BOOKS' FOR NATURE LOVERS. 
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common lot of all things in its freedom from perfection. The portion of the work 
devoted to the derivation of the scientific names of plants and animals is very 
weak, indeed some of the etymologies suggested are perfectly grotesque in their 
complete inaccuracy. We can quite understand that many naturalists might say, 
we care not a jot for such trifles ; the beauty of the bird is not diminished by a 
solitary feather, or of the fish by a single gleaming scale, because the Latin or 
Greek derivation which is assigned to his technical name happens to be entirely 
wrong. Quite so, only if this be the case, why waste any space in giving 
etymologies at all ? We hope for the sake of Dr. Hamilton’s otherwise admirable 
volume, that in the fresh edition which is sure to be demanded, the etymologies 
will be either excised altogether, or so remodelled as to secure a reasonable approxi- 
mation to correctness. 
But we would not part with so pleasant a book with the slightest suggestion of 
censure ; but rather call attention to the spirit of love for all creatures which 
pervades it. We do not know whether Dr. Hamilton is an enrolled member of 
the Selborne Society, but he certainly is bound by the strongest ties of spiritual 
affinity to us, if he is not an actual member of our brotherhood. We are especially 
grateful to this distinguished fisherman for his good words for our little favourite, 
the water-vole, for his defence of the otter, and for his appeal to his brother 
fishers to spare the kingfisher. 
“ We plead for the kingfisher. Let us hope more merciful and more sensible 
councils will prevail, and that we may all again be delighted to watch the bright 
hues and rapid flight of this ‘gem of the waters.”’ 
Object Lessons from Nature , a first book of Science, by L. C. Miall, Professor 
of Biology in the Yorkshire College, Leeds. Cassell and Co., London, 1890. 
[Price 2s. 6d.] 
We have heard regrets expressed by many Selbornians that, although a 
mysterious something called Natural Science is now taught in both boys’ and 
girls’ schools, the children carry away with them nothing but long lists of crack- 
jaw names, which make their little heads ache, and a confirmed distaste to those 
“ horrid, nasty, dry things,” botany, zoology and geology, which may effectually 
prevent their having any love for the study of Nature when they are free to 
choose their own pursuits. The very opposite method to such a caricature of 
Nature teaching is that adopted by Professor Miall in his very excellent little 
book, Object Lessons from Nature. The following ^quotation from his preface 
shows that he has completely grasped “ the root of the matter.” “ If he were to 
call these lessons a course in zoology, botany, chemistry, and so forth, we should 
not only be using needlessly important words, but we should disguise the main 
purpose of the book, which is to explain the simplest natural phenomena to 
children, who are incapable of continuous and methodical thought. To the child 
there ought to be no separate science at all, and the scientific methods explained 
to him should be treated, not as the thin end of such formidable wedges as 
chemistry and physiology, but as ways of throwing light upon certain natural 
facts, about which he has been led to feel some curiosity.” 
The professor never poses as a majestic pedagogue, awing his little pupils by 
his superior knowledge, but speaks to them as a friend who has picked up just the 
kind of knowledge they require to gratify their curiosity about the living and 
growing things they see around them. He tells them how he once counted the 
strokes of the heron’s wing, how he watched from the deck of the fast sailing 
steamer the beautiful seagulls following close astern for hours together, and to all 
appearance travelling as smoothly and easily as if they were merely floating in the 
air. He teaches them the essentials of botany and zoology without even mentioning 
those names, and best of all he seems to imply all along that any boy or girl who 
will take the trouble to look and to think may see all that he has seen and know- 
all that he knows. Professor Miall says that the lessons were written for children 
of about twelve years old, but we have known them to be read with pleasure 
and understood with ease by children of nine. We feel sure that there is very 
much to be learned in them by young men and women of nineteen, and we are 
sorrowfully certain that many of those who reach the age of ninety have never 
had any knowledge of a tithe of the facts that are taught in these lessons. A 
scientific man like Professor Miall is doing just as good work in the cause of 
