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Notices of Books . 
119 
The Empire of Brazil at the Universal Exhibition of 1876 in 
Philadelphia. Rio de Janeiro : Typographia e Lithographia 
do Imperial Instituto Artistico. 1876. 
The only works hitherto published which afford very complete 
information respecting the Empire of Brazil are the “ Breve 
Noticia ” and “ 0 Imperio do Brazil,” prepared for the Paris and 
Vienna Exhibitions of 1867 and 1873. In the interval which has 
elapsed since the latter publication was issued Brazil has in some 
respects improved her position among the nations of the earth, 
and the compilers of the works referred to have thought it due 
to “ the old and constant friendship which links the two 
countries,” no less than the important commercial relations 
existing between them, to issue the volume under notice for the 
Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. 
The work deals with almost every conceivable subject, and 
supplies ample information on all ; but, perhaps, the chapters 
which will be read with most interest are those which treat of 
the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, the last-named 
being, on the whole, the most attractive. The compilers have 
wisely published the result of their labours in English, and, con- 
sidering the great disadvantages with which they must have had 
to contend, we are bound to admit that the mistakes in spelling 
and dicffion are much fewer than might have been expecfted. 
Rain and Rivers , or Hutton and Playfair against Lyell and 
All Comers. By Colonel George Greenwood. London : 
Longmans and Co. 
This somewhat fantastic title introduces to us a work which may 
perhaps be regarded as a contribution to geological science, or 
perhaps as an attempt to annul the larger portion of that science} 
and to render its reconstruction, in anything like its present ex- 
tent and importance, an impossibility. Colonel Greenwood’s 
direct and immediate purpose is to show, in opposition to Lyell, 
that valleys have not been formed by the acftion of oceanic 
currents, waves, &c., prior to or during the elevation of the land, 
but are of atmospheric origin, having been gradually excavated 
by “ rain and rivers.” For this view scientific evidence is ad- 
duced. But the author maintains other propositions, no less 
zealously, though with much less foundation in facffs or in sound 
argument. Thus he tells us that “ man and the mammalia — - 
that is, the most perfect creatures — may have existed on the 
land from the beginning, and before the first strata were formed 
in the sea, and consequently that Darwinism and the develop- 
ment-theory are myths. The land is the region of perpetual 
