Aug. 24, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



18- 



that in the north the glacial period is now waning, while 

 in the Antarctic region the glacial period has not long ago 

 set in. Others contend that the northern hemisphere 

 reached its greatest warmth some five centuries ago, and 

 is now on its way back to a glacial condition. 



Management of Accumulators. By Sir David Salomons, 

 Bart. Fourth edition, revised and enlarged. 

 London : Whittaker and Co. 



We gave unqualified praise to this book in our recent 

 notice of the third edition, both because it contained a 

 great deal of useful information upon a subject loo little 

 understood even by many electrical engineers, and be- 

 cause it filled a want, as has been amply proved by its 

 rapid sale. We hoped in the present edition, which is 

 said to have been revised as well as enlarged, to find 

 that the serious faults not only in literary style, but in 

 grammar, would have been corrected. Faults, such as 

 those which meet the eye even on the first page, may be 

 pardoned in the early attempt of one who is wrapped 

 up with the importance of the information he has to 

 convey ; but are inexcusable in a fourth edition which 

 " has undergone a thorough revision." 



We hope to find improvements in future editions, and 

 in the meantime, despite one or two technical statements 

 of doubtful accuracy, it is on the whole an extremely 

 useful handbook. 



My Microscope and Some Objects from my Cabinet. By 

 A Quekett Club Man. London : Roper and 

 Drowley. 



From the advertising pages at the end of this book 

 we learn that the " Quekett Club Man " is also the author 

 of a work entitled " My Telescope." It will doubtless 

 surprise our readers to find one and the same man fully 

 familiar with two instruments used in such very different 

 sciences, and being at once a microscopist and a " teles- 

 copist." 



The Quekett Club Man has only eighty small pages 

 to devote to his subject, and is hence obliged to consult 

 brevity. But we fear that a reader who is " under the 

 cloud of innocence on the subject," will find some little 

 difficulty in understanding the first section, entitled 

 " The Instrument." He will be apt to ask, what is this 

 or the other accessory apparatus, and how is it to be 

 used ? 



The author's caution against buying a microscope 

 without the advice of an expert, and against low-priced 

 instruments, is very sound. The number of bad micro- 

 scopes now made is something frightful, and frightful, 

 too, is the bewilderment into which they may lead the 

 tyro. 



In the chapter on " Diatoms " the " Quekett Club Man " 

 mentions an " irreverent friend " who when shown such 

 an object exclaimed, " What a waste of beautiful work ! 

 for the chances must have been a million to one that no 

 one ever saw it." 



But such thought is even more unscientific than 

 irreverent, since it involves the old delusive notion that 

 everything exists for man's use and gratification. 



The following is a somewhat curious sentence : " The 

 great guns of the microscopical world differ on the ques- 

 tion as the poles from the antipodes." We scarcely can 

 agree with the author in the following passage ; speaking 

 of a geometrical spider (Epeira) he says, "Suddenly be- 

 hind him a fly gets entangled ; as by electricity, the news 

 is conveyed to him, and with the quickness of thought 



he turns, darts, and seizes the intruder." Now, unless the 

 prey ensnared is comparatively large, the spider has to 

 apply her feet in succession to different radii of the web, 

 that she may judge by the vibrations in what direction to 

 rush. For despite their eight eyes, the sight of spiders 

 is not remarkably good. 



The little work before us will doubtless call increased 

 attention to the value of the microscope as an instrument 

 of research, and on this probable result the author is to 

 be congratulated. But we do not hope that it may serve 

 to augment .the number of that very common class of 

 microscopists who do not intend to devote themselves to 

 any science, but prepare and accumulate a collection of 

 whatever is small enough to be gazed upon through a 

 microscope. 



ROMAN BATH AND RECENT 

 DISCOVERIES— I. 



WHEN the British Association visited Bath in 1864 

 all that was known of the Roman baths and of 

 other remains of the Roman city was to be gathered 

 from Camden and from Leland,with such accompanying 

 information as could be found in Horsley's " Britannia 

 Romana " and in the works of Dr. Mugrave, Dr. Guidott, 

 Dr. Sutherland, and Dr. Lucas. 



Warner had recorded all that he could collect in his 

 "History of Bath," and more fully in his illustrations of 

 Roman antiquities discovered at Bath, published in 

 1797. The remains preserved in the Literary and 

 Scientific Institution had been carefully catalogued by 

 Mr. Lonsdale, with the assistance of Mr. Hunter, who 

 resided in Bath for some years. From time to time, as 

 the foundations of new buildings were cleared and the 

 level of the ancient city was reached, fine tesselated 

 pavements were laid bare, and have been preserved in 

 situ. These can now be seen under the Mineral 

 Water Hospital, the Blue-coat School, and the United or 

 Casualty Hospital. 



Mr. Lysons, in the second part of his " Reliquiae 

 Romanae," has illustrated and described the remains 

 found under the present Pump-room when that build- 

 ing was erected, and has given conjectural restorations 

 from fragments of sculpture then discovered. 



Carter had also delineated some of the antiquities. 



The beautiful bronze head found in digging a sewer 

 in Stall Street, in 1727, had attracted much attention, 

 and was for some time preserved in the Guildhall, but 

 has since been removed to the Literary and Scientific In- 

 stitution. It is generally supposed to be that of a statue 

 dedicated to Minerva, who is known from Solinus to have 

 been the goddess presiding over the hot springs. To 

 this writer we are indebted for an account of the city 

 in Roman times ; for his description can apply to none 

 other in Britain, and his account has been quite con- 

 firmed by past and recent discoveries. 



Discoveries made in 1755 had brought to light detached 

 portions of the grand system of baths underneath the 

 houses of the present city, and from observations then 

 made conjectural restorations had been given of build- 

 ings which must have reached from the present abbey 

 church to the Pump-room and beyond it. In the year that 

 the British Association met there (1864) was published an 

 account of the Roman antiquities up to that date. This 

 work, entitled " Aqua; Solis, or Notices of Roman Bath," 

 is now out of print. 



