30 APRIL 1892, Page 11

Colour Measurement and Mixture. " Romance of Science Series." By

Captain Abney. (S.P.C.K.)—Scientific text-books founded on lectures generally have the advantage of lucidity, and we are reminded of this in perusing Captain Abney's Colour Measurement and Mixture, though we are equally certain that he would always write lucidly and forcibly. Some of the details and figures might not be supposed to interest readers, yet Captain Abney makes them readable, and where he can draw an instance from every-day life, he knows how to do it most effectively. If it was not a text- book we were writing about, the style could be almost described as " swinging." An intelligent reader would, it is certain, glean a great deal about his eyes, their appreciation of colour, the art of the painter, the colouring of the sky and clouds, from this book, which is something more than a mere collection of physical data and experiments.