1879J Notices of Books. 489 
in their scope, but equally suggestive : — “ Science is not a king- 
dom into which a poor man can enter easily if he happens to 
differ from a philosopher who gives good dinners, and has ‘ his 
sisters and his cousins and his aunts ’ to play the part of chorus 
to him.” 
“ For our skull is as a kind of flower-pot, and holds the soi 
from which we spring, — that is to say, the brain ; our mouth and 
stomach are roots in two stories or stages ; our bones are the 
trellis-work to which we cling ; we are the nerves which are 
rooted in the brain, and draw thence the sustenance supplied by 
the stomach ; our lungs are leaves folded up within us, as the 
blossom of a fig is hidden within the fruit itself.” We are thus 
likened to “ perambulating vegetables turned upside down.” 
“ Evolution, Old and New ” is well worth reading.” 
A Manual of Organic Chemistry , Practical and Theoretical . 
For Colleges and Schools, Medical and Civil Service Exam- 
inations, and especially for Elementary, Advanced, and 
Honours Students at the Classes of the Science and Art 
Department, South Kensington. By Hugh Clements, of 
H.M. Civil Service; President of the Amateur Mechanics’ 
Workshops Association, London ; and Ledfurer on Various 
Sciences at St. Thomas Charterhouse and several other 
Science Institutions in London. London : Blackie and Son. 
This Manual is in great part a reprint from the “ English Me- 
chanic,” and is unquestionably an examinational work. It contains 
chapters on the distinction between organic and inorganic sub- 
stances ; on organic analysis and empirical formula (sic) ; on the 
determination of rational formulae ; on organic substitution ; on 
the theory of compound organic radicals ; the preparation and 
properties of their hydrides ; the distillation of coal ; on alco- 
hols, ethers, aldehyds, organic acids, anhydrides, ketons, alka- 
loids, and organo-metallic compounds. Then follows a section 
on the identification of organic compounds ; and a description of 
oils, fixed and essential. We have next an account of certain 
articles of apparatus, a selection of exercises, and a list of 
“ Papers set in Organic Chemistry at the Examinations of the 
Science and Art Department from 1868 to 1878, with Answers,” 
— a section which occupies nearly one-third of the entire book, 
and which may give the student, or rather the intending examinee, 
some idea of the class of questions likely to fall to his lot. 
That the bulk of the matter contained in the work is on a level 
with the knowledge of the day is unquestionable. Still we come 
here and there upon passages which, to us at least, seem to 
require emendation. Thus the author tells us that as carbonic 
VOL. IX. (N.S.) 2 K 
