[October, 
652 Analyses of Books. 
of the subject may be touched upon in conclusion which seems 
to connect it with the great modern all-pervading idea of Evolu- 
tion. For though we cannot historically trace back all the forms 
of ornament to their origin, we can see enough to leave no doubt 
that if we had all the connecting-links before us we should find 
that many of the most admirable, widely used, and characteristic 
forms of ornament originated not so much in any sense of beauty 
as in mere superstition and grossness ; and that ornaments are 
habitually used in our churches and public buildings and habita- 
tions the adtual though remote origin of which, were it hinted at, 
would very much astonish those who execute and those who 
admire them ; and it may, perhaps, be accepted as one more 
illustration of the upward tendency of human development that 
even the very knowledge of this uncomely side of the subjeCt has 
fallen away from all except those who have had special reason to 
study its history, and that from these clods of earthiness and 
superstition there has sprung this bright and innocent flower of 
ornament-” 
A lesson worth pondering over ! 
The Life of Thomas Wills, F.C.S., Demonstrator of Chemistry , 
Royal Naval College , Greenwich. By his Mother, Mary 
Wills Phillips, and her Friend, J. Luke. London : James 
Nisbet and Co. 
Biographies have latterly become exceedingly plentiful, and we 
not unfrequently open a goodly volume recording the being and 
the doings of some person of whose very existence we were .in 
utter ignorance, and should have been contented so to remain. 
Such is not the case with the memoir before us. Though called 
from our midst at the early age of twenty-eight, he had already 
earned for himself an honourable name in Science, and had he 
survived he would doubtless have bequeathed to the world a 
treasure of valuable results, His first paper communicated to 
the Chemical Society was on the “ Solidification of Nitrous 
Oxide,” February 20th, 1873. On June 13th, of the same year, 
he laid before the Society an account of an “ Ozone Generator ” 
which he had devised. In September, the same year, he entered 
upon his duties at the Royal Naval College. His lectures deli- 
vered before various societies and associations were numerous, 
and his depth of thought and clearness of exposition were fully 
recognised by his hearers. His last paper read before the 
Chemical Society, December 19th, 1878, treated on. the “ Pro- 
duction of the Oxides of Nitrogen by the Electric Arc a 
subject which he was still investigating up to the time of his 
death. 
