PRACTICAL HYDROPATHY, by JOHN SMEDLEY CAUDWELL, is an elaborate account of the innumerable ways in which water may be applied as a remedial agent.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF NOVA SCOTIA, by J. MATTHEW JONES, F.L.S. Privately printed. Halifax, N.S. Part I.Mr. Jones is engaged in the useful task of ascertaining what species of fish on the N.E. coast of America are identical with those of Europe, and in this paper he shows the effect of oceanic currents in enabling certain fishes to make long journeys, and of floating masses of sea-weed in transporting littoral species, which would have not been able to migrate without such locomotive aid.

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ENGLAND'S WORKSHOPS, by Dr. G. L. M. STRAUSS, C. W. QUIN, F.C.S., JOHN C. BROUGH, THOMAS ARCHER, W. B. TEGETMEIER, W. J. PROWSE. Groombridge and Sons.-It was a very good idea to collect together in one book a popular and readable account of many of the principal "workshops" in which manufacturing skill and industry are displayed. The establishments described range under the heads of "Metal Workshops," ," "Chemical Workshops," "Glass Workshops," "Provision and Supply Workshops,' and "Domestic Workshops," the last title not being very appropriate, as cotton goods and pianofortes are not more domestic" than Price's candles, or Birmingham trays. The number of establishments visited and described is forty-one, and the information, which is very pleasantly given, takes a very wide range. There are very few readers who will not be interested in these pages, but we especially commend the work to young persons entering upon the active duties of life, as they will glean from it much valuable information to direct their choice of an occupation suited to their capacities and tastes. It might also be made a very useful book for class reading in schools, as it goes deep enough into a host of technical and scientific questions to lay a good foundation, and is written in a lively, entertaining style. The enormous number of occupations requiring a large amount of scientific and technical knowledge, is one of the most remarkable features of our age, and we cannot read an account of our national labours in iron, steel, brass, and other metals, or of our great glass works and chemical factories, without being convinced that industrial necessities are compelling a very high degree of education, and leaving comparatively small chance of success for those who neglect the diligent cultivation of the mind.

OUR ENGLISH LAKES, MOUNTAINS, AND WATERFALLS, as seen by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Photographically illustrated. Small 4to. A. W. Bennett.-The admirers of Wordsworth-and they are found in all true English homes-will thank Mr. Bennett for this splendid volume. The selections from the poet, who best understood our "English lakes, mountains, and waterfalls," are very numerous, and made with great judgment, while the photographs, thirteen in number, admirably taken by Mr. Ogle, bring before us the varied beauties of the district in which he lived and wrote. The Fall of

Rydale, Dungeon-Ghyll, Langdale, Honister Crag, and Aira Force are among the most striking of the exquisite views; but the calm repose of Grasmere, the variety of Rydale Water, and the stern, feudal physiognomy of Brougham Castle, the old home of the Cliffords, all help to connect the rhyme of the poet with the objects that inspired his undying verse. We ought also to put in a word of special commendation for the initial letters and tail-pieces, which exhibit an unusual elegance of fancy, combined with artistic skill in dealing with floral forms. As "intellectual observers," we are glad to find the revival of a taste for beautiful books. Cheapness is all very well in its way, but every one, who can afford it, should endeavour to possess some specimens of favourite authors worthily treated in all that concerns paper, binding, typography, and illustration; and for those who share this feeling the volume before us has been judiciously produced.

RUINED ABBEYS AND CASTLES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, by WILLIAM HOWITT. Second Series. The photographic illustrations by Thompson, Sedgfield, Ogle, and Hemphill, fcap. 4to. Alfred W. Bennett.-In dealing with architectural relics of the olden time there is nothing like photography for ensuring that accuracy which is so essential to the value of archæological illustrations, and the specimens of sun pictures with which this work is adorned possess a high degree of excellence. In the frontispiece we look through the trees of the village at Kenilworth Castle, and the introduction of the landscape brings out in a striking way the magnitude and power of the grand baronial pile, associated with so many proud reminiscences of British history, associated also with much folly and crime. "Mervyn's Tower," in the same building, is admirably given, and we almost expect to see the mantling ivy wave its branches as the wind passes the window arch. Another striking picture is Whitby Abbey, one of the finest of our ecclesiastical ruins. We recognize also the elegance of Netley, and regret that tradition has done less than vegetation to add a charm to its beautiful remains. Far different is it with Croyland, whose west front makes an admirable picture, or with Lindisfarne, both of which are well known in story, and whose likeness many will rejoice to possess. Among less known ruins, we notice a highly pictorial photograph of Castlemere Priory, in Norfolk, the west front of which is a model of Norman skill. Dryburgh Abbey, so well known to the readers of Scott, affords another romantic view, quite in keeping with the sad end of the "Lady of Smailholme," as told in the "Eve of St. John." Ireland is not forgotten in the series, as we have a fine round tower in the "Rock of Cashel," and a solemn ruin in Holy-cross Abbey. The other illustrations-each worthy of separate praise-relate to Caernarvon Castle, Tynemouth Priory, Hurstmonceux Castle, Richmond Castle, Byland Abbey, Jedburgh Abbey, and Cahir Castle. There are in all twenty-six photographs, and every chapter begins with an ornamented letter, and ends with a tail-piece harmonizing with the subject of the work. Mr. Howitt has supplied a series of interesting notes on the several places, and although we should not

like to endorse all his views of history and biography, he has performed his task in a manner that will make this beautiful book generally acceptable. The binding is very handsome, and in the centre of each cover a circular photographic view is excellently introduced. This work, like the preceding, will form an admirable present, and worthily take its place on the drawing-room table of "Homes of Taste."

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

WEST BRIGHTON MICROSCOPICAL CLUB.

At a meeting of this scientific body, held on the 23rd of November last, Dr. William Addison, F.R.S., President, in the chair, the subject of Human and Animal Entozoa was discussed, especially in relation to the question as to the existence of a true nervous system in the round-worms (Nematoda), and as to the mode in which these parasites gain access to our bodies. Dr. Cobbold, F.L.S., of the Middlesex Hospital, exhibited the following helminths:-From the human body Distoma heterophyes (Egypt); Bilharzia hæmatobia (Egypt), Ascaris lumbricoides (England), A. mystax (England), Trichocephalus dispar (Scotland), Trichina spiralis (Germany), Oxyuris vermicularis (England), Taenia solium (Germany), T. mediocanellata (Germany), T. nana (Egypt), Bothriocephalus latus (Switzerland), B. cordatus (Greenland), young of Filaria medinensis (India), Cysticercus cellulose (England), Scolices of Taenia echinococcus (England).

From animals:-Distoma Bosci, from an American snake; D. coronarium, from an alligator; D. clavigerum, from a frog; D. constrictum, from a turtle; D. compactum, from an Indian ichneumon; D. varicum, from the salmon; Bilharzia magna, from an African monkey; Distoma lanceolatum, from the ox; Fasciola hepatica, from the sheep; Ascaris megalocephala, from the horse; A. mystax, from the cat; A. osculata, from the seal; A. retusa, from the armadillo; A. capsularia, from the salmon; Trichosoma longicolle, from the capercaillie; Trichocephalus affinis, from the giraffe; Strongylus paradoxus, from the peccary; Sphærularia bombi, from the bee; Echinorhynchus proteus, from a salmon; E. porrigens, from a whale; E. an thuris, from the lesser newt; Taenia pusilla, from a rat; T. uncinata, from a shrew; T. cucumerina, T. cœnurus, T. marginata, and T. serrata, from the dog; T. elliptica, from the cat; T. farciminalis, from a fieldfare; Diphyllobothrium stemmacephalum, from the porpoise; Pentastoma tanioides, from a dog, and P. multicinctum, from a serpent; Cysti cercus of T. mediocanellata, from a calf; Echinococci, from a lemur; adult and embryonic Trichine, from the pig; Cysticercus fasciolaris, from a mouse; C. pisiformis, from the rabbit; C. talpa, from the mole; Canurus cerebralis, from the sheep; and Scolices of Tetrarhynchus reptans, from a sunfish.

Mr. Hennah, Hon. Secretary, also exhibited a species of Strongy lus, from the goose; and Dr. Dawson showed some Echinococci, derived from a cyst in the human orbit.

ROYAL SOCIETY.-Nov. 30.

In his annual address on the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society, the president, Major-General Sabine, called attention to the proposed establishment of a telescope of great optical power at Melbourne, and suggested that another advantageous situation for observing the southern nebule would be in the Nélgiris, at elevations of several thousand feet into the clearer strata of the atmosphere.

After alluding to the measurement of the arc of the meridian at Spitzbergen, which the Swedish government propose to undertake, Gen. Sabine called attention to the circumstance of several glass bottles with closed necks having been found on the shores of the west coast of Nova Zembla. As these were conjectured to have some connection with the missing ships of Sir John Franklin, the Royal Society instituted inquiries into the subject, and eventually traced the bottles to a recent manufacture in Norway, where they are used as floats to the fishing-nets employed on the coast. These floats, accidentally separated from the nets, had been carried by the current which sets along the Norwegian coast round North Cape, and thus proved the continuation of the current to Nova Zembla. The Swedish expedition above alluded to discovered several of these bottles on the northern shore of Spitzbergen, some bearing the names of the Norwegian makers, thus supplying evidence, of great geographical value, of the extension of the Norwegian current to Spitzbergen, either by a circuitous route past the shores of Nova Zembla, or possibly by a more direct course which has not at present been traced.

In alluding to the laborious investigation of the Austrian commission on the relative advantages of gun-cotton and gunpowder for the purposes of warfare, Gen. Sabine summed up the results as follows:

The absence of smoke, and the entire freedom from fouling of the gun, are points of great moment in promoting the rapidity of firing in casemates and between decks of ships of war. To these advantages must be added the innocuous character of the products of combustion in comparison with those of gunpowder, and the far inferior heat imparted to the gun by rapidly repeated discharges. Again, with equal projectile effects, the weight of the gun-cotton is only one-third that of gunpowder, and the recoil of the gun two-thirds, and the length of the gun admits of a diminution of nearly one-third.

Other advantages determined by the Austrian artillerists bring the power of modifying the explosive energy by varying the mechanical structure of the cartridge and the size of the chamber in which it is fired; and the fact that being a perfectly definite chemical compound, it may be stowed in damp situations, or even sub

merged without injuring its original properties, remaining unchanged after drying in the open air, and at ordinary temperatures.

The great drawback of its liability to spontaneous combustion having now been proved to depend on imperfect manufacture, and to be altogether removed when suitable provisions are adopted in its manufacture.

At the conclusion of the anniversary meeting, the Copley medal was presented to the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, for his discoveries in geology. Royal Society's medals to the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, for his researches in cryptogamic botany, and to Mr. J. P. Gassiot, for his discoveries in voltaic electricity.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE.-Nov. 25.

ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE OF AFRICAN LAKES.-Mr. Hogg read a paper descriptive of the old maps of Africa, showing that our recently acquired knowledge was known to the ancient geographers. In a map in the possession of the College de Propagandâ Fide, at Rome, probably copied from an Arabian one of the ninth century, the Nile is represented as rising from a lake on the equator.

In a map of J. Senex, F.R.S., dedicated to Sir I. Newton, Lake Nyanza is placed in the same position as in Capt. Speke's recent map, and in Walker's map Lake Zambre is laid down in the position of the recently discovered Lake Tanganyiake. It is singular that since the time of Senex the maps have been published with continually increasing inaccuracies until the promulgation of the recent discoveries of the several African explorers. It is presumed that the information contained in these old maps must have been obtained from the Portuguese traders, who penetrated long distances into the

interior.

ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.-Dec. 9.

THE WEDDOS, OR WIDDOS, OF CEYLON.-A description of this remarkable tribe, living in the jungle in the interior of Ceylon, was read before the Society. It was written by one of the Tamil natives. The Weddos are generally supposed to be the direct descendants of some royal families or chiefs, who were driven into the forests of the interior when the island was invaded, nearly 2200 years since.

The descendants of these families have remained perfectly distinct, not associating with the other races of the island. however, exchange wax, ivory, and dried venison for salt, and also The males, for farinaceous substances, such as arrowroot. They capture their game and defend themselves by the use of the bow and arrow, being sufficiently expert to destroy their enemies at a distance of sixty yards. They are quite ignorant of the use of firearms. Within a comparatively recent period they have commenced to cultivate the land, but they subsist chiefly on the flesh of wild animals, which they preserve in honey, and in times of scarcity they will eat decayed