The Intellectual Observer. No. 1. February. London: Groombridge and Sons, 1862.
'Recreatiye Science,' the first of the popular serials on popular science, emanated from these publishers, and attained a large circulation. Somewhat too juvenile in character, it could not have been expected long to maintain a stand against such higher flights as Mr. Hardwicke's 'Popular Science Review.' The 'Intellectual Observer' is 'Recreative Science' sprung into manhood, and a vigorous forcible manhood too, ready and able to compete with any rival.
We have a decided horror of popular (?) science—or rather that kind of trash which unfortunately goes by that name. We believe that real science is popular, is a household god whose presence is universally felt in this land, though its face is less often recognized than it might be. In the curtains that screen the light from our rooms, the carpets we tread on, the paper that lines our walls, in our coals, our furniture, in every object around us down to the handles of our doors and the pulleys of our window-blinds, the teachings of real science lie hid, although their effects add unceasingly to the pleasures of life. The able writer—editor, we presume too, although his name does not appear as such upon the work—Mr. Shirley Hibbert, opens the volume with a survey of last year's work. Messrs. McGawley, Cobbold, Thos. Wright, Couch, Gosse, Slack, Humphreys, and Webb follow with excellent papers: a staff of good quality for popular science work, and able to it well if they work sincerely, as they ought to do.
The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art. By John Timbs, F.S.A. London: Lockwood & Co., 1862.
A small book of 288 small pages in very small type, full of information gleaned from at least double that number of sources, some of which are acknowledged; some— the best sometimes—not so. Some critics have found fault with Mr. Timbs for putting in extracts just as he took them. We do not. At least it is honest, when the title of the work is given; it is useful, because we can go to the source itself for more information if we want it, which is better than wasting one's time in wondering where we have read the matter before, as we do after perusing hundreds of the modern short cooked-up notices of other people's labours so generally in vogue. We would add the wish rather that the date of the publication should be also given. Mr. Timbs, at any rate, knows good from bad— which is more than most compilers do—and so, if his book be a book of selections, we can recommend it as having very much that is useful in it.
Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Geoloqy of parts of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. (Sheet 13.) By Edward Hull and W. Whitaker.
Geology of parts of Berkshire and Hampshire. (Sheet 12.) By H. W. Bristow and W. Whitaker. London: Longman and Co., 1862.
The numerous splendid geological maps and sections which the Government Surveyors have already produced, show the perseverance and energy of that small but talented staff, and testifies to the ability with which they are directed. But there are many other ways, besides in the execution of their regular duties, that the Survey officers are benefiting the students of our science. The museum in Jermyn Street is being admirably arranged by Mr. Etheredge on a plan at once effective and novel,—that of marking, by placing them on differently coloured tablets, the characteristic fossils
