Tales of Science. By the Rev. J. Gordon McPherson. (James
Gemmell, Edinburgh.) Mr. McPherson, a Scotch clergyman with a turn for science, has published in volume form a number of papers on subjects that specially interest him, which he has contributed to newspapers and other periodi- cals. His object has been to give to the general reader of average intelligence, who has not access to recent scientific researches, an account at once accurate and interesting of the discoveries of science during the past few years. He does not pretend to have added anything to the sum of human knowledge; the most that he claims to have done is to have given in popular language the results of the labours of specialists. Mr. McPherson has, to say the least of it, quite succeeded in gratifying his own ambition. In this volume he has dealt with a whole host of different subjects, such as "Cocaine," " Waterpipes and Frost," "The Kola Nut," "Boiling Water," "Afterglows," "The Value of Cork," "A Remarkable Cold" cl propos of the winter of 1784), "Lightning," and "The Cross-Fertilisation of Flowers." Sometimes Mr. McPherson becomes rhetorical after a fashion, and occasionally also he sermonises too much, as when he tells us that "these laws of the conservation of energy and matter take nothing from the powers of the necessary First Cause ; these are simply the method or laws by which he governs the Universe. The energy is not sell-created; Nature is by no means causeless and devoid of mind. With the reign of Law, we must have the originating Cause." Here Mr. McPherson repeats himself once too often. But, taken as a whole, his book is eminently readable, being full of anecdotes, as well as of informa- tion. It is a volume that adults will delight to take an occa- sional glance at, while we know none that would be a more appro- priate gift for a boy with scientific leanings.
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