19 MAY 1883, Page 24

The Wonders of Nature. By Professor Rudolph, revised by Alex.

Brown, LL.D. (A. Gardner.)—This little book, of American origin, is attractively written. It mainly treats of that popular subject, the wonders of astronomy ; but there is a single chapter, " The Wonders of Oxygen," which belongs more strictly to the domain of chemistry, and which should have been revised or omitted. To affirm that elements are substances "in their natural state," that "the atmo- spheie is a compound of oxygen and nitrogen," and that 1.2 of the solid globe and 1.9 of the air are oxygen, is curiously inexact.