NEW EDITIONS.—The Land of the ll'ine. By A. J. Drexel
Biddle. 2 vols. (Drexel Biddle.)—These two volumes include a history, a gazetteer, and a general description, social, commercial, and technical, of the Madeira Islands (there are two inhabited, Madeira and Porto Santo). As a sanatorium Madeira has lost its vogue, a very different treatment of consumption being now pre- ferred; as a " land of the wine" it is recovering its place. The maxi- mum of its prosperity in this respect was reached in 1800, when the export amounted to 16,981 pipes. In 1865 the minimum of 536 was reached. In 1896, the last year for which statistics are given, 5,917 pipes were exported. The old wine was of rare excellence, reaching a very great age—as much as eighty years-
without any sign of deterioration, and even suffering no change after being decanted. Credits experto.—Bermondsey : its Historic Memories and Associations. By Edward T. Clarke. (Elliot Stock. 6s. net.)—Lays of the " True North," and other Canadian Poems. By Agnes Mania Machar. (Same publisher. 2s. net.)—The Briton's First Duty, by George F. Shee, M.A., with Introduction by Colonel Lonsdale Hale (Army League and Imperial Defence Association, 6d.), written to air the "Case for Conscription." Our views on the question have been stated else- where. We may mention, however, a recent incident as suggest- ing a difficulty. Certain Irish Militia regiments were embarking for South Africa, and some agitators did their best to excite quasi-mutiny. They wholly failed. Would there not have been some risk of a different result if the regiments had been raised by conscription ?—The Story of the University Boat Race. By Waiham Peacock, B.A. (Grant Richards. 28.)—This is a very handy little volume, brought up to date, and seasonably appearing now when another race is in the near future. (We write on the eve of the day known in the boating calendar as the First Day of Training.") We see from the obituary that fifty- eight Blues died in the last twenty years, and that their average works out exactly at fifty-six years. The years of life a healthy man at twenty-one years of age can expect are forty-two, so that the result is slightly unfavourable. Of the two crews that rowed in 1829, the thirteen whose deaths are recorded reached an average age of sixty-five and two-third years.—Atlas of Practical Ele- mentary Zootomy. By George B. Howes, LL.D. (Macmillan and Co. 10s. net.)—Increased and enlarged. The first edition, we should say, appeared in 1835, with a preface of commendation from the pen of Professor Huxley.
Previous page
