1883.] 
Analyses oj Books . 
687 
The English Illustrated Magazine . No. 1. October, 1883. 
London : Macmillan and Co. 
There is in this bright and clever new journal little which can 
legitimately come under our cognizance. There is a paper, by 
Mr. Grant Allen, entitled “ The Dormouse at Home,” which is 
so good a specimen of the author’s manner of treating natural 
history subjects that a signature was scarcely necessary. Mr. 
Allen views the dormouse as a “ central meeting-place whence 
all the radiating threads of the rodent pedigree diverge in the 
various directions of the rats, the mice, the squirrels, the mar- 
mots, the prairie dogs, and even the beavers.” 
“ The Supernatural Experiences of Patsy Cong” is a tribute 
to the spiritualistic tendencies of the present day, but the strange 
occurrences described are left unexplained. 
“ Oysters and the Oyster Question,” by an Inspector of Fish- 
eries, is the first portion of a Lecture delivered at the Royal 
Institution in May last. 
The Mason College Magazine . Odtober, 1883. Birmingham : 
Cornish Bros. 
We are glad to find this bright little magazine reappearing after 
its summer recess. We notice a humorous article entitled 
“ Robinson Crusoe, B.Sc., an Autobiography.” Here those ac- 
quainted with local circumstances will doubtless be able to find 
more than meets the eye of the stranger. 
A Member of the Natural History Society is credited with the 
following invocation : — 
“ O San&e Herberte 
Lucem da nobis 
Rex philosophorum 
Dux syntheticorum 
In ssecula saeculorum 
Lucem da nobis ! ” 
“ Vox Clamantis in Deserto ” gives a list of miscellaneous 
requirements, among which we perceive, with satisfaction not 
unmingled with amusement, “ A Society for the Liberation of 
Physiology from Tait Patronage and Control.” Decidedly ne- 
cessary, as the “ patron and controller” is evidently impenitent. 
