An Enquiry into the Nature and Results of Electricity and
Magnetism. By "Amyclanus."*(R. Washbourne.)—The lectures of which this book is composed were originally delivered to a young men's reading club, and are now presented to the public considerably enlarged and rewritten. It is to be hoped either that the audience know the elements of the science, or that much has been omitted in tho revision, otherwise we do not see how much intelligible information could be derived from them. Their real purport is an exposition of the author's theories on the sub- ject, which briefly stated, are :—There is only one kind of electricity, sub- ject to various modifications; electricity is not a fluid, but a property or power inherent in matter ; electrical power is in its nature identical with chemical, and differs only in degree. The author makes con- siderable claims for the power and influence of electricity in nature. When we read, however, his positive assertion that electricity causes the waterspout and tornado, raises the headset the growing crops after a storm, attracts the rootlet emanating from a seed into the soil, and shoots out the stem into the air, we remember Lieutenant Armit, and close the book with a shudder.
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