- Science Lectures at South Kensington. "Photography," by Captain Abney,
R.E., F.R.S. ; "Kinematic Models," by Professor Kennedy, C.E. ; "Sound and Music," by Dr. W. H. Stone. (Macmillan and Co.) —Last year's loan exhibition in South Kensington has given science- teachers and others interested in science not only an opportunity of examining the various mechanical appliances for attaining experimental knowledge such as no body of sevens ever enjoyed, but the opportunity of hearing lectures on them in the different departments by men specially versed in the subjects. These are now being published, after revision by the lecturers, and will be of great use, not only in aiding the memory of those who were fortunate enough to hear thorn, but of being studied by those who were less fortunate. In the first of the series, Captain Abney has added the results of more recent experi- ments, especially the theory of the action of light on the film of silver bromide stained with eosine, first experimented on by Vogel, of which the true theory is yet sub judice. The work of Reuleaux, translated by Kennedy, has been recently reviewed by us, so it will be sufficient to state that his lectures wore but a general exposition of that work. Dr. Stone has treated sound and music in such a way that any amateur possessing an ordinary acquaintance with the principles of acoustics will readily comprehend the difficulties of the musical scale. This little pamphlet will do more to elucidate for the uninitiated the mysteries of unequal, equal, and just temperament, which has lately so puzzled the musical world, than the perusal of the larger work of Helmholtz, and will prepare them for the change which is almost certain to take place in the key-boards of our musical instruments. It ought to be in the hands of every one who pretends to be a musician.
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