1876.] 
Notices of Books. 
265 
facfl ; but, even then, we shall require much further evidence 
before admitting the existence of a “ transparent metallic shell” 
enveloping the globe. 
The following passage is likewise worthy of attention: — “We 
account for its [electricity] being a fluid, pervading everything, 
in perpetual motion, always trying to find its own level, but 
never doing so, by the fadt that we compare it to the * heart of 
minerals,’ which, being constantly taken away from them, re- 
quires continually to be replaced ; and when given off, and not 
replaced, causes the mineral to fall or crumble away into dust. 
Many have seen this in the case of iron when — lying in the form 
of anchors, guns, cables, &c. — it is exposed to atmospheric 
influences which produce rust. In time the whole ponderous 
mass is converted into oxide of iron, which, nevertheless, can 
be revivified when again subjected to heat. Whilst undergoing 
the process of re-melting it throws off its oxygen into the carbon, 
and re-imbibes that which it had originally lost and thrown out 
into the atmosphere.” This “ heart of minerals ” is something 
with which we should like to be better acquainted. Can our 
author prove its existence, or show its properties and its com- 
position ? Some minerals, indeed, crumble to dust by the loss 
of water; but this is certainly not the case with iron, which, to 
the best of human knowledge, does not give off anything, but, 
on the contrary, receives something when it rusts away under 
the influence of the atmosphere. EleCtricity, according to the 
author, is not a mode of force, but a substantive entity which he 
describes as a fluid, gas, or body (call it what you like). The 
view that aerolites are formed within the earth’s atmosphere 
Lieut. Armit thinks is “ proved by their containing one-third of 
all the simple bodies known to exist in the earth !” This, we 
must beg to say, is no proof at all, unless it could be shown that 
these simple bodies were exclusively peculiar to the earth. That 
they have contained hitherto no matter foreign to our globe is 
also no argument in favour of their terrestrial origin. If the 
suns and planets have been formed, as we now consider, by the 
condensation of cosmic nebulas, we must naturally expedt that 
their elements will be alike. 
One of the author’s views — which if well founded is capable 
of diredt experimental verification- — is that the compass is 
affedted, in a cnanner not as yet ascertained, by, or at least 
during, foggy weather. To this abnormal variation he attri- 
butes the recent loss of the Schiller, off the Scilly Islands. 
This is surely a matter which requires prompt and careful inves- 
tigation. 
We are far from pronouncing this work to be absolutely 
worthless. It contains much interesting and useful matter, but 
it requires a careful revision and the expurgation of certain 
crudities. What, for instance, must the reader think who reads 
that “ India never lacks moisture,” and is then told— on the very 
