540 
Notices of Boohs. 
[October, 
for the twentieth time fully-recognised fads, or perhaps current 
errors. He was a specialist who, confining his attention to what 
some, perhaps, may deem a limited sphere, was within that 
sphere satisfied with nothing short of perfection. Whatever he 
did bears the royal stamp of thoroughness. Never was he con- 
tent with hearsay information if by any amount of labour it was 
possible to go to the fountain-head. As his friend and fellow- 
labourer Professor Fluckiger observes, — “ In countless instances 
second-hand knowledge could not stand its ground before his 
critical acumen, and had to give way before his superior observa- 
tions. Only the most trustworthy reports, samples, and speci- 
mens collected with the greatest care by a skilful hand satisfied 
him. The best book-knowledge offered for sale in the market 
did not content him, but he referred back to the sources of 
information, testing them minutely.” These attributes appear 
most strikingly manifested in the “ Pharmacographia,” the joint 
work of Fluckiger and himself, a compilation which — “ from the 
amount of its original matter, its laborious verification of fads, 
the accuracy of its references, and the extent of general erudition 
it reveals is perfectly unapproachable. It is to be regretted 
that a career so fruitful in the choicest results should have been 
brought to so early a close. 
The volume before us includes a memoir of the deceased 
savant , his scientific papers, his addresses and miscellaneous 
papers, and an obituary notice from the pen of Dr. Fluckiger. 
The editor has performed his task well, though we regret to find 
that he embraces and advocates the dangerous error that a life 
of business can be at the same time a life of scientific research. 
To this view we may refer elsewhere. 
The Chemistry of Light and Photography in their Application to 
Arty Science, and Industry. By Dr. Hermann Vogel. 
London: H. S. King and Co. 
This edition of Dr. Vogel’s work is undoubtedly an improvement 
upon the foregoing. Most of the errors, chemical and otherwise, 
Which disfigured the first edition have disappeared, and the 
English editor may be fairly congratulated upon having done his 
part satisfactorily. 
But with the work itself we are not perfectly satisfied. It is 
certainly a valuable treatise upon photography, but the chemistry 
of light is here, in our opinion, very insufficiently treated. The 
title naturally leads us to expeCt that the behaviour of all known 
classes of bodies, natural and artificial, under the influence of 
light, and the effeCts of the solar rays in promoting or hindering 
combinations and decompositions, would have been at any rate 
briefly noticed. But into the chemical and biochemical aCtion 
