EEYIEWS. 



119 



The Intellectual Observer. JSTo. 1. FebriTary. London : Groombridge 

 and Sons, 1862. 



'Eecreatire Science,' the first of tlie popular serials on popular science, 

 emanated from these publishers, and attained a large circulation. Some- 

 what too juvenile in character, it could not have l3een expected long to 

 maintain a stand against such higher flights as Mr. Hardwicke's ' Popular 

 Science Eeview.' The ' Intellectual Observer ' is ' Eecreative Science ' 

 sprung into manhood, and a vigorous forcible manhood too, ready and able 

 to compete with any rival. 



We have a decided horror of popular (?) science— or ratlier that kind of 

 trash which unfortunately goes by that name. We believe that real 

 science is popular, is a household god whose presence is universally felt in 

 this land, though its face is less often recognized than it might be. In the 

 curtains that screen the light from our rooms, the carpets we tread on, the 

 paper that lines our walls, in our coals, our furniture, in every object 

 around us down to the handles of our doors and the pulleys of our window- 

 blinds, the teachings of real science lie hid, although their effects add un- 

 ceasingly to the pleasures of life. The able writer — editor, we presume 

 too, although his name does not appear as such upon the work — Mr. Shir- 

 ley Hibbert, opens the volume with a survey of last year's work. Messrs. 

 McGrawley, Cobbold, Thos. Wright, Couch, Gosse, Slack, Humphreys, 

 and Webb follow with excellent papers : a staff of good quality for popu^ 

 lar science work, and able to it well if they work sincerely, as they ought 

 to do. 



The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art. By John Timbs, T.S.A. 

 London : Lockwood & Co., 1862. 



A small book of 288 small pages in very small type, full of information 

 gleaned from at least double that number of sources, some of which are 

 acknowledged ; some — the best sometimes — not so. Some critics have 

 found fault with Mr. Timbs for putting in extracts just as he took them. 

 We do not. At least it is honest, when the title of the work is given ; it 

 is useful, because we can go to the source itself for more infoi*mation if we 

 want it, which is better than wasting one's time in wondering where we 

 have read the matter before, as we do after perusing hundreds of the mo- 

 dern short cooked-up notices of other people's labours so generally in 

 vogue. We would add the wish rather that the date of the publication 

 should be also given. Mr. Timbs, at any rate, knows good from bad — ■ 

 which is more than most compilers do — and so, if his book be a book of 

 selections, we can recommend it as having very much that is useful in it. 



Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Geoloqy of jp arts of Oxfordshire and 

 Berkshire. (Sheet 13.) By Edward Hull and W. Whitaker. 



Geology of ^ arts of Berkshire and Hampshire. (Sheet 12.) By H. W. 

 Bristow and W. Whitaker. London : Longman and Co., 18''32. 



The numerous splendid geological maps and sections which the Govern- 

 ment Surveyors have already produced, show the perseverance and energy 

 of that small but talented staff, and testifies to the ability with which they 

 are directed. But there are many other ways, besides in the execution of 

 their regular duties, that the Survey officers are benefiting the students 

 of our science. The museum in Jermyn Street is being admirably arranged 

 by Mr. Etheredge on a plan at once effective and novel, — that of marking, 

 by placing them on difi'erently coloured tablets, the characteristic fossils 



