﻿Book Notices, 191 



Note. 



The British Medical Journal states that a new and 

 unexpected agency is having a most beneficial effect 

 in contributing to the abatement of the smoke nuisance in 

 London. The relative clearness of the London atmosphere 

 within the last twelve months has been plainly apparent, 

 and the smoke cloud which obscures the London atmos- 

 phere appears to be progressively lightening. Mr. Ernest 

 Hart, Chairman of the Smoke Abatement Exhibition in 

 London, frequently pointed out that the greatest contri- 

 butors to the smoke cloud of London were the small 

 grates of the enormous number of houses of the poor, and 

 a great deal of ingenuity had been exhausted with 

 relatively little success in endeavoring to abate this 

 nuisance. The use of gas lires was urgently recommended, 

 but had hitherto been difficult, owing to its cost and the 

 want of suitable apparatus. The rapid and very extensive 

 growth of the use of gas for cooking as well as lighting 

 purposes by the working classes, due to the introduction 

 of the "penny-in-the-slol" system, is working a great 

 revolution in the London atmosphere. During the last 

 four years the South London Gas Company alone has 

 fixed 50,000 slot metres and nearly 38,000 small cooking 

 stoves in the houses of the workingmen. 



Book Notices. 



Appleton's School Physics. (American Book Company.) 

 This handsome vohime of 544 pp. is the joint production of Professors 

 Mayer, Nipher, Hohnan and Crocker, under the literary superinten- 

 dence of Professor Quackenbos. It is beautifully printed, various 

 kinds of type being most judiciously employed, and profusely adorned 

 with admirable illustrations specially prepared for this book. One 

 looks in vain for the familiar cuts that have done duty in so many of 

 its predecessors. Altogether it is most attractive to the student and 

 pleasant to work in. 



