REVIEWS. 
71 
with reverence for and admiration of the works of nature. It is illustrated 
with woodcuts, which are very good, and with chromo-lithographs, some of 
which are “ dreadful daubs,” and should have been omitted. 
SCHOOL CHEMISTRY.* 
S URELY the subject of chemistry is overdone. It would, we think, 
occupy a whole page of our space to give merely the titles of the 
students’ manuals which have been published during the last three years. 
Where all the students are supposed to come from, or how all the manuals 
are supposed to pay, we have not the most remote idea. If our judgment 
be correct, there are at least half a dozen chemical text books too many. 
And yet we cannot help admitting that the great majority of these books 
are*' really good, carefully prepared, and useful compilations. In the little 
volume now on our table we have a very excellent epitome of modern 
chemistry, which, if we may use the expression, is a good deal of the Wil- 
liamsonian school. It is, we think, to be regretted that the author should 
have omitted the subject of organic chemistry, and that he should have 
referred to the atomic theory as an almost established principle, instead of 
being, as it is, a mere ingenious hypothesis which is contrary to all our 
metaphysical laws. His plan of giving a series of questions at the end of 
each chapter is a good one. The list of apparatus required by the beginner, 
the account of the metric system, and the description of the several crystal- 
line groups are all excellent in their way. 
THE MIDNIGHT SKY.f 
T HIS earth of ours is sweeping round with terrible velocity on its own 
axis, and it is sweeping round the sun, and the sun and all the planets 
are probably sweeping away through space, whither is beyond our ken. Are 
not these strange facts of themselves alone sufficient to awake even in the 
minds of the most thoughtless some desire to learn even a little of those 
wondrous heavenly bodies of which we know so much, and of which we 
have yet to discover such an immense amount P And yet how few among 
us know even the chief of the constellations, and how very few, even among 
tolerably intelligent people, there are who could, if they were asked, give a 
satisfactory explanation of the precession of the equinoxes ” ? This state 
of things should exist no longer, especially while such excellent and 
attractive works as that which the Religious Tract Society has published 
for Mr. D unkin are within our reach. In this volume even those who know 
* <l Chemistry for Schools, an Introduction to the Practical Study of 
Chemistry.” By C. Houghton Gill, Assistant Examiner in Chemistry in the 
University of London. London: Walton, 1869. 
t “ The Midnight Sky ; or, Familiar Notes on the Stars and Planets.” 
By EdwinjDunkin, F.R.A.S. London : The Religious Tract Society, 1869. 
