

 as one on country lore, having no pretensions to 

 science. The work is one which will please people 

 who love country 

 rambles and 

 meditations in- 

 spired thereby 

 We reproduce 

 the frontispiece 

 of this prettily 

 printed book. 



Somt Phen 

 of Nature l-iy 

 James Walker. 



2J2 pp. SVO. 



(London : Swan, 

 Sonnenschein 

 and Co.. Limited. 

 1898.) 3 s. Od. 



Thissmall work 

 is devoted to the 

 consideration of 

 certain physical 

 factors connected 

 with Cosmos. 

 It deals with 

 matter* electri- 

 cal, with motion. 

 friction, comets, 

 light and heat. 

 V a r t of t h e 

 material of the 

 work was writK-n 

 in the form of 

 letters to a news- 

 paper, the rest 

 being an elabora- 



■ ■ • 



suggested by the 

 author, uhich 



may be do n h-isurely reading his ex- 



planations In his introduction, he describes it 

 as being "the existence of an all universal, all- 

 extendiog throughout the whole 

 material 01 '-s, the 



cause of all change in. and the origin "t 



Liter '1 here 



and apart from mat- no mailer 



emtir . 



■t us nature 

 • amc to exist, no 

 man's mental faculty is capable 

 bending 



llumamta, jn i 



1 is 



This is one of the Humanitarian League publica- 

 tions, being volume iii. of the " Cruelties of Civiliza- 

 tion." It is a work dealing chiefly with social 

 subjects, and is therefore beyond our province for 

 criticism. The contents include "The Sweating 

 System," "The Gallows and the Lash," "The 

 Shadow of the Sword," " Public Control of Hos- 

 pitals," and some other essays on like subjects. 

 There is an old aphorism that the people of the 

 world are made up of all sorts ; therefore there 

 must be some who will take pleasure in reading 

 these essays. We find them, however, the emana- 

 tions of writers who seek to swallow a camel while 

 'straining at a gnat. Had civilization been con- 

 ducted from the beginning on the lines advocated 

 in these pages we fear some races of mankind 

 would have long since died out of their own efl'ete- 

 ness. Such writers appear incapable of seeing 

 more than one side of a subject, and that usually 



the sentimental 

 one. To those 

 who feel it a duty 

 to read these 

 Essays we would 

 recommend a 

 course of Charles 

 Kingsley to fol- 

 low as a healthy 

 antidote. 



An Illustrated 

 Manual of British 

 Birds. By 

 Howard Saun- 

 ders, F.L.S., 

 F . Z . S . 2nd 

 edition, revised. 

 Farts ii. and iii. 

 (London: Gurney 

 and Jackson, 

 1897 - 9S.) is. 

 each part. 



We have al- 

 ready referred to 

 the re - issue of 

 this book (ante 

 page 205) ; unlike 

 some other new 

 editions of orni- 

 thological works, 

 Mr. Howard 

 Saunders has 

 carefully revised 

 and brought up 

 to date, with 

 additions, what 

 is know n o f 

 Itriiish birds The two numbers before us con- 

 clude the Warblers, proceed with the Accentors, 



The blocks are in 

 beautiful condition, tbe illustrations being quite 

 as sharp as wen- those ol tl"- firsl edition The 

 ■.■.ill be 1 omplete in twenty pai ts, and 

 will then form, for years to come, the i» 1 manual 

 within reach "I all persons interested in our wild 

 birds. 



What i 1 •" By 1 rhdrricx Hovi ndi . 



1 . . pp medium Svo, 



illustrated. ' bapman and Hall, Ltd , 



■ 



Had thi 1 111 'I to thepublii a 1 entui | 



or two ago H is probable Ihe effluvia from the 



I iln- authoi nielli have 



bvei mlth field, 1 le 



Tks River Koah. 

 R ndtidt ami Rhtr," by II. Mead Briggi 



