likely to fall upon a well-known member of another college than whom no one could be found better qualified to carry on the traditions

of Mr. Wilson's influence.

MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS.

THE first number of the Bibliographer (Elliot Stock) promises well. It contains several bonnes bouches; but the contribution of most permanent value is doubtless that from the pen of Mr. Bradshaw, who argues that the "G. H." whose mark appears on the title of Tindale's New Testament of 1534-35 was the publisher of the book, Godfried van der Haghen, the Latinised form of whose name, Godefridus Dumaeus, occurs on several other Antwerp publications. Mr. Bradshaw's article, besides its intrinsic interest, has a further value as an illustration of sound bibliographical method. He writes:—

"If Panzer, the one true naturalist among general bibliographers, had more followers in the present day, our knowledge of these matters would advance very much more rapidly than it does. Put a book, about which you are anxious to learn something, among its fellows, that is, among the productions of the same and neighbouring presses, look at its surroundings for a few minutes, and your questions will solve themselves. You will be saved from all inducement to rash speculation. The facts will speak for themselves before you even have time to hazard a foolish conjecture.... I mention these things merely to show that what is wanted for the solution of a bibliographical problem is not ingenuity of speculation, but simply honest and patient observation of facts allowed to speak for hemselves. When will our leading bibliographers adopt this method in practice, and cease merely praising it in others?"

Mr. Blades is haunted by a certain "Thomas Bercula, Typographus," of London, whose name appears in two very rare editions of the Vulgaria Whitintoni. It is to be hoped, rather, perhaps, than expected, that some correspondent will be able to exorcise the mysterious revenant who is vexing the soul of the learned biographer of Caxton. Altogether, we regard Mr. Elliot Stock's new venture as a distinct addition to our resources. But could not the editors increase its attractions and usefulness by giving us a really satisfactory and trustworthy bibliography of the English publications of the month?

of one of those Roman amphitheatres which are found in the South of France, typifies the latest outcome of French democracy. He is king by virtue of his tongue. But when we find this same Roumestan to be a fervent Catholic, a strong Legitimist, the hope of the uncompromis ing Tories, it is impossible to help feeling that it is in La Vendée and not in Provence that th scene should have been laid. And it is con sequently universally believed, partly as a natural inference from the inconsistencies which are forced upon the reader all though the book, between Roumestan's position as a favourite of the people and his views as a supporter of the monarchy, and partly from

M. le Ministre. Par Jules Claretie. (Paris: the gossip of those who have pretension
Dentu.)

Numa Roumestan. Par Alphonse Daudet.
(Paris: Charpentier.)

THE last new play and the last new novel are
the supreme matters of interest to the real
Parisian. Just now there is one new play to
which all Paris is rushing, but there are two
new novels which all Paris is reading. Even
M. Gambetta and the "grand Ministère" can-
not alienate public interest from M. le Minis-
tre and Numa Roumestan. These two novels
are by very different hands, but there is a
curious similarity between M. Claretie's clever
story and M. Alphonse Daudet's brilliant book.
Both were suggested by the phase through
which French politics have been passing
during the past ten years. The interest in
both lies in the contrast between the public
careers and private characters of their respect-
ive heroes. In both the success and failure of the
modern French Minister are referred to causes
which can be aptly compared. M. Vaudray and
Numa Roumestan owe their triumphs rather to
their eloquence than their virtues. Paris is
willing to accept them, fresh with ingenuous
provincial ardour, as her rulers; but she forces
them to bow to her caprices, and cajoles them
into yielding to her ways. Either one may
excite her citizens with his eloquence, and rule
them with his maxims; but Paris insists upon
governing his passions, and dictating for him
his pleasures. It would not be fair to M.
Claretie to compare his method and style with
those of M. Daudet. The author of M. le
Ministre is a very clever and versatile writer,
while Alphonse Daudet is a master of his art.

THE Cornhill Magazine has a thoughtful study by the writer of Hours in a Library on "Car-M. lyle's Ethics," which is, perhaps, the most discriminating piece of analytical criticism on Carlyle that has yet appeared. The writer traces Carlyle's characteristics back to the original Puritanism which was the basis of his mind, and accounts for much by the remark, To the genuine Puritan a creed is nothing which does not immediately embody itself in a war-cry. An article on "Dangers from

le Ministre is full of incidents, some of which are exciting, contains numerous characters all admirably drawn, and is not without passion. It is difficult to say in what respect the book fails. And yet, no one can read it and then read Numa Roumestan without at once level. Perhaps the explanation may be found feeling that the two writers are on a different in this, that M. Claretie represents faithfully and brilliantly what he has seen passing before

to being well informed, that Roumestan as he first saw the light was as Liberal as he is now reactionary, and, with all his good nature, his aversion from giving pain, and his charm over the public mind, was the typical opportunist which consistency demands. It is in this inconsistency that the failure of the book lies, if there is any failure about it. That comparison should be instituted between M. Daudet's hero and the chief figure of French politics was inevitable, and was undoubtedly foreseen by the author. That the portrait was intended to be satirical there can be no reason to disbelieve; but whether M. Daudet originally meant the circumstances and sentiments of Roumestan to bear a still plainer likeness to those of M. Gambetta than they do, but was deterred by representation of common friends (though this is loudly asserted in Paris society and in the press), is one of those questions which will not be settled until it has long ceased to be of any interest.

The local colour, dashed on with an un sparing hand, is masterly in the extreme. M. Daudet's readers who remember the vigorous descriptions in Jack and Le Nabab will find no falling off in the account given in his last work of the Farandole danced in the amphitheatre at Aps, or the storm at Château-Bayard, where Roumestan composes his great Chambéry speech under circumstances which orators may envy, but will scarcely recal among their own experiences. The motto of the book, placed upon the flyleaf, explains M. Daudet's thought-"For the second time the Romans have conquered Gaul." M. Daudet's history of the second Roman coquest of his country is well worth the attention of his countrymen, who will, no doubt, in spite of his criticism of their manners and customs, with their usual candour be ready to admit that once more M. Daudet has conquered them.

R. B. BRETT.

THE Carlisle Patriot having mentioned Mr. Fletcher's letters in the ACADEMY on the subject of Wordsworth's birthplace, the only

WORDSWORTH'S BIRTHPLACE.

his eyes in the Paris he knows so well; whereas dread of being burned up by the increase of the he-without tedious analysis or long disquisitions sun's heat consequent on its absorption some day-contrives to suggest the causes which underof an unwary comet. The writer of "Political Spies" has some curious stories to tell of the subterranean part of government, from which no system is entirely exempt. A paper on "Greek Songs in Calabria points out the traces still surviving of the old connexion between South Italy and Greece.

Comets" will reassure timid people who live in M. Daudet does this and something more, for surviving son of the poet writes to our Northern

lie the effects he is describing. In short, M.
Claretie has given to the world an exciting and
panorama; whereas M. Daudet has

realistic

produced a well-composed and perfectly acted
play. M. le Ministre will bear reading, and can
scarcely fail to be enjoyed, but the character
and adventures of M. Vaudray neither ask for
nor require detailed criticism.

It is universally believed that the first sketch
of Numa Roumestan differed in an essential par-
ticular from the book as finally published. The
Roumestan of whom we read is a native of the
Midi of France, born and bred in one of those
Southern towns which have contrived to preserve
traces, in their architecture and in the disposition
of their people, of Latin life. Roumestan,
speaking in magniloquent provincial French to
enthusiastic crowds grouped among the ruins

contemporary as follows:

"Sir, I think I can ease Mr. J. S. Fletcher's Shortly after the late Mr. Wood's parents went to mind as to where Wordsworth was born.' reside at what is now called Wordsworth House, Cockermouth,' my father took me to call upon them; and he then showed to Mrs. Wood and myself the room, one looking upon the River Der went, in which he was born! If I be not mistaked, his baptismal register may be found at Penrith, He and his sister Dorothy (born December 25, 1771) were both christened at the same time. Mrs. Lodge, of Castle Street, Carlisle, was my father's godmother, of which fact she often in her last years with pleasure reminded me. baptism, be it where it may, cannot be prior to 1773, most probably 1774, for I have the im pression of being told he was in his fourth or fifth year when it took place.-I am, Sir, yours truly,

The date of the

"WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. "Willow Brook, Eton, Windsor, Nov. 26, 1881. "PS.-If my father's baptism be not found st

THE STATUE OF MARCO POLO AT VENICE. Newton Abbot: Dec. 3, 1881. At the time of the meeting of the Geographical Congress at Venice I called attention to this statue in a periodical printed in China, but did not think it would interest people in England. As Capt Burton has, however, suggested that the subject deserves discussion, may I trouble you with a few lines?

More than one writer has fallen into error Leipzig: Teubner. respecting the personages represented in the Temple of the 500 Genii at Canton. Thus one writer asserts that

"this temple contains representations of nearly,
if not all [sic], the heathen deities of the East, and
painfully impresses one with a sense of the moral
darkness and gross superstition of the people. It
deserves to be called the Pantheon of Canton."
It may be remarked that the subject has been

Such is the opinion of one who was the most learned Arabic scholar in Europe about the completeness of the copy from which he made his magnificent translation of The Thousand and One Nights. On the other hand, the Villon circular alleges that none of the existing versions comprises more than a third of the original. The vague reply given by Mr. Hutt leaves me still in the dark respect ing the sources from which the hitherto missing two-thirds have been obtained. "The Calcutta text" is plain enough, but not so the same text "supplemented and collated with the other [which ?] standard texts."

I shall look forward with great curiosity and interest to the promised new version; for if Mr. Payne accomplishes his task, as it is described in the circular, not only by supplying all that other versions have omitted, but also by giving a complete translation of all the prose and poetry in the Arabic texts, and that without getting his book proscribed, he will have accomplished a literary feat superior to that of his English rendering of Villon's poems.

GEORGE PERCY BADGER.

British Museum: Dec. 7, 1881.

Gerlach.

Trinity College, Oxford: Nov. 25, 1881.

name to the Bodleian officials.

AN ERROR IN PAULY'S" REAL-ENCYCLOPAEDIE." in the history of the world against the adverse
judgment of M. Renan. Dr. Hommel claims
A correction of an error in Pauly's Real- that the religious mission the race has fulfilled
Encyclopidie may be worth putting on record in is the noblest which could be given to man.
the ACADEMY. The second edition of Pauly He urges that, although the Indo-Euro-
(1866) has an article on Britain written by
has
pean now outstripped the Semite in
The ninth foot-note, after naming
art and science, we must not forget that
some other works on Britain, goes on to say:
the Roman Occupation, London, 1858."
"Ueberhaupt J. P. Morgan, England under the germs of Greek art were derived from
So Phoenicia and Assyria at a time when our
curious a title alone would have roused my ancestors were still barbarians; and that,
attention, and I looked for the book in the Bod- while the alphabet itself was, as its name
leian Catalogue. Not finding it there, I sent the declares, of Semitic origin, it was the Arabs
kindly looked up the matter for me, and brought
They very who kept alight the torch of science and
to light the fact that the book, which is lying philosophy during the darkness of the Middle
before me now, is really called England under Ages. The intolerance and the degradation
the Norman Occupation. It was published in of women laid to the charge of the Semites
1858 by Williams and Norgate.
he would refer to other causes; he might
have added that the harem was borrowed by
the Moslems from Christian Byzantium and
Indo-European Greece. It may be questioned,
however, whether Dr. Hommel is right, in
common with Renan and Grau, in ascribing
a primitive monotheism to the Semites.
It is doubtless true that many of the gods
of Assyria and Canaan may be shown

The mistake apparently took its rise in the
Publisher's Circular of June 1858, where the
book is advertised with the word "Roman on
on p. 239. It
P. 233, and the word "Norman"
is correctly given in the English Catalogue,
1864. But in the Index to the English Cata-
logue, 1876, it appears as "England under the
Romans." It is reviewed, of course under its
right name, in the Gentleman's Magazine of
August 1858.

Gerlach, one must infer, can never have seen
even the title-page of the book which he spe-
cially recommends. FRANKLIN T. RICHARDS.

APPOINTMENTS FOR NEXT WEEK.

Hoof," by the Rev. J. G. Wood.
7.30 p.m.
Education: Mr. Herbert Spencer's
Educational Writings," by Mrs. Bryant.
8 p.m.
Royal Academy: "Green Pigments," by
Prof. A. H. Church.

The object of my letter on this subject in the MONDAY, Dec. 12, 5 p.m. London Institution: "The Horse's last number of the ACADEMY not having been understood by those who did not refer to my previous letter of April 26, 1879, I write to explain that this previous letter proved the worthlessness of the translation in question.

REGD. STUART POOLE.

DR. LÜDTKE'S "THE ERL OF TOLOUS AND THE
EMPERES OF ALMAYN."

8 p.m. Society of Arts: Cantor Lecture, "Some of

Mr. Thomas Bolas.

"The Melanesian, Malay, and Polynesian Languages,"
by the Rev. H. Codrington; "Some Vestiges of Girl-
sacrifices, Jar-burial, and Contracted Interments in India
and the East," by Mr. M. J. Walhouse; "Origin and

to have been borrowed from the Accadians

of early Babylonia; but this is not the case with all of them, and certainly not with those of pre-Islamitic Arabia. The "natural" religion of the Semites seems really to have been an inverted pantheism, which, instead of resolving the Deity into the world, resolved the world into the Deity. Hence the Deity could be worshipped under as many aspects as the world of nature presented. Dr. the Industrial Uses of the Calcium Compounds," IV., by Hommel disputes the title that has been 8.30 p.m. Geographical: "The Searches for the given to Assyrian of being the Sanskrit of United States Jeannette Expedition." by Mr. Clements the Semitic languages, and claims it rather R. Markham; "The Dutch Arctic Voyages, with Notes on the Position of Mr. Leigh Smith," for Arabic. by Commodore But Assyrian, like Sanskrit, Jansen. offers us contemporaneous records of Semitic TUESDAY, Dec. 13, 8 pm. Anthropological: Discussion; speech far older than any others known to us; while, at the same time, it is at once richer and more archaic in respect of grammatical forms, and its system of writing has preserved the vocalisation of every word. Assyrian sounds have no doubt suffered more from phonetic decay than Arabic ones; but the vocalisation of Sanskrit also is less primitive than that of Greek, while the so-called cerebral letters can hardly have belonged to the parent Aryan. Moreover, if Arabic has been more conservative than Assyrian in the matter of consonants, it has been less so as regards accentuation. We hope that Dr. Hommel will soon publish the rest of his promised work on "the Semitic populations and languages," to which these lectures are intended to serve as an introduction. A. H. SAYCE.

Primitive Home of the Semites," by M. G. Bertin.

8 p.m.
Present, and Future," by Mr. T. Risely Griffith.
8 p.m. Institution of Civil Engineers.
8 p.m. Photographic.

Colonial Institute: "Sierra Leone: Past,

8.30 p.m. Zoological: "The Whale Fishery in the

Basque Provinces of Spain," by Mr. Clements R. Markham;

Berlin, 8W., Kleinbeerenstrasse 7: Dec. 3, 1881. The anonymous reviewer of Dr. Lüdtke's edition of The Erl of Tolous and the Emperes of Almayn in the ACADEMY for November 26 is very far from doing it justice. I do not mean to defend Dr. Lüdtke's alterations of the old spelling (for I, too, think them arbitrary); but I cannot help wondering that the reviewer should have had nothing else to say about the book. Is there nothing in it deserving of some little praise? The text of Dr. Lüdtke is based upon all the known MSS. of the poem, and his Introduction is full of very interesting matter. I 8 p.m. Microscopical: "Further Observations on will only mention that Dr. Lüdtke has dis- British Oribatidae," by Mr. A. D. Michael; "A Hot and Cold Stage for the Microscope," by Mr. W. H. Symons. covered, and conclusively proved, that the 8 p.m. Telegraph Engineers and Electricians. Emperes of Almayn of that poem is identical 8 p.m. Zetetical: "The Liquor Traffic on its Trial," with Judith, wife to the German Emperor Tub, Lev. 15, 7 p.m. London Institution: "Electricity by the Dawson Burns.

Lewis the Pious.

J. ZUPITZA.

THE EXISTENCE OF THE "SUTTA-NIPATA" IN
CHINESE.

Wark Rectory: Dec. 5, 1881. In reply to the letter from Dr. Morris in the last number of the ACADEMY respecting the existence of the "Sutta-Nipata" in Chinese, I have found one sutta at least belonging to that work in the Chinese version of the Samyutta Nikaya, and I can have no doubt there are others. The one I refer to is the Kasibháravaja sutta.

I send you a copy of my translation of it.

"The Condition of the Median Portion of the Vaginal Apparatus in the Macropodidae," by Messrs. J. J. Lister WEDNESDAY, Dec. 14, 8 p.m. Royal Academy: "Blue Pig

and J. J. Fletcher.

ments," by Prof. A. H. Church.

8 p.m. Society of Arts: "Electric Lighting at the

Paris Electrical Exhibition," by Mr. W. H. Preece.

versus Smoke," by Prof. O. J. Lodge.

8 p.m. Linnean: "Some Points in the Morphology of the Test of the Temnopleuridae," by Prof. P. M. Duncan; "Abies Pattonii," by Prof. W. R. McNab; The Digastric Muscle, its Modifications and Functions,' by Dr. Geo. E. Dobson; "New Species of Cotton from East Tropical Africa," by Dr. Maxwell Masters; "Mollusca of the Challenger Expedition," XI., by the Rev. R. Boog Watson.

8 p.m. Society of Arts: Discussion, "The Patent

Bill prepared by the Society."

8,30 pm. Antiquaries.

CURRENT SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. Essays on the Floating Matter of the Air in Relation to Putrefaction and Infection. By John Tyndall, F.R.S. (Longmans.) Several papers and memoirs, bearing partly on the spontaneous generation controversy which raged so actively a few years ago, partly on the relation of living organisms to disease, are here republished in collected form. The first branch of the subject is less interesting than the second; for to Bastian is, at the present time, a mere killing of the slain. Still, it is of some moment that the general public should have an opportunity of seeing how forcible the evidence is, and how multiform; and there is no one who can bring

If it is not too long for your columns, perhaps Die Semiten und ihre Bedeutung für die supply additional evidence against Pouchet and

you will kindly print it.

[We have forwarded the Morris.-ED. ACADEMY.]

S. BEAL. enclosure to Dr.

Kulturgeschichte. By Fritz Hommel.
(Leipzig: Schulze.)

THIS pleasantly written little book is a vindica-
tion of the part played by the Semitic race

T

66

66

by the Editors;" (2) "List of the Mediterranean Mollusca," by the Marquis Monterosato; (3) Descriptions of Some New Sicilian Beetles," by Enrico Ragusa; (4) On Some New and Rare Plants of Sicily; (5) "On the Corallines and Fossil Shells of Sicily; " (6) "Description of a Liliputian Variety of Papilio Machaon." A very well executed steel plate, representing seven species of the insects described in the above memoirs, accompanies this first part. The work is published at a cheap price, the annual subscription being only 8 frs.

OBITUARY.

IN continuation of the brief obituary notice of Mgr. Comboni in the ACADEMY of October 29, we now learn that he died at Khartum on October 10 from a violent attack of fever. He had returned to that place on August 6 with his constitution seriously injured by the great fatigue of his four months' journey to El Obeid, Delen, and the Nuba Mountains, and for several weeks afterwards suffered from insomnia. He was in his fifty-first year at the time of his death, and had spent nearly half his life in Africa. In a letter written to a friend in Italy but a few days before his death, he said that during his visit to the Nuba region he had prepared a new map of the whole of that mountainous country, which he intended to publish; and that his companion, Père Losi, had compiled a dictionary of the native language, containing 3,000 words in ordinary use. He added that he was expecting shortly to leave Khartum for the Albert Nyanza in company with Raouf Pasha, and that they hoped to return about the end of November, after exploring the shores of the lake.

this home to them so well as Prof. Tyndall. logical structure. The book which he has just The pathogenic function of bacteroid organisms written is, therefore, not merely an epitome of is a more pregnant and interesting topic; and the works of the numerous geologists who have the progress made of late years in this field of worked in Yorkshire and written upon it; but enquiry inspires the author with just enthusiasm. it is a neat sketch displaying all the freshness He shares Pasteur's hope that all communicable of knowledge at first hand. Those who desire diseases will one day be swept from the surface a small and safe guide to the geology of of the earth. This, however, is but a dream-Yorkshire will find it in Mr. Bird's book and though a dream that may come true. But the his accompanying map. application of the antiseptic principle to surgical Anniversary Memoirs of the Boston Society operations, the prevention of splenic fever among the lower animals, the victory over the of Natural History. Published in Celebration silk-worm disease-these are no longer realisable, of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Society's but realised. It is gratifying to find that Prof. Boston Society of Natural History, one of the Foundation. 1830-80. (Boston, U.S.A.) The Tyndall recognises the impossibility of making most important associations for the diffusion of progress in biology without the aid of experi-natural science in the United States, which was ment; especially as more than one eminent physicist has allowed his name to be used by established about the same time as the British the anti-vivisection agitators. Tyndall's lan- Association, celebrated last year the fiftieth guage is moderate, but plain enough. He says, year of its existence by the publication of the remarkable volume just received, which, in an "It is exceedingly important that the properly in. Introduction of 250 pages, gives a complete formed sense of the community should temper, if history of the society and its labours, as well as not restrain, the rashness of those who, meaning those of the Linnaean Society of New England, to be tender, become agents of cruelty by the im- which preceded it; together with biographical position of short-sighted restrictions upon physio- notices of all the Boston Society's past memlogical investigation. It is a modern instance of zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, the bers, officers, and benefactors, including Benjaexcesses of which must be corrected by an inmin D. Greene, George B. Emerson, Amos structed public opinion." Binney, John C. Warren, Jeffries Wyman, Thomas T. Bouvé, Augustus A. Gould, D. Humphreys Storer, and William J. Walker, of all of whom admirable photographic portraits are given. This Introduction is followed by thirteen scientific papers of varied interest, of which it will suffice to give the titles and names of their authors :-(1) Propositions concerning the Classification of Lavas considered with Reference to the Circumstances of their Extrusion," by N. S. Shaler; (2) "Genesis and Evolution of the Species of Planorbis at Steinheim," by Alpheus Hyatt; (3) "The Devonian Insects of New Brunswick," by Samuel H. Scudder, with a Note on the geological relations of the fossil insects from the Devonian of New Brunswick by Principal J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., &c.; (4) "The GymnoSporangia (Cedar-apples) of the United States," by W. G. Farlow; (5) "A New Structural Feature, hitherto unknown among the EchinoHealth Lectures for the People. Delivered in dermata, found in Deep-sea Ophiurans," by Manchester. Fourth Series. (John Heywood.) Theodore Lyman; (6) The Development of This little volume contains eight lectures, the Squid (Loligo Pealii, Lesueur)," by W. K. A CURIOUS discovery has been made at delivered under the auspices of the Manchester Brooks; (7) "The Anatomy, Histology, and Amwâs of an Ionic capital with the words and Salford Sanitary Association, on such Embryology of the King Crab (Limulus poly-els eós on one side, and on the other, in subjects as food, clothing, cleanliness, infection, phemus)," by A. S. Packard, jun.; (8) "Contri- Phoenician characters, the words, "Blessed The lecturers are men of acknow-butions to the Anatomy of the Milk-weed ledged competence in their several depart- Butterfly (Danais archippus, Fabr.)," by Edward ments. Popular hygienic literature has grown Burgess (9) "The Development of a Doublerapidly of late years, but its quality-or rather headed Vertebrate (Amblystoma punctatum)," its adaptation to the special requirements of by Samuel F. Clarke; (10) "Studies on the uninstructed persons-has not always kept pace Tongue of Reptiles and Birds," by Charles with its growth in quantity. It is pleasant to Sedgwick Minot; (11) "On the Identity of come across a volume like this, of whose con- the Ascending Process of the Astragalus in tents one can speak with unqualified approval. Birds with the Intermedium," by Edward S. It is not enough to lay down general principles. Morse; (12) The Crania of New England The ordinary reader must be told exactly what Indians," by Lucien Carr; and (13) he ought to do. This is even more important Feeling of Effort," by William James. These than explaining why he ought to do it. This thirteen memoirs occupy 380 pages of the truth has been fairly grasped by most of the volume, and are admirably illustrated by thirtyManchester lecturers, and their exertions cannot two plates, executed in the highest state of art; fail to improve the sanitary condition of the the multitudinous fossil species of Planorbis population amid which they work. being represented of the natural size in nine photographic plates, the first of which contains not fewer than 228 figures. The volume is, in fact, a worthy rival of the Philosophical Transactions of our Royal Society.

Annals of Chemical Medicine. Vol. II. Edited by J. L. W. Thudichum, M.D. (Longmans.) This volume is very like its predecessor. It contains a reprint of researches on the chemical constitution of the brain, which first appeared in the Privy Council Medical Reports, together with a number of "summaries" or abstracts of the researches of other chemists and pathologists. These summaries are not always remarkable for their completeness; and it is a question how far the "original matter" scattered through them may be considered as adding to their value. Dr. Thudichum's views on pathology and its relations to chemistry are by this time familiar to all who are interested in either subject; it is enough, therefore, to say that the present volume contains many illustrations of the author's strength-a few, perhaps, of his weakness also.

and so on.

A Short Sketch of the Geology of Yorkshire. By Charles Bird, B.A. (London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; Bradford: Thomas Brear.) It is probable that the return of the British Association to York to celebrate its jubilee had something to do with the issue of this little work. At any rate, it made its appearance at a very opportune moment. Mr. Bird, who was for some time connected with the Bradford Grammar School, has delighted to spend his spare time in roaming among the beautiful and diversified scenery of Yorkshire, studying as an amateur its physical features and its geo

66

66

The

Il Naturalista siciliano, Giornale de Scienze naturali. No. 1. Ottobre 1881. (Palermo.) We have here the first number of a new scientific monthly periodical from Sicily; and may be allowed to congratulate the naturalists of the South of Europe in the progress of science which has called forth this new work. The first number is handsomely printed, and contains the following articles :-(1) "Address

TRAVEL NOTES.

LIEUT. CONDER has made a careful exploration
of the tunnel connected with the Pool of Siloam;
he can find no trace of any other inscriptions,
but he has discovered the point where the
workmen met, and has observed marks of
measurements. Meantime, M. Clermont Gan-
and Dr. Ginsburg is also engaged upon it.
neau has promised a paper on the inscription,

be his name for ever."

M. Clermont Ganneau has sent a long and very interesting communication on this subject to the committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, which will be published in the January number of the society's Journal.

LIEUT. CONDER is encamped at Ain Yalo, a few miles south-west of Jerusalem, where he is engaged in reducing to shape the results of his first campaign in Eastern Palestine. He reports that the gate recently discovered in the east wall of the Haram is of small importance, being built in the modern masonry. The wall itself, he says, is falling to pieces.

MR. F. A. A. SIMONS' excellent paper on the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta and its watershed is published in the current number of the Monthly Record of Geography, with a map drawn will enable students to understand, as they from his own surveys; and the two combined have never done before, many episodes in the early Spanish occupation of that part of South America. The Geographical Notes are largely devoted to Arctic matters; and the visits of the Thomas Corwin and the Rodgers to Wrangel Land and the cruise of the Alliance between Greenland and Spitzbergen-all in search of the Jeannette-are fully discussed. Mr. H. M. Stanley's ascent of the Congo to Stanley Pool is referred to, as well as his recent determina