192 REVIEWS. 



out. The practical articles in this periodical are far superior to the lighter 

 papers with which it is interspersed. The number is illustrated by a litho- 

 graphed portrait of His Excellency Governor Darling. 



Publications Received. — Hoefer's Dictionary of Practical Botany. 

 Dictionary of Theoretical and Practical Horticulture. Beraud's Dictionary 

 of Geography. Barre's Biographical Dictionary. Dictionary of the French 

 Academy, abridged ; — all from Messrs Didot and Son, Paris. — On the 

 Cohesion- Figures of Liquids, by Charles Tomlinson, reprinted from the 

 1 Philosophical Magazine ' for October. In the ' Pharmaceutical Journal ' 

 for December, Mr Hanbury continues his learned notes on Chinese Materia 

 Medica, and Dr Crace Calvert enumerates some of the uses to which carbolic 

 acid has been successfully applied in Medicine. There is an extracted 

 paper from the Proceedings of the Royal Society " On some varieties of 

 Tannin," by Dr Stenhouse. In the ' Chemist and Druggist ' Dr Noad 

 brings his articles on the Analyses of Manures to a close by a paper " on 

 Bones," and Mr Quin also with the volume concludes his valuable Essays on 

 Photographic Chemicals. Mr Tegitmeier still gives practical attention to 

 all the striking novelties of the day. " Prince's Descriptive Catalogues of 

 Foreign and Native Grape-vines, and Strawberries" ; Flushing near New 

 York. [We wish our foreign correspondents would pay their postages]. 



Polytechnic Institution. — Mr Pepper is indefatigable in providing the 

 frequenters of this popular institution with a constant succession of novel- 

 ties, which his skill in seizing the topics of greatest interest at the moment 

 renders additionally attractive. He now lectures on the " Iron Age," embra- 

 cing the science of the Armstrong, Whitworth, and other rifled guns, illus- 

 trated with experiments, and also with pictures, photographs, and diagrams 

 shown by the oxy-hydrogen light on the largest scale. The audience are 

 initiated with the peculiar lucidity of explanation, that renders Mr Pepper's 

 scientific lectures so deservedly popular, into all the mysteries of iron- 

 making, and opportunity is taken to supplement the description given by 

 the lecturer, three or four years ago, of the Bessemer process by an account of 

 the improvements therein since effected. A model of Bessemer's monster 

 breech-loading gun, and one of the ringshaped steel plates of which it is 

 proposed to be constructed, are exhibited and explained. The lecture ia 

 followed by a new series of Dissolving Views illustrating the navies and 

 naval dock-yards of England and France, copied from the drawings of Mr 

 J. Pickering, whose delineations of shipping are so [well known. The great 

 interest felt in this subject at the present time can nowhere be better 

 gratified than at this institution, where the public may compare Cherbourg 

 with Portsmouth and Plymouth, and learn what are the points of differ- 

 ence between the Warrior and La Gloire. On the evening of the 24th Dec. 

 We attended a private view of the entertainment provided for the Christinas 

 holidays, and here amusement has been pleasantly mingled with instruc- 

 tion. The beautiful experiments on spectrum analysis as shown by the 

 apparatus of Mr Ladd, will attract great attention. The exquisite series of 

 photographs of American scenery by Mr England, enlarged by the lime 

 light on the great disc in the lecture theatre are beautifully developed. 



