391 
MISCELLANEA. 
The Calcutta Botanical Gardens.—Dr. Anderson’s official report of the damages 
•caused to the Calcutta Botanical Cardens by the cyclone of the 5th of October, 1864, has 
only just been published, owing to the mass of detail it was necessary to collect. The 
document may be called a cry of despair. The gale was more violent at the garden than 
at Calcutta itself, OAving to the place being nearer the centre of the cyclone, and more 
exposed to the full force of it. Few trees fell before 11 o’clock a.m., and none after 
4.30 p.m., yet within this short space of time a paradise was converted into a wilder¬ 
ness. The great baobab-tree of Africa Avas uprooted, and came down Avith a crash that 
caused vibrations in the earth felt at a distance of some hundred yards. Three 
gigantic specimens of iron-wood, the oldest in the garden, none less than 150 feet high, 
were levelled to the ground. Many of the most picturesque parts of the garden, re¬ 
sulting from the grouping of trees, no longer exist. Of the Avhole fine teak avenue 
leading to Kyd’s monument only two mutilated trees remain. Of the splendid grove of 
mahogany-trees, some of which Avere planted in 1796, thirty-one specimens are blown 
down. The iron-wood avenue, planted by Dr. Wallich, has suffered severely. The 
water, breaking through the river embankment, and flooding the grounds, helped to 
complete the ruin. The scene presented the morning after the cyclone outdoes descrip¬ 
tion. More than one thousand trees, and innumerable shrubs, lay prostrate. Nothing 
had been spared. Trees that had not fallen were more or less stripped of their branches. 
Not a vestige of a leaf, flower, or fruit remained; the Lawn, roads, and tanks Avere 
blocked up by trees and fallen branches, and hundreds of cartloads of straw had been 
carried by the water into the grounds. More than seventy years Avill be required to re¬ 
store the garden to the splendour in which it was on the night previous to the cyclone. 
The most singular part about this devastation is that, of the two great classes of plants 
into which the vegetable kingdom is divided, the endogens suffered the least injury. 
This produced a striking effect on the scenery. All the exogens being laid low, the 
country about Calcutta appeared to be covered Avith only four kinds of trees, the bamboo, 
the cocoa-nut, the wild date, and the Palmyra.— A theneeum. 
REVIEWS. 
A Guide to the Treatment of Diseases of the Skin : with Suggestions for their 
Prevention. For the use of the Student and General Practitioner. Illustrated by 
Cases. By Thomas Hunt, F.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Western Dispensary for Diseases 
of the Skin. Eighth Edition. London : T. Richards, 37, Great Queen Street. 1865. 
The author of the present volume is well known as a successful practitioner in 
the treatment of Skin Diseases. The fundamental principles of the author’s practice 
are—“ belief in the constitutional origin of chronic skin-diseases, of the general ineffi¬ 
cacy of topical treatment, of the necessity of revieiving the Avhole condition of the 
patient’s health and rectifying Avhat is wrong before adapting any specific treatment, 
.and the absolute necessity of arsenic as the final remedy.” 
The present edition (the eighth) has been carefully revised, and some neiv chapters 
have been added “ On Ring-worm and other Diseases of the Hairy Scalp,” and “ On 
Diseases of the Nails.” To all Avho require a concise and practical volume On the 
Treatment of Skin Diseases, the present Avorlc may be strongly recommended. 
The Fairy Tales of Science. A Book for Youth. By John Cargill Brough. With 
Sixteen Illustrations by Charles IT. Bennett. Second Edition, revised by the Author. 
London : Griffith and Farran, St. Paul’s Churchyard. 1866. 
The object of the author Avill be seen by the following extract from his preface :—• 
“ To place before the youthful student a compact and concise compendium of the lead¬ 
ing and most universally important branches of science, has been my principal object in 
the preparation of this little volume.” 
“ To adapt the work to the capacity of all, I have endeavoured to divest the principal 
subjects treated in it, of hard and dry technicalities, and to clothe them in the more 
attractive garb of fairy tales.” 
For essentially popular and sensational works on science, as a general rule, Ave' have a 
great dislike, as they are for the most part compiled by those Avho, Avhile possessing great 
