1884.] 
Analyses of Books. 
613 
ordure alone. The flies, on the other hand, settle first upon 
putrescent matter, and then upon our food or our persons, carry- 
ing with them the germs of decomposition and disease. It is all 
but absolutely demonstrated that they are the chief agents in the 
propagation of pestilence. The fluids of their bodies, elaborated 
from decomposing animal matter, are entirely malignant, and 
being introduced into the bodies of the men and other animals 
bitten, set up a series of effedts which range from the irritation 
springing from the puncture of a gnat ori a midge to deadly 
carbuncle. 
Mr. Horner writes : — “ Man, in his cruel ingenuity, has en- 
ticed the insect tribes into his service in order to inflidt torture 
upon his fellows.” It may perhaps be news to some of our 
readers to learn that in Eastern Europe, in the olden time, a serf 
who had offended his lord was sometimes stripped naked and left 
bound to a tree in some swampy forest, where the mosquitoes 
tormented him to death. 
The “ Story of Giordano Bruno ” comes to its conclusion, in- 
finitely sad, but not the less glorious. 
Longman's Magazine. No. 22, August, 1884. London : 
Longmans and Co. 
The only paper in this issue which can at all come under our 
cognizance is one by Mr. R. Prodtor, on “ Earthquakes in 
England.” The author gives a notice of the earthquakes, histo- 
rical or traditional, which have from time to time shaken this 
island. Most of these have been of an exceedingly mild cha- 
radter, though we have no diredt guarantee that we may never 
experience a more violent shock. Mr. Prodtor’s theory is that 
“ every earthquake indicates the continuance of the process of 
contraction which every orb in space undergoes till it has reached 
its final condition.” 
No. 23. September, 1884. 
“ The Chase of the Wild Red Deer ” may suggest a variety of 
refledtions even to those who, like ourselves, feel an exceedingly 
slight interest in “ sport ” of any kind, It is surely strange that 
a people so reckless of animal suffering in pursuit of amusement 
should be intolerant of a— generally — smaller amount of pain in 
putsuit of physiological knowledge. We must, however, frankly 
own that the chase of the wild red deer is a much more credit- 
able affair than the pursuit of a fat, timid, half-domestic animal, 
