a crust, that year by year becomes less and less, until at length it becomes so thin that it acquires the name of bee's wing.' The deposit also takes the form of crystals, which will both. adhere to the cork and fall to the bottom of the bottle like powdered glass. All natural wines that have been any length of time in bottle should therefore be decanted with care."

Description Physique de la République Argentine. Par le Dr. H. BURMEISTER, Directeur du Museo Publico de Buenos-Ayres. Traduite de l'Allemand par E. MAUPAS. Tome Premier, contenant l'histoire de la découverte et la géographie du pays. Paris: F. Savy. 1876.

We have before us the first volume of an elaborate and important work, which Dr. Burmeister contemplates issuing on the Argentine Republic, and in which will be embodied the results of twenty years' careful study. It is intended that the first two volumes should form the introduction, as it were, to the main body of the work. the scope of which, as a whole, will be best and most concisely described in Dr. Burmeister's own words :"Je n'ai pas à fournir," he remarks, "un traité de géographie de la république Argentine, et encore moins une description de sa richesse minéralogique; mais il me suffira de faire connaître dans leurs généralités le sol, et le milieu dans lequel, vivent ou ont vécu dans les temps préhistoriques les animaux et les plantes qui seront étudiés spécialement dans les volumes suivants. L'ouvrage sera surtout consacré à ces deux règnes, et son but est de donner un tableau des diversités organiques de ces deux groupes, tableau qui commencera par le règne animal. Le règne végétal et la description géologique du sol de la république ont étés confiés à de jeunes savants qui publieront leurs divers travaux sous leur nom personnel, comme parties de l'œuvre totale."

It is naturally impossible to form a decided opinion as to the merits of this work from this the first volume, but Dr. Burmeister's reputation as a geographer will be a good guarantee for the correctness of his facts and the soundness of the views expressed; and it will be sufficient for us to observe that the present instalment of the book is devoted to a history of the discovery and of the early colonisation of the country, and, secondly, to a sketch of the geography of the republic, in which the author has availed himself of special materials to be found only at Buenos Ayres. It may not be uninteresting to add that the work is published in German and French, at the expense of the Republic.

The Empire of Brazil at the Universal Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. Rio de Janeiro: Typographia e Lithographia do Imperial Instituto Artistico. 1876.

THE only works hitherto published which afford very complete information respecting the Empire of Brazil are the "Breve Noticia" and "O Imperio do Brazil," prepared for the Paris and Vienna Exhibitions of 1867 and 1873. In the interval which has elapsed since the latter publication was issued Brazil has in some respects improved her position among the nations of the earth, and the compilers of the works referred to have thought it due to "the old and constant friendship which links the two countries," no less than the important commercial relations existing between them, to issue the volume under notice for the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia.

The work deals with almost every conceivable subject, and supplies ample information on all; but, perhaps, the chapters which will be read with most interest are those which treat of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, the last-named being, on the whole, the most attractive. The compilers have wisely published the result of their labours in English, and, considering the great disadvantages with which they must have had to contend, we are bound to admit that the mistakes in spelling and diction are much fewer than might have been expected.

Rain and Rivers, or Hutton and Playfair against Lyell and All Comers. By Colonel GEORGE GREENWOOD. London: Longmans and Co.

THIS Somewhat fantastic title introduces to us a work which may perhaps be regarded as a contribution to geological science, or perhaps as an attempt to annul the larger portion of that science, and to render its reconstruction, in anything like its present extent and importance, an impossibility. Colonel Greenwood's direct and immediate purpose is to show, in opposition to Lyell, that valleys have not been formed by the action of oceanic currents, waves, &c., prior to or during the elevation of the land, but are of atmospheric origin, having been gradually excavated by "rain and rivers." For this view scientific evidence is adduced. But the author maintains other propositions, no less zealously, though with much less foundation in facts or in sound argument. Thus he tells us that "man and the mammalia— that is, the most perfect creatures-may have existed on the land from the beginning, and before the first strata were formed in the sea, and consequently that Darwinism and the development-theory are myths. The land is the region of perpetual

disintegration, denudation, and destruction. The sea is the region of perpetual deposit and conservation. And sea-strata when hoisted up by heat in the form of slate, sandstone, limestone, &c., form museums of sea-life of an antiquity quite incomprehensible to man. But these museums contain sea-life only: land-animals neither live nor die in the sea; they live and die on the land. And where are the museums for the preservation of ancient land-life? There cannot be such a thing. The entire surface of the earth is perpetually vanishing, and with it the museums for the preservation of ancient land-life. The most ancient museums of land-life are caverns, filled-up lakes, bogs, and drift and alluvium-things which, geologically speaking, were formed yesterday and will be gone to-morrow. In these modern land-museums, however, the remains of man and extinct mammalia are found, and they would be found in more ancient land-museums if such ancient land-museums could exist. . . . . The whole affair is the result of the most childish confusion between space and time, between place and period. That is, because in the deposit of a certain place such a life only existed, we set it down that in the period when that deposit was formed that life only existed. Hence such errors as 'The age of reptiles,' The diluvial period,' The boulder period,'The drift period,' The period of invertebrates,' The pluvial period,' The gravel period,' The peat period,' &c." At the same time, however, the author admits that species have died out and that others have been successively created, "and at distinct times, and in comparatively modern times." Further we read-"Unless we except man (as I think we may) the existence of all organic species is not only finite, but it is transitory as compared with the existence of the globe, and it depends on second causes." Therefore the whole doctrine of the successive appearance and disappearance of species, which we have just seen denied, is after all admitted! This appearance and existence, too, is in one place spoken of as due to "second causes," and yet in another it is referred to a succession of creations!

All the knots of animal and vegetal geography are abruptly and compendiously cut. "Like the chicken-fancier who keeps his fowl-yards separate, Nature seems purposely to have contrived different stations with similar physical conditions, in order to exhibit the profuseness of her creative power in cramming all full of animal and vegetal existences with constitutions similar to those of similar but separate stations, but the species of each similar separate station differing entirely from the species of all other separate stations." We need scarcely point out how radically unscientific, or rather anti-scientific, is the spirit of this passage. If this method of accounting for the phenomena which meet us in the universe is to be accepted, why should we observe, register, classify, or seek to account for anything? Why not close our books, give our apparatus to the children for

toys, and say "things are because they are," which is merely a plainer and briefer way of expressing our author's views. We will venture to say that had he even devoted a single year to the serious study of animal geography, he would have been more chary of referring to "Nature's intentions," and would never have sought to account for the distribution of species in such a

manner.

Various other utterances, more remarkable and well founded, might easily be selected, if any useful purpose could be thereby answered.

It is to be profoundly regretted that one who displays so much rashness in theorising, and who reasons in such a very peculiar manner, should not have deemed it incumbent upon him to show a little more courtesy toward those from whom he dissents. Such expressions as the "pompous Humboldt," whose "ideas appear like the ravings of madness," are happily not customary weapons in scientific controversy, and must assuredly damage the man who has the questionable taste to use them much more than the one at whose memory they are levelled.

All that is really valuable in this book might well have been compressed into much smaller compass, and certain of the sections ought never to have been written.

Hay-Fever or Summer Catarrh; its Nature and Treatment. By G. M. BEARD, A.M., M.D. New York: Harper and Brothers.

We cannot presume to endorse the opinion of an old and somewhat testy friend, that "hay-fever is all humbug," although certainly we have never met with or heard of a case in private life, and know of its existence merely from medical works. Though not recognised as a distinct disease prior to 1819, it seems to have become prevalent in England, and still more in the northern part of the United States, and already attracts a considerable amount of attention. Unlike his predecessors in the enquiry as to its nature and origin, Dr. Beard holds that hay-fever is essentially a neurosis-a functional disease of the nervous system. "The debilitating influences of heat and the external irritation of vegetable and other substances (pollen from different plants, essential oils, &c.) are exciting causes merely." He does not believe in the existence of any specific suitable for all persons suffering from the disease.

It is interesting to note that in America a special Association has been formed for the investigation of this affection.

The Solution of the Most Important hitherto Unsolved Problems in Nature. By J. F. LOCHNER. Cöln and Leipsig: E. H. Mayer. GERMANY, fruitful as she is in sound scientific research, is not very rich in scientific heresies: she produces few attempts to set aside at a stroke the labours of our most illustrious philosophers, and to solve questions which they have found too difficult. She has, we believe, no "Zetetic Astronomy." no " Trinology," no "Origin of Creation." Some persons may ascribe the absence of such intellectual vagaries to a want of independent thought and a tendency to accept existing systems without challenge. We should rather seek for an explanation in the circumstance that in Germany public opinion does not encourage a man in coming forward to enlighten the world on any matter without having made it the subject of his thorough and especial study.

The work before us seems an exception. The author appears equally able to deal with unsolved problems in astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, or geology. As a specimen of Herr Lochner's method we will take his reply to the question why the surface of our globe "consists of one-quarter land and nearly three-quarters water, while the inverse proportion would be certainly more suitable ?"

To the common view that this excess of water is required to supply sufficient moisture for the support of the vegetable world, he objects that of the ascending vapours about two-thirds must fall back uselessly into the sea from which they have arisen. He further contends that "there are districts where it rains very seldom or not at all, and where everything yet flourishes. Here the vapours fall down in the night as a strong dew." But does not the author see that an abundant supply of vapour is equally needed whether the earth is to be watered by rain, dew, or by rivers? His view as to the use of the ocean is that it constitutes a kind of reserve, from which, when the human race becomes more numerous, and when even "this great America" is overpeopled, new islands and even new continents will rise up. Now, that islands have risen up and that continents have become extended appears to be beyond dispute; but unfortunately islands, and even continents, are considered, on equally good evidence, to have disappeared. What is worst of all, the lands that have been thus lost would seem to have been much more valuable and better adapted for the habitation of man than those which have been elevated in their stead. Thus Siberia is doubtless a wretched compensation for the continent that is supposed to have extended eastwards from Australia. Whether the relative proportions of land and water remain unaltered, or whether

* Die Lösung der wichtigsten bis jetzt noch unerklärten Probleme in der Natur.