378 Notices of Books. [July, 



remarkable than those of any other class of diseases ; for the 

 nervous system is more informed, its functions more rudimentary, 

 its condition one of change and development, the like of which 

 does not take place in the organs of respiration, circulation, or 

 even of digestion. In infancy and childhood we are told that pain 

 referred to any part signifies almost without exception that 

 disease of some sort or other is going on there, or near at hand. 

 And then Dr. West proceeds to treat of neuralgia and epilepsy, 

 chorea and paralysis, in a way that conveys information both 

 to the medical man and to those having care of children. 



Light Science for Leisure Hours. A Series of Familar Essays 

 on Scientific Subjects, Natural Phenomena, &>c. By 

 Richard A. Proctor, B.A. Camb., F.R.A.S., Author of 

 "The Sun," " Other Worlds than Ours," "Saturn and its 

 System," &c. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1871. 



This is a collection of essays selected from the author's contri- 

 butions to serial literature during the past three or four years. 

 Mr. Proctor tells us that his chief object has been to present 

 scientific truths in a light and readable form — clearly and simply, 

 but with an exact adherence to facts ; and most strictly has he 

 borne this view in mind. Devoid both of technicality and excessive 

 simplicity, there is conveyed to the reader an immense amount 

 of information. It is certainly a matter for most earnest con- 

 gratulation that scientific men of the present day have lost that 

 conservatism in their knowledge formerly so rampant ; there is 

 a desire to make known to others what is likely to interest, 

 keeping back those dry details through which men, commercially 

 engaged, have no time to wade. And this desire to extend the 

 knowledge of others must in its reflex action bring beneficial 

 results to the teacher, enlarging his auditory and perhaps his 

 means of yet further instruction. It is such works as these from 

 the pen of Mr. Proctor that silence the cry of Cui bono, unhappily 

 so prevalent. We cannot all be scholars in the limited meaning 

 of the word, but we may all be scholars in the school of Nature, 

 learning to read what is present to all our senses. It is this that 

 Mr. Proctor does — brings a cultured brain to sift those questions 

 that others else have not the opportunity of even meeting with 

 — a true interpreter, who learns Nature's language not for himself 

 alone. Most of these essays have been before the public in 

 another form, but there is not one that would pall upon a second 

 perusal, while some, published in a college magazine, are new to 

 the general reader. Beyond this the subjects are so various 

 that he must be hard to please indeed who does not find sufficient 

 to interest him. 



