142 



Reviews and Kotices of BooJcs, 



§ 41, as it stands, is simply untrue It requires most copious 

 and careful limitations, which are not even hinted at in the text. 



In § 45 we find another of these cases of rash assertion (about 

 the attraction of spheres) — requiring a great amount of unsupplied 

 qualification. 



To mention but one move serious blunder — we find that luater 

 is a non-elastic fluid ! (-p. 47 .) Shades of Canton and Oerstedt, 

 have your discoveries come to this ? Is not elasticity the tendency 

 of a compressed or distorted body to recover its volume or form 

 when the disturbing cause is removed ] Is not water compressible, 

 and perfectli/ elastic ? 



The Philosopliy of Geology : a brief Review of the Aim, 

 Scope, and Character of Geological Inquiry. By Dayid 

 Page, F.E.S.E., F.G.S. 12mo. Pp. 155. William 

 Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1863. 



The object of this work is to direct attention to some of the 

 higher aims of geological science, to the principles which ought 

 to guide geologists in their generalisations, and to what may be 

 ultimately anticipated of geology in her true and onward pro- 

 gress. " The philosophy of geology is the study of the structural 

 arrangement and composition of this earth, the causes that have 

 produced this structure and arrangement, the laws by which this 

 causation is upheld, and the comprehension of the whole in time 

 as constituting a continuous and intelligible world history." The 

 author first discusses the objects of inquiry, defines what geology 

 is, and shows that speculations as to the origin of the earth are 

 inadmissible. " Geology is but the physical geography of former 

 ages. Every rock system retains some evidence of the conditions 

 of its period ; and the determination of these conditions, the causes 

 that produced them, and the life by which they were accompanied, 

 is the spirit and purport of geology." Certain forces have been 

 called into play, in order to produce geological changes on the 

 globe, and these forces act according to uniform natural laws, so 

 that we are enabled in some measure to argue from the present 

 as to what took place in the past. At the same time we must 

 bear in mind that over limited areas cataclysmal phenomena occur, 

 depending on earthquakes, volcanoes, or floods, which may inter- 

 fere with our reasonings, and which show the necessity of being 

 cautious in our inductions. We must beware of the error of 

 those who say that all things continue as they were from the 

 creation, and that nothing has been done per saltum. Floods 

 and convulsions have occurred, and local phenomena may present 



