i88o.] 
Analyses of Books . 
265 
the present edition various omissions have been supplied, as, for 
instance, the chapter on Sound. Sundry errors have been recti- 
fied, and we may now, therefore, more emphatically repeat the 
recommendation which we gave after examining the former 
edition. 
The work, though mainly intended for children and young 
persons, may be most advantageously read by many persons of 
riper age, and may serve to implant in their minds a fuller and 
clearer conception of “ the promises, the achievements, and the 
claims of Science.” The manner in which the theory of Evolu- 
tion is presented to the reader is admirably judicious. Scrupulous 
persons who have shrunk from the new Natural History as having 
an atheistic tendency may here see how utterly groundless were 
their fears. 
A very useful feature of Miss Buckley’s work is the biblio- 
graphical note placed at the end of each chapter, indicating to 
the student what books to consult in order to fill up the outline 
here placed before him. 
Lightning Conductors : their History , Nature , and Mode of 
Application. By Richard Anderson, F.C.S., F.G.S. 
London : E. and F. N. Spon. 
We have here a most able and complete monograph, historical, 
theoretical, and practical, on a subjedt of great importance, and 
yet generally negledted. Of course in these days of general en- 
lightenment everyone knows that the lightning-rod was invented 
by Benjamin Franklin nearly 130 years ago. We can all quote 
the “ eripuit coelo fulmen,” and can point a moral by referring to 
the opposition encountered by the novel and daring project. 
But side by side with all this, our paper knowledge, stands the 
grim fadt that in England, at least, from one-half to two-thirds 
of our public buildings, including churches and chapels, are with- 
out any protection against lightning. Of private houses the 
author considers that not five out of every thousand are fitted 
with conductors. So rare are they, in fadt, that when seen they 
excite curiosity as a something strange and fantastic. Yet we 
cannot, in defence of our national apathy, represent the danger 
from lightning to persons and property as a something infinites- 
imal and unworthy our notice. Mr. Anderson shows that the 
deaths from this cause in Great Britain and Ireland average not 
less than one hundred yearly. Of the damage to live stock, 
farm premises, and other property, no accurate statistics are 
attainable, but it is by no means trifling. Still, with a fatalism 
almost Turkish in its character, we refuse to apply the safeguard 
