130 Notices of Books . [January, 
Entomological Commission has therefore a just claim to public 
gratitude on both sides of the Atlantic. 
Clavis Synoptica Hymenomycetum Europceorum. Conjundlis 
studiis scripserunt M. C. Cooke, A.L.S., et L. Quelet, 
M.D. London : Hardwicke and Bogue. 
This work is a systematic account of the European species of 
plants belonging to the sub-order of the Hymenomycetes, one 
of the groups of Fungi to which the common mushroom belongs. 
The characteristics of each species are brief, rarely, if ever, ex- 
ceeding two lines. The localities are not given, save that 
British species are marked with an asterisk in the margin. The 
great fault of the work is that it is written in Latin, a feature 
which might have been justifiable a century ago, when every 
man of scientific pursuits might safely be assumed to be a 
classical scholar, but which can now only be regarded as a sur- 
vival of the unfittest. 
The Freedom of the Truth. By Mungo Ponton, F.R.S.E. 
London : Longmans and Co. 
From the title of this little work no very definite idea of its sub- 
ject is likely to be gained. On reference to the Preface we find, 
however, that its aims are distinctly theological. The author 
attempts to show that “ Christianity claims to be ranked as an 
experimental science, and that its principles ought to be studied 
by methods perfectly analogous to those followed in other expe- 
rimental sciences. In this undertaking he makes a very frequent 
use of illustrations drawn from physics, chemistry, and biology, 
and in this latter department at least he scarcely shows himself 
as an unbiassed searcher for truth. There is the usual feeble 
attack upon the doctrine of Evolution, in which theological 
writers will still for some years think themselves bound to indulge. 
There is the somewhat stale anecdote of Lord Monboddo, and 
his belief that man was born with a rudimental tail, which 
“ professors of the obstetric art ” have to remove from newly- 
born infants. But Mr. Ponton does not seem to be aware that 
the real error of his “ eccentric ” countryman was his ignorance 
of the fadts that the orang-outang and the gorilla are as free 
from outwardly visible tails as is man himself, whilst in all three 
species the internal rudiments of this dishonourable appendage 
are easily demonstrated. Our author, if he does not share this 
error, does not guard against being suspected of so doing, since 
