Notices respecting New Books. 255 



cation, total absorption in a laborious profession, are obstacles not 

 to be overcome ; but as this is quite plain to begin with, the whole 

 discussion is singularly wanting in purpose. 



It is sometimes curious to notice the irrelevancy of the details 

 of Dr. Gore's illustrations ; thus a propos of poor men becoming 

 eminent for research, he mentions Hunter, who began life as an 

 apprentice to a cabinet-maker, in which capacity he, naturally 

 enough, " constructed chairs and tables " (p. 263). He afterwards 

 went into surgery and made the famous collection of anatomical 

 preparations. His case affords a striking instance of genius and 

 industry overcoming obstacles, and proves conclusively that poverty 

 in youth is not inconsistent with a life devoted to scientific re- 

 search. Dr. Gore's way of telling the story is this : — "With the 

 proceeds of his practice as a surgeon, he bought all the bodies of 

 the wild beasts that died in the Tower of London, and of every 

 other such animal as he could procure, and dissected them ; he 

 compared the anatomy of them all, and discovered the history of 

 their organs. In this way he expended more than £70,000 in 

 money, besides immense labour. He was in the habit of swallow- 

 ing thirty drops of laudanum before delivering each lecture. He 

 died at the age of 80 ; and after his death the English Government 

 gave =£15,000 for his collection of about 20,000 anatomical pre- 

 parations " (p. 264). This might be an illustration of the fact 

 that poverty in youth is not inconsistent with the expenditure of 

 large sums of money in middle life; but the curious point is the 

 "thirty drops of laudanum:" the fact is interesting, but utterly 

 irrelevant ; for Dr. Gore has not the least intention of showing 

 that taking narcotics is a circumstance favourable to scientific re- 

 search. INor is this a solitary instance : on the preceding page 

 (263) the facts about Linnaeus are nearly all irrelevant. That 

 Linnaeus was not strong, but lived to the age of 71 years, that his 

 collection of plants and insects was sold after his death for <£1000, 

 and that the King of Sweden sent a ship of war in chase of the 

 ship that was taking it to England are facts which have nothing 

 to do with the matter in hand ; but Dr. Gore happened to know 

 them, and so wrote them down. We had marked several other 

 passages for comment ; but we have perhaps written enough to 

 show that the disappointment produced by the perusal of the book 

 was not without reason, and to justify our opinion that, in spite of 

 his possessing several qualifications for the task, Dr. Goro has 

 thrown little or no light on the Art of Discovery. 



Wheatstone's Scientific Papers. Published by the Physical Society 

 of London, 1879. 



The Physical Society of London is to be thanked for having 

 undertaken, and to be congratulated for having brought to so 

 successful an issue, the republication, in a collected form, of Sir 

 Charles Wheatstone's published researches. 



Wheatstone's contributions to Physical Science need not be 

 looked at through the same glass which is used to magnify the 

 merits of many so-called scientific publications. He does not seem 



