NEW ILLUSTRATED WIMSHURST ELECTRICAL MACHINE. Best Quality, giving full 44-inch Spark in Air, £5. As made for the NEWTON & CO., 3 FLEET STREET, TEMPLE BAR, LONDON, E.C. THE CAMBRIDGE SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT COMPANY, ST. TIBB'S ROW, CAMBRIDGE. SEISMOGRAPHS Price to Subscribers 215. per Yearly Volume, post free. BY MICHAEL FOSTER, M.D., F. R.S. The Company are now prepared to make drawings, woodcuts, and litho graphic plates, both coloured and uncoloured, from microscopic or other specimens: also by means of photography to make reproductions in photogravure, type blocks, photolithography, and various other processes. The Company are appointed Agents for the Microscopes of Zeiss. A Catalogue will be sent on application, of the instruments used in Physical, Botanical, and Physiological investigations which are manufactured by THE CAMBRIDGE SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT COMPANY, ST. TIBB'S ROW, CAMBRIDGE. BROWNING'S 'PERFECT MICROSCOPE. The body s made entirely of brass and gun-metal, with rack-motion and fine screw adjustment. Three achromatic powers of excellent defining power, 1-inch, 4-inch, and 4-inch; adjusting slide-holder to stage, revolving diaphragm, hand-forceps, stage-forceps, live-cage, &c. The whole packed in upright Mahogany Cabinet, with drawer for slides, dissecting-knives, &c. PRICE £3 15s. Od. New Illustrated Catalogue of Microscopes free. NEGRETTI AND ZAMBRA, OWENS COLLEGE, VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, MANCHESTER. SESSION 1888-89. PRINCIPAL-J. G. GREENWOOD, LL.D. ARTS, SCIENCE, & LAW DEPARTMENT. Greek PROFESSORS AND LECTURERS. Greek Test. Criticism Comparative Philology ... ... Hulme Professor, J. STRACHAN, M.A. Smith Professor, T. N. TOLLER, M.A. Lecturer, Rev. L. M. SIMMONS, B.A. Prof. A. W. WARD, Litt.D. Prof. R. ADAMSON, M.A., LL.D. Faulkner Professor, J. E. C MUNRO, LL.D. Prof. A. HOPKINSON, M.A., B.C.L. Prof. J. E. C. MUNRO, LL.M. Reader in Real W. A. COPINGER, BarProperty, &c. ) rister-at-Law. Reader in Com-T. F. BYRNE, B.A., Barmon Law f rister-at-Law. .... Mathematics (Pure and Ap-Beyer Professor, H. LAMB, M.A., F.R.S. plied). Physics ... ... (Langworthy Professor, ARTHUR SCHUSTËR, Ph.D., F.R.S. Prof. T. H. CORE, M.A. Beyer Professor, OSBORNE REYNOLDS, LL D., F.R.S. Prof. H. B. DIXON, M.A., F.R.S. Prof. C. SCHORLEMMER, F R.S. Lecturer, WATSON SMITH, F.C.S. Lecturer, C. A. BURGHARDT, Ph.D. Beyer Professor, A. M. MARSHALL, F.R.S. Prof. W. C. WILLIAMSON, F.R.S. Prof. W. BOYD DAWKINS, M.A., F.R.S. Physiology and Histology (B.D., D.Sc. Brackenbury Professor, W. STIRLING, Geology and Palæontology Freehand Drawing Harmony, &c. Lecturer, H. HILES, Mus. D. With ASSISTANT LECTURERS in all the Principal Departments. ALBERT EMBANKMENT, LONDON, S. E. The WINTER SESSION of 1888-89 will commence on OCTOBER 1, when an Introductory Address will be delivered by Dr. CULLINGWORTH, at 3 p.m. TWO ENTRANCE SCIENCE SCHOLARSHIPS of 125 guineas and £60 respectively, open to all first-year Students, will be offered for competition. The Examination will be held on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of September, and the subjects will be Chemistry and Physics, with either Botany or Zoology, at the option of Candidates. Special Classes are held throughout the year for the "PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC" and "INTERMEDIATE M.B." Examinations of the UNIVERSITY of LONDON. An additional Laboratory for the teaching of advanced Physiology has been recently provided. All Hospital Appointments are open to Students without extra charge. Scholarships and Money Prizes of considerable value are awarded at the Sessional Examinations, as also several Medals. The Fees may be paid in one sum or by instalments. Entries may be made to Lectures or to Hospital Practice, and special arrangements are made for Students entering in their second or subsequent years; also for Dental Students and for Qualified Practitioners. Medical Practitioners, Clergymen, and private families residing in the neighbourhood receive Students for residence and supervision, and a register of approved lodgings is kept in the Secretary's office. Prospectuses and all particulars may be obtained from the Medical Secre. tary, Mr. GEORGE RENDLE. E. NETTLESHIP, Dean. LIVING SPECIMENS FOR THE MICROSCOPE. GOLD MEDAL awarded at the FISHERIES EXHIBITION to THOMAS BOLTON, 83 CAMDEN STREET, BIRMINGHAM, Who last week sent to his subscribers Hydatina scuta, with sketch and description. He also sent out Cristatella mucedo, Alcyonella fungosa, Leptodora hyalina, Brachionus pala, Lophopus crystallinus, Melicerta ringens, Stephanoceros, Argulus foliaceus, Volvox globator; also Ameba, Hydra, Vorticella, Crayfish, and other Specimens for (Huxley and Martin's) Biological Laboratory work. Weekly announcements will be made in this place of Organisms T. B. is supplying. Specimen Tube, One Shilling, post free. Twenty-six Tubes in Course of Six Months for Subscription of £1 15., or Twelve Tubes for 10s. 6d. Portfolio of Drawings, Eleven Parts, 15.each. BRITISH ASSOCIATION Treasurer's Chambers, 21 St. Andrew Square, CENTRAL INSTITUTION OF THE CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE. TECHNICAL EDUCATION FOR CIVIL, MECHANICAL, ELEC TRICAL, AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERS, under the direction of W. C. UNWIN, F.R.S., M.I.C.E.... W. E. AYRTON, F.R.S. H. E. ARMSTRONG, Ph.D., F.R.S. O. HENRICI, Ph.D., F.R.S. Professor of Engineering. Professor of Physics. Professor of Chemistry. Professor of Mathematics. The new SESSION commences on OCTOBER 2, 1888. The Matriculation Examination for Students entering for a complete Course, with a view of qualifying for the Diploma, commences on TUESDAY, September 25. For further particulars apply to the Organizing Director, Exhibition Road, London, S.W. UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. The CHAIR of CHEMISTRY in this University, in the Patronage of the University Court, being about to become Vacant by the Retirement of Prof. BRAZIEK, by a Minute of said Court, Candidates are requested to lodge Applications, with such Testimonials as they may think fit, in the hands of the SECRETARY of the Court, KOBERT WALKER. Esq., M.A, University Library, Aberdeen, on or before SEPTEMBER 15 ensuing. The SECRETARY will afford such further information as may be desired. University of Aberdeen, August 4, 1888. PROF. THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1888. CELTIC HEATHENDOM. NATURE The Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Celtic Heathendom. The Hibbert Lectures for 1887. By J. Rhys. (London: Williams and Norgate, 1888.) OROF. RHYS has made an important contribution in this volume, if not to the development of religion in general, at all events to the study of IndoEuropean mythology. Almost for the first time, the religious legends of the Kelts have been subjected to scientific treatment, and the resources of scientific philology have been called in to explain them. The Keltic languages and mythology have long been a happy hunting-ground for the untrained theorist and charlatan : in the Hibbert Lectures for 1887 we find at last etymologies which can be trusted, and a method of investigation which alone can lead to sound results. The method employed by Prof. Rhŷs is the comparative method of science. The literature of the Keltic nations does not begin until after the triumph of Christianity; and apart from a few Gaulish inscriptions, and the questionable assertions of Latin or Greek writers, our knowledge of Keltic paganism must be derived from such traces of it as we may detect in a later and hostile literature. These traces consist for the most part of the myths and legends preserved in Irish manuscripts or Welsh romances. By comparing the Irish and Welsh legends one with another, and analyzing the primitive meaning of the proper names round which they centre, Prof. Rhys has attempted to recover their original form and signification, verifying his conclusions not only by an appeal to etymology, but also, wherever it is possible, to the evidence of the Gaulish texts. Without doubt, a considerable number of his conclusions are merely hypothetical, and in some cases his interpretations depend on the exercise of the same Keltic imagination as that which inspired the old story-tellers, but, on the whole, he has laid a broad and solid foundation of fact, which must be the starting-point of all future researches in the same field. He will himself be the first to acknowledge the tentative and theoretical character of much of his work; indeed, the readiness with which he admits in his appendix that he has changed his opinion in regard to certain questions is a witness to his possession of the true scientific spirit, which is always open to conviction. The lectures appropriately begin with an account of Gaulish religion, so far as it can be gathered from the scanty evidence of the monuments. Then follow chapters on the Zeus of the insular Kelts, as well as on the Culturehero and on the Sun-hero, the two latter of whom Prof. Rhys endeavours to keep apart, though the attempt does not seem to me to be more successful than it has been in the case of other mythologies. The suggestion, indeed, that the Keltic Culture-hero may have been a deified man, like the Norse Woden, the Greek Prometheus, or the Indian Indra, has little in its favour; at all events, if Indra or Prometheus were of human origin, the Sun-god must have been of human origin also. The myths told VOL. XXXVIII.-No. 981. 361 about "the Culture-hero" are precisely similar in character to those told about "the Sun-hero." 66 The last lecture is occupied with those figures of Keltic mythology which are not directly connected with either the beginnings of civilization or the adventures of the solar orb. Here Prof. Rhŷs has done important service for the historian by sweeping away the foundations on which the so-called early history of Ireland has been built. The races who have been supposed to have successively effected a settlement in the island belonged to the world of mythology. The Tuatha dé Danann, or "Tribes of the goddess Danu," were long remembered to have been the fairies; the Fomorians, or "submarine" monsters, were supernatural beings whose home was beneath the sea; and a human ancestry is denied even to the Fir-bolgs or Men of the Bag." I am not sure that Prof. Rhŷs does not sometimes go too far in refusing an historical character to the personages and events recorded in Keltic tradition; the recent revelations of early Greek archæology are a useful warning in this respect, and the Keltic Professor himself is obliged to admit that by the side of the mythical Emrys and Vortigern there were an historical Ambrosius and an historical Vortigern. A story must have a setting in time and place, and the internecine quarrels of the lively Kelt afforded frequent opportunities for attaching an old story to the heroes and circumstances of the day. It is not so many years ago since Atreus and Agamemnon were relegated to the domains of mythology; yet we now know, from archæological exploration, that the legends in which they figured were based on historical fact. In a book so rich in new ideas and information it is difficult to select anything for special notice. Bearers of the name of Owen, however, will be interested by finding it traced back to the Gaulish agricultural god Esus, whose name is connected by Prof. Rhŷs with the Norseáss, a god," and the Professor is to be congratulated on his discovery of the origin of King Lud, the Lot of the Arthurian romances. Lud is the Welsh Llûdd, in Old Welsh Lodens, who bears the title of Llûdd Llawereint, or "Lud of the Silver Hand." The initial sound of Llûdd, however, is due to that of the epithet so constantly applied to him, the primitive form of the name having been Nûdd, which appears in the Latin inscriptions of Lydney as Nodens or Nudens, a sort of cross between the Roman Mars and Neptune. Nodens, again, was the Irish Sky-god, "Nuada of the Silver Hand," and a myth was current which explained the origin of the title. Equally worthy of notice is what Prof. Rhŷs has to tell us about "the nine-day week" of the ancient Kelts. He shows that like the Latins they made use of a week of nine nights and eight days, and he points out that traces. of a similar mode of reckoning time are to be found in Norse literature. Whether he is right in ascribing the origin of such a week to a habit of counting the fingers of one hand admits of question, and I do not see how the Irish divinity Maine who presided over the day of the week can be the Welsh Menyw, if, as we are told, Maine owes his origin to secht-main, itself borrowed from the Latin septimana or seven-day week. Prof. Rhŷs believes that he has found a further resemblance between the calendar of the primitive Kelts and Scandinavians, in the fact that the year in both cases began at the end of the R autumn. But no argument can be drawn from the fact in favour of the theory which places the primæval seat of the Aryan race within the Arctic Circle, since the civil year of the Jews also began with the ingathering of the harvest at the time of the autumnal equinox, and no one would propose to transfer their forefathers to the distant north. The points of likeness between the mythologies and religious conceptions of the Kelts and Scandinavians, to which Prof. Rhŷs has drawn attention, are numerous and striking. How many of them go back to an age when the ancestors of the Scandinavians and of the Aryan Kelts still lived together it is impossible to tell, but several of them can most easily be explained as due to borrowing. It is now well established that Norse mythology and religion were influenced not only by Christianity but also by the mythology and religion of the Kelts, with whom the Norsemen came into contact in the Hebrides, in Ireland, and in the Channel Islands, and in a comparison between Keltic and Scandinavian legends this influence must always be allowed for. I must not part from Prof. Rhŷs's learned and important lectures without exercising the privilege of a reviewer by objecting to certain of his conclusions. These relate to the Keltic allusions to a Deluge, and to the stories of a contest between the gods and the monsters of the lower world. Whatever may be the origin of the Keltic myths which are supposed to refer to such events, they cannot be compared with the Indian legend of the deluge of Manu or with the story of the conflict between the gods of Olympos and the Titans. It has long since been pointed out by Lenormant that the Indian legend was borrowed from Babylonia ; and its hero, Manu, has nothing to do with the Kretan Minôs. Apart from the unlikeness of the vowel in the first syllable of the two names, Minôs seems to be a word of Phoenician origin. The conflict between the gods and the Titans, again, has now been traced to Babylonia. Like the twelve labours of Herakles, the Babylonian epics have been recovered in which the story appears in its earliest form, before it was passed on to the Greeks through the hands of the Phoenicians. The Titans and Herakles were alike figures of Semitic, and not of Aryan, mythology. remained practically unchanged until the conversion of HAND-BOOK OF THE AMARYLLIDEÆ. Hand-book of the Amaryllidea. By J. G. Baker, F.R.S. 203 pp. (London: George Bell, 1888.) SINCE INCE Herbert's "Amaryllidaceae," published in 1837, there has not been any work brought out containing descriptions of all or approximately all the species of Amaryllidaceous plants until the appearance of this little work. Herbert's volume has long been both rare and out of date, and some such book as the present was a desideratum. Neither could anyone be found who has a better or more extensive knowledge of the bulbous plants than Mr. Baker, whose monographs of the Liliacea and Iridacea are well known to all lovers of these groups. The work before us is the result of twenty-three years' study, and embodies descriptions drawn up not only from herbarium material, but especially from living plants-som ome grown at Kew Gardens, others from the conservatories and gardens of professional and amateur cultivators. It is intended as a working hand-book for gardeners and botanists, and as such seems suited for its purpose. The group of Amaryllidea is one which has suffered in popularity from the modern rage for Orchids. A glance at the volume will show that many species were introduced into cultivation from fifty to a hundred years ago, and are now quite lost from our gardens. In those days Cape bulbs were very popular; and Masson at the close of the last century, and Cooper and others in later years, introduced many beautiful and curious plants now known to us only by their dried specimens and drawings. Of these the curious South African genus Gethyllis is a striking example, six out of the nine species here described being only known from Masson's sketches and specimens, and this in spite of the numerous careful and energetic collectors we have now at the Cape of Good Hope. I have left myself space to do no more than draw attention to two very interesting questions suggested by Prof. Rhys's lectures. It is in Scandinavian rather than in Latin mythology that he finds parallels to the myths and legends of the Kelts. Nevertheless, linguistic science teaches us that the Keltic dialects had most affinity to Latin and not to the Scando-Teutonic languages. Was Latin mythology, then, so profoundly modified by some foreign system of faith, such as the Etruscan, as to have lost a considerable part of its original character even before it passed under the influence of the Greeks? Was it, in fact, Etruscanized before it was Hellenized? The other question relates to the causes which have reduced the gods of a former age to the human kings and princes of later Keltic legend. The same transformation characterizes the traditions of ancient Persia, as it also characterizes Semitic tradition. In the case of Persia, such unconscious euhemerism seems to have been brought about by a change of creed. Was this also the reason why in Keltic story the ancient Sky-god became Nuada | and Peruvian species, are still absent from our gardens One reason for this disappearance of species is the very narrow limits of their distribution in many cases, although it appears that the individuals are often abundant when the right locality is reached. Witness, for example, the little Tapeinanthus of Spain and Morocco, discovered by Cavanilles in 1794, and lost again till two years ago, when it was re-discovered in profusion by Mr. Maw, who has stocked our gardens with it; and very similar are the cases of the strange green-flowered Narcissus of Gibraltar and the Lapiedra, known to Clusius as early as 1574, and still a great rarity even in herbaria at the present day. When it is remembered that these three plants grow in localities close to our own shores, it is not surprising that many of the more distant South African species figured by Jacquin in his sumptuous works, as well as many Andean of the Silver Hand? If so, the old theology would have and houses. Besides the rarity of some of these plants, they have a habit of entirely disappearing after flowering, and indeed in many cases they will only appear at irregular and long intervals, which also conspires to make them difficult to procure, so that collectors are necessarily anxious to know the time of the year at which they should be looked for in flower, and this the author has where possible added to his description. The volume includes, besides the typical Amaryllideæ, the Alstroemeria and Agaveæ, but the Hypoxideæ and Vellozieæ are omitted on the grounds that they have been elsewhere fully dealt with. This we think a pity, as it would have made the work more complete to have included these groups; but this will hardly affect cultivators, with whom the Hypoxids are rarely found favourites on account of their comparatively insignificant flowers and general similarity, while the Vellozias, though they would be welcome additions to our stoves on account of their beautiful flowers, yet baffle our gardeners on account of their bulkiness and slow growth. In the Agaveæ it will be noticed that of many species (in fact, nearly one-third) only the foliage is known. For garden purposes perhaps the form and number of the leaves may be sufficient, at least for identification; but it cannot be considered satisfactory to publish as new species, and endow with scientific names, plants of which the inflorescence is unknown. The author, however, has but done his duty in incorporating these species into his work. One may hope that the publication of this compendium will stimulate our amateur gardeners to turn their attention more carefully to this comparatively neglected group. Already for some time signs have not been wanting to show that they are rising into favour again to some extent. The Narcissi, Hippeastrums, and Crinums are undergoing elaborate cultivation and hybridization by the best of our gardeners with the highest success, and if this hand-book contributes to the study of this group it will have done its work. H. N. R. OUR BOOK SHELF. Another World; or, The Fourth Dimension. By A. T. Schofield, M.D. (London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1888.) THIS work consists of seven chapters. The first four-the land of no dimensions, the land of one dimension, the land of two dimensions, and the land of three dimensions -consist of large extracts from "Flatland," with a running commentary upon them, bringing out their salient facts. Indeed, had not "Flatland" been published, the author admits his own book would not have been written. In Chapter V., the land of four dimensions is mathematically considered, and here we have stated, from analogy, the relations of a being in one dimension with that above him and its inhabitants, e.g. one in the third dimension (our world) with the fourth; and in Chapter VI. the land of four dimensions is considered in relation to ours of three. Chapter VII. considers generally the land of four dimensions, with facts and analogies. The fourth dimension is not discussed on the lines of Mr. Hinton's "What is the Fourth Dimension?" but after the mathematical side of the question has been considered, our author "further considers the actual facts around us bearing on the question, and compares the deduced laws of the fourth dimension with some of the claims of Christianity as stated in the Bible." Here we must close our notice as we cannot go into an examination of these topics in our columns-with saying that there is much of interest in the pages before us, and for some readers the speculations of the later chapters may have as much interest as the mathematical certainties of the earlier chapters have for others. Euclid's Method, or the Proper Way to Treat on Geometry. By A. H. Blunt. (Shepshed: Freeman, 1888.) the method of treating on geometry (pp. 10-23). We let THIS booklet consists of an introduction (pp. 3–10), and the writer speak for himself :-" In this small work I have attempted to show the proper way to treat on geometry, and which I conceive was the method of Euclid; for it will be seen that the results are right from the way in which they are arrived at, and that they agree with Euclid's results. It is certain, I think none will deny, that when Euclid composed his' Geometry,' he did everything in it under the guidance of reason and knowledge of what the true method consists in; but since he has not expressed or shown those reasons (and it would not have been proper, nor would it have been necessary to have done so in his 'Geometry '), they therefore appear to have been known but very little to anyone else since his time, as is evident from the expressions and unjust faultfinding made against him in the writings of modern geometers, which greatly betray their own ignorance of the true method. So long as the true method remains unknown, it is not to be wondered at that men should busy themselves in finding faults with Euclid, his work being so complete and perfect as to leave them but little else to do. Not that I would be understood to mean that his works ought to be accepted in blind submission as everything perfect, or that no faults, if there are any in it, ought to be pointed out"; and so on. Ex pede Herculem! The author's remarks are made sincerely, and for a certain order of mind his explanations are likely to clear up many points in the Definitions. It is to these only that he confines his attention in pp. 10-23, and he gives good reasons why Euclid should have taken them in the order he has taken them. This was his object : write, then, Q.E.D., and Vivat Euclides! On the Distribution of Rain over the British Isles during the year 1887. Compiled by G. J. Symons, F.R.S. (London: Edward Stanford, 1888.) MR. SYMONS'S "British Rainfall" is so well known that we need only say of the present issue that it is in no respect inferior to the preceding volumes of the series. The marked characteristic of 1887 was the prevalence of droughts. According to Mr. Symons, the year has had no equal for widespread deficiency of rainfall since 1788. Naturally, therefore, much space is devoted in this volume to the subject of droughts; and in one chapter-on Historic Droughts"-he has brought together, from a variety of sources, a large amount of information that ought to be as interesting to historians as to meteorologists. In the preface Mr. Symons calls special attention to important additions which have been made to our knowledge of the rainfall of the Lake District. These have resulted from a grant of £42 75. made by the Royal Society from its own funds in 1886. 66 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions. expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] The "Tamaron" of the Philippine Islands. A LETTER, which I have just received from our Corresponding Member, the energetic traveller and naturalist, Prof. J. B. Steere, |