The Dtuturnal Theory of the Earth. By William Andrews. (Sampson
Low and Co. 12s. 6d.)—This book is a singular example of misdirected ability and industry, after the fashion of the works of the people who try to prove that the earth is fiat, and that perpetual motion is possible. Mr. Andrews, who was born in 1798,- has been dead for some years, so that there is no reason for dwelling on the essential fallacy of his book, which is ,an attempt to show that the phenomena of geology can all be ex- plained by a spiral motion of the Pole, completed (as far as we can make out) in about forty-two million years. The task of writing the book appears to have provided its author, who was an American stationer, with happy occupation throughout his life, so that it served one good end. It is a pity that its editor did not consult a competent physicist before publishing a work which involves the assumption, among many similar ones, that heat is a material body subject to gravitation.
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