Notices of Books . 
1879.: 
189 
of Morocco, a plot of about 40 acres, yields an average yearly 
return of £ 20,000 . 
The climate is remarkably genial and pleasant. The temper- 
ature fluctuates less than that of Madeira, the difference between 
the average temperature of the hottest and the coldest months 
not exceeding io° F., whilst the number of rainy days at Moga- 
dor is only forty-five. Pulmonary affections are here all but 
unknown, and the region wants merely a settled Government to 
become an admirable sanitarium. 
We regret that we must here cut short our notice of a work 
which literally teems with interesting facts. We can confidently 
recommend it to all who love accounts of travel, even if they are 
utterly unacquainted with botany. 
The volume is tastefully got up, and is enriched with charac- 
teristic views of scenery, and with a map of Southern Morocco, 
corrected according to the observations of the travellers, and 
showing their route. 
An Illustrated Dictionary of Scientific Terms. By William 
Rossiter. London and Glasgow : W. Collins, Sons, and 
Co. 1879. 
Mr. Rossiter has tried to compress too large an amount of 
information into too small a compass, and in numerous instances 
he has sought for his definitions in untrustworthy directions, the 
consequence being that a number of words that are found every 
day in books and newspapers are of necessity omitted, while 
some of the explanations are calculated to mislead the student. 
Columbium is not a rare mineral found in columbite ; coal 
brasses are not spathic ore ; caviare is not a sauce ; the papyrus 
is not a tree found on the banks of rivers ; and soot is only in a 
very restricted sense “ the unburnt remains of fuel.” Had the 
generally useless cuts been left out Mr. Rossiter might have 
found room for such words as eosin, quantivalence, phonograph, 
microphone, &c. A large number of the words, too, are quite 
out of place in a dictionary of this kind. Surely it is not the 
office of a scientific dictionary to tell people the meaning of such 
words as bayonet, beet-root sugar, explosion, gable, language, 
and so on, all of which they can find in any sixpenny Johnson. 
This book is not at all worthy of a place by the side of many 
excellent scientific text-books issued by the same firm. 
