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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
SHORT NOTICES. 
An Elementary Course of Theoretical and applied Mechanics , fyc., by 
Richard Wormell, M.A., B.Sc. 2nd edition. London: Groombridge, 1871. 
This is the second edition of a work which we fancy we have had before 
under our notice. It is one of Messrs. Groombridge’s series of educational 
manuals, and is a very good book of its kind. This, the second edition, 
contains some things not in the first one, and is altogether an improve- 
ment on it. 
Preliminary Report on the Vertebrata discovered in the Port-Kennedy Bone 
Cave , by Professor C. D. Cope. This is a reprint, for private circulation, of 
a paper read by the Professor before the American Philosophical Society in 
April last. It deals very ably and minutely, as might be expected of its 
author, with the animals found in a fissure of the Potsdam limestone. The 
paper describes the several species, and concludes with some very curious 
observations on the former connection of the American and Asian continents. 
The Great Pyramid of Jizeh ; Plan and Object of its Construction. Cin- 
cinnati : Clark & Co., 1871. This is a curious pamphlet, which bears no 
author’s name. Still the author has evidently read some of the works upon 
the subject ; mainly, that by Professor Piazzi Smyth. He regards the Pyramid 
as a standard of measure ; and gives numerous illustrations in proof of its 
being so. 
A Key to the Natural Orders of Wild Flowering Plants , by Thomas 
Baxter, F.G.S. London : Simpkin & Marshall, 1871. This is a series of 
tables for the purpose of teaching botany to beginners. The author fancies 
it has certain features of simplicity; but for our part, we fail to see in what 
it is simpler than a good elementary treatise, such as Bentham’s, for instance. 
On the Cause of Rain Storms , the Aurora , and Terrestrial Magnetism, by 
G. A. Rowell. London : Williams & Norgate, 1871. This is a reprint 
of some old papers on a subject of considerable importance. They are 
written by an amateur; but, nevertheless, we think them worthy of a 
favourable opinion. We commend them, therefore, to the notice of our 
readers. 
The Natural History of the British Diatomacece, by L. Scott Donkin, M.D. 
London : Van Voorst, 1871, Part II. The second part of this work has 
appeared at last, and without an apology for the delay, or a promise of 
better things in future. It deals with about forty specimens. The plates 
are only four in number, and we must say they are simply abominable. It 
is not at all to Mr. Van Voorst’s credit, he who has published so many 
splendid natural history works, that this volume should be issued in its pre- 
sent form. 
George W. Childs: a Biographical Sketch, by James Partin. Phila- 
delphia : Collins. An interesting but brief sketch of a remarkable man. 
Digitalis and Heart Disease, by Balthazar W. Foster, M.D., Professor of 
Medicine in Queen’s College, Birmingham, and Physician to the Queen’s 
Hospital. This is a pamphlet which is most creditable to its author. It is 
not of any great length, but it is carefully put together, and displays con- 
