338 
Analyses of Books. 
[May, 
Science Primers: Introductory * Py Prof. Huxl.ey, F.R.S. 
London : Macmillan and Co. 
We have here, in the compass of 94 pages, a most useful little 
book, which ought to circulate widely and to be extensively and 
carefully read by the young, and by not a few of their elders. 
The first seftion, entitled “ Nature and Science,” may be 
likened to a dose of isinglass, as it is well fitted to clarify the 
popular mind. In it we find a plain account of sensations and 
things, of causes and effedls, properties and powers, of Nature 
(so-called, accident or chance), of the laws and Nature, and of 
Science as merely the knowledge of the laws of Nature obtained 
by observation, experiment, and reasoning. The author easily 
and completely strips these subjects of the mystery in which they 
are always wrapped in the minds of the uneducated, and of that 
more numerous class the miseducated. One abuse of the term 
Science, very common in England, when, namely, it is con- 
founded with Art, has escaped notice. 
The remainder of the work deals in an equally lucid manner 
with the characteristic phenomena of material objeCts, mineral 
and organic, and with those of Mind. 
The Geological Record for 1877. An Account of Works on 
Geology, Mineralogy, and Palaeontology, published during 
the Year, with Supplements for 1874 to 1876. Edited by 
W. Whitaker, B.A., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of 
England. London : Taylor and Francis. 
Our readers are of course aware of the general character of this 
useful volume, and will remember that the term “ Works ” com- 
prises not merely independent publications, but papers from the 
various scientific journals and from the Transactions of the 
learned societies. The compilation of such a “ Record ” involves 
an immense amount of labour, and such sins of omission and 
commission as Mr. WEitaker admits in his humorous Preface 
must be unavoidable. The delay in publication it seems has 
been caused by that haunting dread of anxious editors, the loss 
or delay of MS. in transmission. Some person, not named, 
appears to have got possession of a portion of the copy, and, in 
vulgar phraseology, to have “ stuck to it ” for some months. 
The value of so complete a conspeCtus of the geological lite- 
rature of each succeeding year needs no demonstration. 
