432 
Analyses of Books. 
[July, 
developing methods in hundreds of other directions, ’ and that 
if vivisection were utterly stopped the result would be “the 
finding of far better and more certain means of discovery. Can 
the utterers of such froth name even one such means ? If they 
can, why do they keep silence ? , . 
Agitations generally are not marked by truthfulness , but the 
Anti-vivisection movement, wherever it exists, has been above 
all others characterised by an excess of falsehood in every form. 
The prominent part which England has taken in this hubbub 
has certainly contributed to lessen the already slight respect in 
which she is now held abroad. For the country which is the 
very head-quarters of “ sport” — in other words, of the infliction 
of pain for pure amusement — to object to comparatively few and 
generally slight inflictions of pain in pursuit of knowledge, 
seems to other nations the ne plus ultra of inconsistency and 
^We can conscientiously recommend Mr. Gore’s pamphlet, and 
we trust it may have a wide circulation. Greater activity is 
called for among men of Science. The tactics of the enemy 
have been to go on throwing dirt, in the hope that some of it at 
least will stick, — to pour out invectives, well knowing that a 
falsehood may be uttered in few words, whilst its exposure will 
often necessitate many. 
Sunspottery ; or, What do we Owe to the Sun ? A Popular 
Account of the Spots on the Sun, their Phenomena, Natuie, 
and Cause, with an Inquiry into their alleged Influence 
upon the Weather, Famines, Pestilences, Commercial 
Panics, &c. By J. A. Westwood Oliver. London : 
Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 
We do not know whether the author of this pamphlet is 
responsible for the inelegant, and in our humble opinion super- 
fluous, word “ sunspottery.” His conclusion is given very un- 
mistakably. He remarks that the sun’s activity waxes and 
wanes periodically, that his radiation undergoes a corresponding 
variation, that our meteorological conditions which depend upon 
the solar heat fluctuate accordingly, and that these events more 
or less direcftly related to the accident of weather exhibit a like 
change, are each and all assumptions supported only by evidence 
of the weakest kind ; and can we be expeefted to hang out faith 
upon a chain of reasoning every link of which is defective ? 
He adds, in conclusion, “ We may say, then, that an im- 
partial examination of the evidence available leads to but 
