352 Reviews. [April, 



" One of the fungal diseases of corn, long and widely known, has 

 obtained amongst agriculturalists different appellations, such as smut, 

 dust-brand, bunt-ear, black-ball, and chimney-sweeper, all referring, 

 more or less, to the blackish, soot-like dust with which the infected 

 and abortive ears are covered. Wheat, barley, oats, rye, and many 

 grasses are subject to its attacks. No one who has passed through a 

 field of standing corn after its greenness has passed away, but before 

 it is fully ripe, can have failed to notice, here and there, a spare, lean- 

 looking ear completely blackened with a coating of minute dust, which 

 comes off easily when touched. Every granule of this minute 

 powder constitutes a spore capable of germination. One square inch 

 of surface contains about 8,000,000 of these spores. The plant which 

 yields this minute gem is the Ustilago segetum, or smut of the standing 

 corn." 



The work is rather deficient in lucid order. There is a want of 

 a separate table of contents and of an alphabetical index. The 

 arrangement of the whole work might be improved, and the facts 

 might be so given as to lead a beginner from one step to another 

 until he fully masters the subject. As it is, we fear that many a tyro 

 will be unable to cope with the author, and, while he may carry away 

 a great deal of useful information, yet he will not have acquired a 

 solid standing in the study of Cryptogamic Fungi. The style of the 

 writer is often involved and stiff, and wants the ease which is so essen- 

 tial in scientific treatises. The Appendix contains a classification and 

 description of the Fungi contained in the volume, and an explanation 

 of the Plates. The latter should have been inserted along with each 

 plate in the volume, so as to be more easily consulted by the reader. 



PAMPHLET. 



Fob and Against Tobacco.* 



The title of this Essay is greatly in its favour, for although enough 

 has been written upon the use of Tobacco, it has all, since King 

 James's well-known " counterblaste," been upon one side, and that the 

 unpopular one ; and for the most part it has been written in ignorance 

 and prejudice. But we learn from the present paper that there is also 

 something to be advanced in its favour, and Dr. Eichardson's well- 

 known ability, together with the fact that his research is based upon 

 original observation, will cause his opinion upon the debated subject 

 to be highly valued. 



The products of the decomposition of tobacco in smoking are by 

 no means constant, but the widest differences prevail arising from 

 differing cigars, differing kinds of tobacco, and differing pipes, 

 although some substances are common to all, as watery vapour*, a 



* 'For and Against Tobacco.' ByBenj. W. Richardson, M.A., M.D. Churchill 

 & Sons. 



