The Light Side of Science. By Andrew Wilson. (James Bowden.
2s. Cal.)—This is a very pleasant little volume of short, chatty essays on a variety of aspects and incidents of the world's life and structure, such as used to be discussed under the heading of " Natural Philosophy" before the fashion for stricter scientific nomenclature came in; and we are glad to note one or two indi- cations that Mr. Wilson does not think the half-educated people who use the new nomenclature with such proud confidence of being on the side of accurate knowledge really know much more of what they are talking about than did their humbler forbears who confessed ignorance. Among the articles we like best are "Germs as Friends," "On Finding the Way," "The Modern Elixir of Life," "Sea-Urchins," "The Pike in the Pool," though we wish that in this one the writer could have had his hit at the cruelty prescribed by "mak Walton in the matter of frog-baiting without indulging in a compensatory hit at anti-vivisectionists. Because one set of men are cruel out of selfishness, we see no reason why another set should be cruel on principle. The account of crocodiles and crocodile-birds in "Some Queer Friendships" makes a pretty little bit of literary zoology,—confirming the observation of Herodotus by the testimony of a modern traveller. Herodotus says of the crocodile :--" All other birds and beasts avoid him ; but he is at peace with the trochilos, because he re- ceives good from that bird. For when the crocodile leaves the water and gets upon the land, he then opens his jaws, and most usually towards the west. The trochilos then enters his mouth and swallows the leeches (found in the reptile's mouth), and so well pleased is the crocodile with this service that it does no hurt to the bird." Mr. J. X Cook saw a bird perform this feat three times upon a crocodile sleeping on a sandbank ; and, shooting the bird afterwards, he identified it as a spur-winged plover.
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