104 Notices of Books . [January, 
Mr. F. J. Pirani contributes a memoir on “ Some Processes of 
Scientific Reasoning.” The following passage may interest 
some of our readers : — “ Chemistry is almost entirely based on 
ideal construction. We popularly employ the term ‘ gold ’ to 
denote various objects which possess certain properties of weight, 
colour, &c. ; but the gold of the chemist is an ideal conception, 
bearing the same relation to real gold as a geometrical sphere 
does to a real sphere.” 
“ Notes on the Discovery of some Keys in the Shore Forma- 
tion of Corio Bay, near Geelong,” by Mr. T. Rawlinson, conveys 
the impression that in 1845 or 1846 a bunch of keys, of modern 
make, had been found in situ in a shelly bed on the shore, at the 
depth of about 15 feet below the surface. A note by Mr. R. C. 
Gunn, F.R.S., however, renders it probatle that the keys, though 
found at the bottom of the shaft, must have been accidentally 
dropped in from above. The lime-burner who found them 
admits that he did not pick them out of the stratum of shells. 
Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., contributes a paper on the Upper 
Palaeozoic Polyzoa of Queensland. 
Mr. A. M. Smith’s “ Notes concerning the Phenomena of the 
Approach and Recession of Bodies under the Influence of 
Radiant Energy ” summarise the history of the Radiometer 
down to June, 1875. 
The papers on “ Surcharge of the Bullion Assay,” by Mr. R. 
Barton, and on a “ Proposed New Method of Weighing appli- 
cable to the Gold Bullion Assay,” by Mr. G. Foord, though 
interesting, cannot be rendered intelligible without the accom- 
panying diagrams. 
Papers and Proceedings and Report of the Royal Society of 
Tasmania , for 1875. Hobart Town : Mercury Office. 
The papers here presented to the learned world relate principally 
to botany, malacology, and geology. In a discussion which took 
place after reading the Rev. J. E. T. Wood’s paper, on the 
“ Fresh-water Shells of Tasmania,” some interesting statements 
were made concerning the date of extinction of the moa 
( Dinornis ) of New Zealand. The Governor, Sir Aloysius Weld, 
announced that he had been the first European who had visited 
the Kaikora country, in the southern island, and that he had 
been warned by the natives to beware of approaching the moa 
from behind, as it would kick, and might probably break his leg. 
They thus showed their acquaintance with the habits of birds of 
the ostrich family. With reference to the gigantic extinffi eagle 
(Harpagou Moorei) he was told by an old chief that on the tops 
of the mountains an enormous bird, of a rufous colour, built its 
