177 
REVIEWS. 
VOLCANOES.* 
O NE hardly expected that a hook which first saw the light of publication 
no less than forty-seven years ago, should come to a new edition, and 
that a second, just thirty-seven years subsequently. Yet such is the case in 
the present work of Mr. Poulett Scrope. The book before us is hardly a 
newer one than that which appeared ten years ago, yet it contains a series 
of introductory remarks which extend over nearly twenty-four pages. But 
then it is as compared with the first edition that we have got to consider it, 
and assuredly it is a great improvement on that, as naturally follows from 
the great amount of work done since that period, and the vast number of 
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which have since occurred. In fact to 
notice fully so vast a work is simply an impossibility, for we have not space 
for a discussion of even the very simplest question which it raises. Our 
opinion must therefore be expressed generally as to the qualities of the 
book, and the nature of the views which it puts forward. First, we must 
give every credit to the author for the vast nature of his researches and the 
extent of his observations, for he seems to have taken in nearly the whole 
world under his immediate observation. Secondly, his work must be con- 
sidered, no matter what its faults are, as unquestionably the ablest treatise 
extant in any language upon the subject. But having made these admissions, 
we must find fault with the author for not having made any effort to ex- 
plore the chemistry of this vast subject. Assuredly, if any science is able 
to explain thoroughly the nature of volcanic action, and the constitution of 
its products, it is chemical science ; yet nowhere in Mr. Scrope’s volume can we 
find the slightest allusion to chemical work done in the way of elucidating 
any of the problems of volcanic science. But if we leave this subject 
beyond our consideration, we are bound to confess that the book is an ex- 
cellent one — so good that it need hardly be better. It is essentially a work 
which everyone who considers himself a geologist must procure and study, 
and he will find in its nearly five hundred pages the history of every volcano 
which is known in the world, and of every earthquake which has occurred 
since history became anything exact. There is one point which deserves 
* “Volcanoes, the Character of their Phenomenon, &c. &c., with a 
Descriptive Catalogue of all known Volcanoes and Volcanic Formations.” 
2nd edition. By Poulett Scrope. London : Longmans, 1872. 
VOL. XI.— NO. XLIII. N 
