ly scattered, and therefore not readily accessible, we do not remember to have seen any thing recent that would help the student in the preparation and mounting of specimens. Yet this is by far the most difficult part of microscopic work, and, after the management of the instrument has been learned, the beginner not unfrequently breaks down, or becomes sorely discouraged in his attempts to prepare and mount his objects. But, if he fails to master this department, all opportunity for original research is precluded, and he is compelled to rely on the use of purchased slides, which, often got up merely "to sell," are not always to be depended on. His need is a set of clear and explicit directions in regard to all the important details of this part of the work, and this the book before us appears well designed to fill.
Beginning with the illustrated descriptions of all the necessary apparatus, and minute directions for its use, there follow very complete explanations of the various methods of mounting, with careful directions how to proceed in each; and after this the manner of preparing specimens for the purpose of mounting is very fully treated. How to collect, label, and temporarily preserve all sorts of objects intended for mounting is next considered; and then we come to the seventh and last chapter, which gives instructions how to proceed in the examination of organic and inorganic substances, with tests for adulterations—a branch of microscopic work of much practical importance.
The book closes with an appendix, containing some seventy-five receipts for preparations useful to the microscopist, and a short explanation of how to convert and correct microscopic measurements. It is also provided with a good index.
Thoughts for the Times. Sermons by the Rev. H. R. Haweis, M.A., Incumbent of St. James's, Westmoreland Street, Marylebone, London, Author of "Music and Morals," etc.
We have read Mr. Haweis's "Thoughts for the Times" with much interest, and believe it is destined to make a deep and wholesome impression upon many minds. Books of sermons are getting to be very different things from what they were formerly, and this is one of the improved kind—a book of broad, liberal, and decisive views, applied to practical questions. It is a work of the type of "Robertson's Sermons," fresh and breezy with the stir of living thought, strong in criticism, and thoroughly hospitable to modern ideas. Mr. Haweis does justice to those whom sermonizers generally delight to denounce, and in his search for truth he does not neglect its latest forms. Instead of sounding the alarm-bell, and proclaiming the peril of religion at every step in the onward course of Science, he denies the antagonism, and is in no dread that faith will be destroyed by any discoveries that can be made concerning the order of Nature. While the whole book is pervaded by independent thought, and by a devotional and reverent spirit, the sermons upon the "Idea of God" and the "Law of Progress" are especially significant and instructive.
A Compendious Manual of Qualitative Chemical Analysis, by Charles W. Eliot and Frank H. Storer. Revised, with the Coöperation of the Authors, by Wm. Ripley Nichols. New York; D. Van Nostrand, Publisher, 1872.
No field of literature has been more cultivated, and yet with so little apparent success, as that of elementary text-books, and particularly is this the case in the department of science and technics. Every new effort in this direction is therefore fully deserving of all the encouragement which can conscientiously be extended to it. And we are sure that the little book on Qualitative Chemical Analysis by Messrs. Eliot and Storer deserves as full a measure of recommendation as the success of its first edition implies. It is a book especially adapted to the necessities of the beginner in this branch of chemical technics, and will leave him, if not inclined to pursue the subject into the higher details of analytical practice, with sufficient knowledge of the subject for the man of culture, or, if so inclined, will fit him to erect the edifice of his chemical education on a firm foundation of elementary knowledge.
The Gardener's Monthly.—The amateur in need of practical directions as to the laying out and tending of a garden, and the choice of plants, shrubs, etc., cannot do
