REVIEWS. 
119 
The Intellectual Observer. No. 1. February. London : Groombridge 
and Sons, 1862. 
' Kecreatiye Science,' the first of the popular serials on popular science, 
emanated from these publishers, and attained a large circulation. Some- 
what too jurenile in character, it could not have been 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 rather that kind of 
trash which unfortuuat'ely goes b}' 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- 
ceasingl}^ 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. 
McGawley, 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-Booh of Facts in Science and Art. By John Timbs, F.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, Avhen the title of the work is given ; it 
is useful, because we can go to the source itself for more information 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. Geoloqij of jp arts of Oxfordshire and 
Berkshire. (Sheet 13.) By Edward Hull and W. Whitaker. 
Geology of parts of Be rh shire and Hampshire. (Sheet 12.) By H. W. 
Bristow and W. Whitaker. London : Longman and Co., 1862. 
The niunerous 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 testiHes 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 diflerently coloured tablets, the characteristic fossils 
