29 SEPTEMBER 1888, Page 26

An Elementary Treatise on Light and Heat. By Rev. F.

Wilkins Aveling. (Rolfe Brothers.)—It is only too plainly to be seen that Mr. Aveling has written in a great hurry, and that his work shows the inevitable result of haste,—a crude and jerky style. An example will be seen in the text of the cut illustrating the dis- persion of light by a prism. It affords a key to the manner in which much of the text is written. Possibly the very briefness of this statement is not without its value :—" Light is propagated in straight lines. We cannot see round a corner." But this is not the way to write even an elementary introduction to Light and Heat.