Notices of Books. 
271 
1878.] 
and is one of the best specimens of the kind that we have seen. 
The two chapters on Lenses and Apparatus will be of great 
assistance to the amateur purchaser, who frequently wastes an 
immense deal of time and money through being ignorant of his 
real requirements. The chapter “ On the Picture ” is a most 
valuable one from an artistic point of view. Not only are 
minute instructions given for obtaining artistic pictures instead 
of mere photographic transcripts, but the photographer is shown 
what is right and wrong by means of nearly a dozen beautifully 
executed woodcuts of scenery of all descriptions, taken from 
photographs by Manners Gordon, Woodbury, H. P. Robinson, 
and other masters of the craft. A chapter on aCtinometers and 
aCtinometry follows, and the remainder of the book is devoted to 
photo-speCtroscopy, celestial photography, micro-photography, 
and the miscellaneous applications of photography. 
We most cordially recommend Capt. Abney’s book to our 
readers. We regret to say that the Index to this important work 
is so meagre as to be almost useless. 
A Critical Examination of the Flints from Brixham Cavern. 
By A. Whitley. London : Hardwicke and Bogue. 
This pamphlet, which is a reprint from the “ Transactions of 
the Victoria Institute,” has for its objeCt to disprove that the 
flints found in the Brixham Cavern were knives, or otherwise 
show traces of human labour. The author brings to his task no 
small ingenuity, and a too obvious desire to make the most of 
every circumstance upon which the faintest doubt may be 
founded. This is the weak side of his argument ; we cannot 
trust a critic who speaks not as a judge, but as a most passionate 
advocate. That he has established a charge of carelessness 
against some of the discoverers and custodians of the relic in 
question is undeniable. 
Zoology of the Vertebrate Animals. By Alex. Macalister, 
M.D. London : Longmans and Co. 
This treatise is one of a series entitled the “ London Science 
Class Books,” edited by Messrs. G. C. Foster and P. Magnus. 
According to their Preface, these gentlemen consider that there 
is “ still a want of books adapted for school purposes upon seve- 
ral important branches of Science.” Their objedt being to 
supply this want, they have sought to obtain the co-operation of 
men who “ combine special knowledge of the subjects on which 
they write with practical experience in teaching.” 
