REVIEWS. 
197 
eighteenth of the Christian era. Next comes the nineteenth century, the 
especially scientific age, and this occupies far more than one-third of the 
entire volume. Of the plan of the book we have only to speak in the most 
favourable terms. And of the author’s style we cannot speak in terms 
which are too warmly praiseworthy. Let us take a couple of examples ; 
one from the early portion of the book, and another having to do more with 
our own time. And first let us see how she explains the well-known 
experiment of Archimedes when he was discovering specific gravity. It is 
not an easy point to explain lucidly to one who is totally ignorant of 
science, yet we think Miss Buckley has been wonderfully successful. 
Speaking of Archimedes’ well-known excitement and his cry of u j Eureka, 
Etireka ! ” * she asks, “ What had he found P He had discovered that 
any solid body put into a vessel of water displaces its own bulk of water, 
and therefore, if the sides of the vessel are high enough to prevent it running 
over, the water will rise to a certain height. He now got one ball of gold 
and another of silver, each weighing exactly the same as the crown. Of 
course the balls were not the same size, because silver is lighter than gold, 
and so it takes more of it to make the same weight. He first put the gold 
into a basin of water, and marked on the side of the vessel the height to 
which the water rose. Next, taking out the gold, he put in the silver ball, 
which, though it weighed the same, yet, being larger, made the water rise 
higher ; and this height he also marked. Lastly, he took out the silver 
ball and put in the crown. Now, if the crown had been pure gold the 
water would have risen only up to the mark of the gold ball ; but it rose 
higher, and stood between the gold and silver mark, showing that silver 
had been mixed with it, making it more bulky. This was the first attempt 
to measure the specific gravity of different substances.” 
We have chosen the above passage as an illustration of the author’s 
admirably clear and simple style, and of her success in rendering what is not 
the simplest matter in the world perfectly intelligible to an average reader. 
And it is the same fashion in which she deals with many other and more 
complex problems. But what we most admire about the book is the utter 
absence of the “ goody-goody ” tone, which most women and not a few men 
feel it incumbent on them to introduce when attempting to explain any fact 
in science to those whom they consider to be beneath them in intellectual 
knowledge. 
We shall only select another passage from Miss Buckley’s book, though 
had we space we should quote it more abundantly. It is that in which she 
explains to her readers — supposed to be children — the effects of natural 
selection. Now, this is not an easy matter even for an adult to explain, 
for we doubt not there are many even among our better educated friends 
who would feel themselves utterly “ at sea ” if such a question were pro- 
posed to them. Hear how the authoress explains the matter. “ Mr. Huxley 
tells us that a single plant producing fifty seeds a year would, if unchecked, 
It was, of course, in reference to the question put to him by the king, 
if he could find out whether the jewellers had, in making the crown, kept 
back some of the gold, and supplied its weight with some other metal. 
