A History of the Oxford Museum. By H. M. Vernon,
D.M., and R. Dorothea Vernon. (Clarendon Press. is. 6d.)—This little book ought to have been noticed long ago, but has been somehow passed over. It gives a very pleasant and lively sketch of the early struggles of science at Oxford—it was positively more flourishing in the seventeeth century than the eighteenth—and of its later history. The decisive battle took place in the fifties, when the vote for the museum was passed. The tale of this par- ticular event is curious. Piney was a great friend of Acland ; both were Christ Church men. Pusey passed the word to the Tractarian band," and the museum came into being. Such are the academical "wheels within wheels." Does anyone remember the surprising victory of the Liberals when Stanley's nomination as University Preacher in 1871 was opposed? He would have been hopelessly beaten if he had not been a Christ Church man. This book is a most agreeable bit of reading.
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