EETIEWS. 
193 
by modern chemists ; it affords many advantages over the old system, and it 
is not difficult to master. The “ old school ” reader, too, will be a little 
confused at first to find that sulphate of soda is now sodic sulphate , and that 
the carbonic acid, so impressed on their minds (not physically), is now be- 
come transformed into carbonic anhydride ,• but he will soon get over these 
little difficulties, and then, with the help of Dr. Miller’s excellent powers as 
a teacher, he will walk over the field of organic chemistry without much 
stumbling. This third volume is the best of the three, and the most useful 
and suggestive. The physician, the chemist, and the manufacturer will all 
find something in its pages touching upon their respective pursuits and 
inquiries. 
THE WORLD BEFORE THE DELUGE* 
A NEW edition of this highly popular 'work has been issued. Need we 
say it is not less handsome than the first. When we look at its mul- 
titude of illustrations, its luxurious paper, and its good typography, we 
must give the publishers every credit for their labours. The next point to 
be considered is the matter of the book. In the last edition this was cer- 
tainly out of keeping with a good deal that modern geology has taught us. 
It is satisfactoiy therefore to find an improvement in this edition, which we 
are told was revised by Mr. Bristow. Few abler geologists could have been 
selected for the work, and we only wish that full play had been given to him ; 
but we fear that he has been sadly trammelled in the execution of his task 
of revision. This we conclude from the following passage in the preface : — 
“ Many points which are more or less inferential, and therefore matters 
of individual opinion , and especially those on which M. Figuier bases his 
speculations, Mr. Bristow has left in their original form, rather than make 
such modifications as would wholly change the character of the book.” 
What this statement means, and how far the abstract proposition it 
involves, can be justified, we leave the reader to j udge for himself. For our 
own parts we can only say, that while in some ways the book has been 
improved (especially by means of the additions made to it) it has been on 
the whole very little altered. M. Figuier describes the leading facts and 
phenomena of geology very well, and the profuse illustrations remove any 
obstacles that might otherwise meet the general reader ; but his speculations 
are, in our opinion, very often more visionary than well-founded, and we 
must entirely dissent from his mode of restoring pre-diluvial forms. The 
pictorial Bible is an admirable book, but we do not see that its noble teach- 
ings are more enhanced, or the facts of geology more elucidated, by abstract- 
ing its suggestive pictures of the Deluge and the Garden of Eden to illustrate 
a treatise on popular geology. The woodcuts intercalated with the text, 
are excellent of their kind, and are numerous and well-selected, but the 
“ ideal representations” are the badly-executed extravagances of a too- 
imaginative genius. 
* “ The World before the Deluge.” A new edition. By Louis Figuier. 
London : Chapman and Hall. 1867. 
