12 
NATURE NOTES. 
of the colouring been more successful. But it will be a boon to young and 
mature naturalist alike to get in this excellent handbook — at once readable and 
accurate — so much good work for so little money. 
O. V. A. 
Litera Humaniores : An Appeal to Teachers, by H. S. Salt (London : 
William Reeves, 1S94, pp. 32). This is an appeal to teachers to teach humanity 
(as understood by the Humanitarian League) to animals. An idea of the kind of 
statements and arguments this pamphlet contains may be gained from a perusal 
of p. 6, line 19, p. to, and p. 14, line 11 et seq. We are afraid that, however 
good the intention of the author may be, such statements as “ collecting and dis- 
secting may easily become identical and interchangeable terms,” and “ unbridled 
mania for collecting breeds a positive love of slaughter for slaughter’s sake ; ” 
such expressions as ‘‘blood-sports,” “amateur butchery,” “a horde of young 
savages,” “youthful marauders and murderers,” ecc., are rather calculated to 
disgust many of the best friends of the Selborne Society’s cause. Many people 
will be a little surprised at the conclusion arri%-ed at by Mr. Salt in his remarks 
upon petting animals. And some of us may think that the League had better 
turn its attention to the condition of those animals which supply London with 
the milk which is so important an item in the diet recommended in lieu of 
“ flesh food,” before they try to reform the Zoological Gardens. 
If our present s)-stem of dealing with the rabbit is wrong, we must, if we give 
it up, either exterminate the breed or let the rabbits eat up the food of the vege- 
tarians. It is a question whether the example set by nature, in ordaining the 
hawk and the stoat, &c., will ever be lost sight of, or the fact that man has been 
a hunting and flesh-eating animal from the earliest days be forgotten. To be 
trul)’ humane we must not forget our own species, captive in great cities, and 
longing to hear the voices of the singing-birds ; but rather be glad that the happy 
nature of birds renders it possible for this desire to be satisfied. Are the mem- 
bers of the Humanitarian League truly consistent? We wonder if they wear 
woollen clothing ! .Some faddist might argue that the poor sheep would be 
happier if they were allowed to wear such wool as nature permitted to grow on 
their backs, than as they are now — liable to be suddenly shaved in the spring at 
our pleasure ! 
O. V. A. 
Science Notes for Unscientific Readers, by Henry Grey (Colstar, Edinburgh). 
We have read the first chapter of this wonderful little book, and no more. We 
think we can show that it would have been unwise to have prosecuted our re- 
searches any further. The first chapter is upon “Astronomy,” and consists of 
five pages. Within this short compass there are many astounding statements. 
At the very outset we are told that astronomy has been “ utilised from the earliest 
ages for the discovery of previously unknown countries by sailors and explorers.” 
This is mysterious, and we should be glad to be told in what way the study of the 
stars assisted in the discovery of unknown countries. In the second page we are 
informed that “ from the south side of the Equator the sun appears to rotate from 
west to east instead of from east to west.” We could hardly believe in such 
ignorance of the most elementary facts on the part of anyone attempting to in- 
struct others upon the phenomena of astronomy. But in the next few lines we 
have some information given us about the moon, which “ revolves round the 
earth in an irregular plane,” while “the changes in its apparent shapes” (we 
suppose the author means " shape^') “occur from its face being sometimes only 
partially turned towards the earth.” Of course every schoolboy who has the 
least smattering of knowledge on the subject, knows that the same side of the moon 
is always turned towards the earth, and that the phases of the moon’s light depend 
upon the portion of the disc lit up by the sun’s rays and visible to the earth. The 
next clause is astronomically correct, but grammatically curious, for we are in- 
formed that “ at new moon its course is between the sun and the earth, while at 
full moon she is on its opposite side.” A little lower down on the same page we 
learn concerning the Asteroids that “ most of them are too small to be seen with- 
out a telescope,” whereas all of them are so. Meteors in the same page are said 
to “shine singly or in luminous masses like stars.” “Shining singly” is at 
least a curious description of a shooting star, which we presume is meant. The 
