414 
POPULAR SCIENCE REYIEW. 
the present book, and their investigation certainly possesses a much higher 
interest for the botanist than the mere collecting, drying, and naming of 
the plants of his district. 
DUST.* 
“ "PHILOSOPHERS have said that ‘ there is a reason, a meaning, and an 
-t end in Nature.’ We Dusts require more than this — a proof of the 
reason, a result of the meaning, and a continuance of the end.” 
These are the opening words of Mr. Malet’s preface to his “ Incidents in 
the Biography of Dust,” and we cannot but think that our readers would 
forgive us if, having read them, we had abstained from any further examina- 
tion of the book. But, as Thackeray once hinted, there is a power of self- 
sacrifice in the editorial idiosyncracy, and we endeavoured to the best of 
our power to make out what the purpose of the little book might be. There 
used to be a phrase current (whether it is still extant we know not) which 
ran as follows : “ Down with the dust ; ” and so far as we remember bore a 
signification not at all agreeable to the impecunious. Mr. Malet’s watch- 
word is, li Up with the Dust,” which would sound much pleasanter if we 
could only make out what “ Dust ” is. But this is precisely the puzzle 
before us. 
In his first introductory chapter, which, we believe, gives in the form of 
aphorisms the principles of his theory, Mr. Malet tells us, in the first place, 
“ that the earth consists of air, water, and dust.” He then gives us the 
curious piece of information that 11 air is composed chiefly of oxygen, 
hydrogen, and carbonic acid gases ; ” and after telling us something about 
water proceeds to say that “ the dry land of the earth is dust;” and then 
that “ dust is now chiefly composed of everything that grew or lived on the 
earth, mixed with the dust from which all things were created.” Here 
we seem to see a glimmer of light, and that by dusts may be signified the 
non-aeriform constituents of the world ; but a little further on this comfort 
is taken from us, and we are told that “ there are gaseous and non-gaseous 
dusts.” In the next paragraph we learn that “ everything that lived or 
grew was composed of air, water, and dust,” which sounds like a return to 
the former conception ; and then that “ these three elements therefore com- 
pose the earth,” so that dust is one of the elements ; but when we turn to 
Chapter V., which is headed, “ The Birth of Dust,” and in which, therefore, 
we justly look for something conclusive, we find ourselves all abroad again. 
The author, in his playfully humorous style, writing himself down a Dust, 
tells us “ that the dusts have nothing to do with the beginning.” “It is 
far within the limit of that horizon that we look for the birth of our an- 
cestors. Long previous to this event heaven and earth were created ; the 
waters were divided by the firmament. Light and darkness made the day 
and night. The second day, that comprehensible measure of incomprehen- 
sible time, had passed away ; two measures of eternity had run out ; all 
* 11 Incidents in the Biography of Dust.” By H. P. Malet. Small 8vo. 
London : Trubner & Co. 1877. 
