418 Notices of Books. [July, 
That other capitals are also deficient in collections of this kind 
is a poor apology for London. 
Still more important is the paper, read by Prof. Frankland on 
behalf of Prof. Fremy, on the Endowment of Scientific Research. 
Our own opinions on this subjeCt have been repeatedly declared ; 
but it is with great satisfaction that we find them essentially 
shared by a man of science of the standing, authority, and expe- 
rience of M. Fremy, who has for years been earnestly striving to 
resuscitate original research in France, and who has even insti- 
tuted a laboratory in which students who have completed their 
chemical education are received and allowed to work gratis. We 
are very happy to find Prof. Fremy’s paper thus laid before the 
British public under the authority of the Educational Committee 
of the Privy Council. 
An interesting faCt, “ not generally known,” occurs in Dr. 
Gilbert’s able paper on “ Some Points in the Nutrition of Ani- 
mals.” We learn that on comparing the ox, the sheep, the pig, 
and man, the proportion of stomach by weight is approximately 
in oxen 3*2 per cent, in sheep 2*44, in pigs 0’88, and in man only 
0*38. The author draws hence the very natural inference that 
the pig requires a more concentrated and digestible food than 
sheep and oxen, whilst man, on the other hand, requires a still 
more concentrated food than the pig, the practical conclusion — 
unwelcome to vegetarians — being that “ man was not made to 
consume potatoes and cabbages by the bushel.” 
Some remarks made by Prof. Duncan must be very interesting 
to all inquirers into the distribution of organic life upon the sur- 
face of the globe. He declares that “ there is a remarkable 
isolation, so to speak, of the flora of South-Western Australia. 
It is isolated from that of South-Eastern Australia, but it is most 
remarkable in its African affinities, necessitating a belief in the 
former existence of some land connection between Africa and 
Western Australia. Again, we find the flora of New Zealand 
connected with South America and with Eastern Australia.” 
These conclusions, and indeed the facts upon which they repose, 
seem scarcely to harmonise with the views of Mr. A. R. Wallace 
and other authorities, based upon a consideration of the distribu- 
tion of animal life. 
There is much other matter in this useful and instructive 
volume which we should be glad to particularise did space permit. 
We merely mention the interesting paper by Dr. Cornelius B. 
Fox, on the Use of Aspirators in Atmospheric Ozonometry ; 
Prof. Donder’s memoir on the Velocity of Thought, which when 
brought to the test is found to be incalculably smaller than was 
supposed by poets and moralists ; and Dr. Royston Pigott’s 
notice of the Microscopic Researches of Dr. Drysdale and the 
Rev. E. Dallinger. The author remarks that “ all conclusions 
founded upon the non-appearance of animalcules in a given fluid, 
as seen by microscopes of very great cost and power, fall to the 
