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e ver be earnest for knowledge and truth; Working on with a will as the hours pass small is their chance who would lag with the last; With the fore-most we'll strive in the morning

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a.

of

THOMAS DUNMAN.

WE regret to have to announce the death, at the

early age of thirty-two, of a promising young Science Teacher and Lecturer-Mr. Thomas Dunman, lecturer on Physiology at the Birkbeck Institution, and physical science lecturer at the Working Men's College, Great Ormond Street, the story of whose brief life furnishes a remarkable instance of what may be done by energy, perseverance, and a strong faith in one's own powers. He had to contend against

adverse circumstances from the outset of his career, but his thirst for knowledge, and especially for scientific knowledge, was unquenchable. His early education was limited, but his reading was wide, his memory was one of remarkable power, and he possessed a mental vigour and ability of unusual character. He made himself master of French, Greek, and Latin, and attained considerable proficiency in mathematics and physical science, while working for his living at a most uncongenial occupation, and it was always in spite of his surroundings he went on adding to his stock of knowledge.

About seven years ago he took charge of the physiology class at the Working Men's College in Great Ormond Street, and the attractiveness of his style, the lucidity of his exposition, and the strong personal enthusiasm for his subject, which he imparted to every student, soon made the class one of the largest and most popular in the college, while the practical results, as shown by the examinations at South Kensington, attested to the thoroughness of his teaching.

The like success attended him in other courses of lectures in other branches of science, and it is not too much to say that Mr. Dunman has been greatly instrumental in infusing new life into the admirable institution which Mr. Frederick Denison Maurice founded. At the Birkbeck Institution, too, where he succeeded Dr. Aveling as physiology lecturer, his work was much appreciated, although latterly failing health somewhat interfered with his labours there.

In 1879 he published a very useful Glossary of biological, anatomical, and physiological terms,' which has sold well among students, both here and in America; and finding his lectures on popular scientific subjects were so much appreciated, he commenced last year to issue them in pamphlet form. In this way four had appeared. The Mechanism of Sensation,' 'The Starlit Sky,' 'Pre-historic Man,' and 'Volcanoes and Coral Reefs,' He contributed to Cassell's 'Science for All,' to Ward and Lock's 'Universal Instructor,' Amateur Work,' and several other publi cations, and his career has been cut short just when it seemed that at last the tide was beginning to turn that would bring the fame and fortune to which his hard work and untiring industry would justly entitle him.

He married early, and the effort to support his family by science teaching and lecturing, may fairly be said to have cost him his life, for whatever he undertook he worked at conscientiously and enthusiastically, and in his teaching especially, he was, as we have said, thorough, hating anything like 'cramming' or 'scamping.' During the past two years there were warnings that his energies were being too strongly taxed, but they were unheeded, and at the beginning of the present year brain troubles

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=

1525d., £292 5 10d. Ans.

- £79 16s. old.

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S. d.

73

238 14 158 18 7

£48 17s. 1old. = 110 0 81

£507 13s. 11d. ÷ 2

= 253 16 11 Ans. £761 10 10

STANDARD IV.

875 lb. of bread eaten daily by men

1. 1 lb. x 500

1 lb. x 400 = 500 lb.

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I lb. x 680 = 680 lb. lb. x 620 = €465 lb. 2520 lb.

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Five lb. of flour makes six lb. of bread, hence (2520 ÷ 6) × = 2100 lb. flour consumed daily. 2100 lb. x 365 = 766,500 lb.

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342 ton 3 cwt. 3 qr. Ans.

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Hence the above 400 yards sell for £286.25. Then the remaining 80 yards must sell for (£345-£286 55.) £58 15s., that is at 14s. 84d. a vard. Ans.

2. £67 10s.- £65=£2 10s. allowed as discount. That is, on the true basis of discount, £65 (the P. W.) would make £2 10s. interest in 8 months, and consequently in 12 months would make £2 10s. × 13 155. Hence 100 would make or of £3 155., and 9 of 31=1 of 4=V£ 519 per cent. Ans.

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hence £210.85 £69'4575=141 7 10‡, Ans.

Ist year. off end of

2nd year off end of

3rd year. off end of

4th year.

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The blunders that follow are not the fault of Dr. Wormell. They are all typographical errors, but we point them out in order to be of some service to the author in his production of the second edition, that will infallibly be required very speedily. (a). Title-page, last line, Fleet, Street, E.C., is not good. (b). Table of Contents, p. vi., line 6 from end, for 69 read 70. (c). P. 27, fig. 11. The letters of the diagram are bad and are deficient. The indescribable blur in the corner to the right should be R. Dr. Wormell has unfortunately in the description two R's for different lines (see lines 5 and 9), and the n, s referred to in line 13 of the letter-press is conspicuous by its absence in the diagram. (d) P. 37, line 5 from end, after the word figure, the number 5 ought to be inserted. (e) P. 54, line 4, 1.20 should be 120. (f) P. 100, line 8 from end under d, there is an omission. We are told to charge the jar as in ( ). (g) P. 103, line immediately above the figure, aj is referred to not visible in the diagram. (2) In Fig. 26, p. 128, would it not be better if the needles had their ends distinguished? () In Fig. 27, p. 129, there is no B, though reference is made to one in the text. (k) Why does Dr. Wormell have a little spelling of his own whenever he writes the name of Ruhmkorff? All the world holds to the orthography just given; but Dr. Wormell, with a persistency that seems as if it must be born of certainty, writes Rhumkorff. () P. 178, line 7 from end, for that' read 'the.' (m) P. 203, line 9 from end, for 'sparking' read striking.' (n) P. 208, Fig. 58, wants the kk' referred to in the line immediately above that otherwise admirable diagram. (0) P. 210, lines 14, 15, the strokes are turned in exactly the opposite direction to that each should take. (p) P. 211, line 1, for L read E. (9) P. 218, line 10, ought not R' and C' to be respectively R and C? (r) P. 227, line 10. For 'infringing' read 'impinging.' (s) P. 229, line 12 from end, we have suddenly introduced on this, the last page but two, as a sort of verbal Parthian arrow, the word 'dinymmetry' without a word of explanation.

We turn to the more agreeable, and, in this case, easy task of pointing out the good points in this notable little volume. (1). Dr. Wormell's definitions are very clear. Those of a current (p. 116), of a volt (p. 122), of a magnetic pole (p. 8), are good examples. He almost succeeds in making the idea of the dreaded 'potential' plain to beginners, and would wholly succeed with students who have given the subject of electricity a little attention. We are inclined to think that the best definition of 'potential' may be obtained by following up the analogy to temperature, and adopting the definition of the latter given by Professor Balfour, 'the condition of a body in regard to sensible heat,' we define potential as the condition of a body as to measurable electricity.'

On p. 36 Dr. Wormell manages to edge in a little piece of that sadly-neglected study, astronomy. It is to us

always matter for regret that whilst every person pretending to education can tell you the common names of the ordinary flowers he or she sees by day, scarcely any can tell the name of one of the stars that are over and under them night and day.

Dr. Wormell, who is nothing, if not practical, gives a very interesting account of the compass in relation to modern ships. As many of these are of iron, and often carry iron, the reader will readily understand that many ingenious devices have to be planned for preventing the interference of the material of which the ship is composed, and often of its cargo, with the compass-needle. These are all narrated in very clear and interesting fashion in the eighth lecture on magnetism.

And, indeed, generally we may say that the great virtue of this book is clearness. Every explanation, with scarcely an exception, is admirably done, and the boy who cannot understand the principles of the two great cognate sciences, after reading Dr. Wormell's book, may reasonably despair of ever grasping them. As illustration of this clearness of explanation we may refer to the account of the condenser on pp. 96-98 or the proof, in connection with the tangent galvanometer, that the strength of the traversing current is proportional to the tangent of the angle through which the needle turns (p. 132, note), or on p. 169 the statement of Lenz's law.

An admirable analogy between the work done by a flow of water and that done by an electric current is worked out on pp. 192, 193, and would alone stamp the book as original.

The abbreviations D.P. for difference of potential, and E.M.F. for electro-motive force, and the capital mnemonic in the note on p. 194 show that Dr. Wormell is a teacher, and knows the value of time. Nor does our author despise occasional recapitulations (p. 130), and summings-up (p. 149.)

But, above all, we ought to praise the practical nature of this work. In these days when boys and men alike are cramming electricity and magnetism by book, and when even the books are far too full of theory and far too empty of descriptions of practical work, it is a delight to meet with a treatise wherein not only are simple experiments described in full in the body of the lectures, but every now and again a pause is made, and methods of making apparatus and conducting experiments are given in full. Even in describing the Holtz' machine, Dr. Wormell takes care to tell the student to place the discharging rods in contact before the machine has been set in motion, and to separate them after it is in motion-an important practical direction that we never remember to have seen in any other book on electricity.

The book is what we may call a progressive book. It leads the student on from the simple things to the more complex by well-graduated steps, and it ever keeps before him the few simple principles lying at the basis of magnetism and electricity, tracing back the most important and apparently difficult machines to one or more of these fundamental generalisations.

Finally, the book which brings us nearly up to the present hour's knowledge, though the photophone is omitted, ought to be of use especially to three classes of of people: (1) teachers of these two sciences, who might do well to model their lessons on those given here; (2) students who have to 'get up' these subjects for examination; (3) that increasing class of folk we meet in ordinary society, who, reading in their daily newspapers and in their monthly magazines of dynamo-machines, carbon points, Faure's accumulator, id genus omne, are naturally anxious to understand the general principles and construction of these machines that are intruding themselves so prominently and with such remarkable effect into our daily life. For these, no book we have read can compare with that we now lay down with the same statement as that with which we started :-If all the High School Series, of which the volume under review is one are as excellent as Dr. Wormell's little treatise, their standard will be very high.

Johnston's Sixpenny National Atlas. Edinburgh and London: W. and A. K. Johnston.

If scholars fail in learning geography it will not be from lack of maps, and those too of remarkable merit, together with cheapness. Among those who caterthus economically and excellently for the public, Messrs. Johnston occupy a deservedly leading position. We have before us specimens from their select list of maps suitable to all requirements, from the school-boy who has but a penny to purchase a neat and excellent map of his county, or any other portion of the world he is studying,-to the nobleman whose library will be usefully adorned by the guinea map (of any division or country), on cloth and roller and varnished.

With such a plethora of wealth in the way of maps, selection becomes difficult; yet we would advise teachers and school managers to send for a list of Messrs. Johnston's maps, and see how well every kind of requirement can be well and cheaply supplied. In the series of school wall maps (4 ft. by 3 ft. 6 in.) an excellent map can be had mounted and varnished for 125. !

In the little Sixpenny Atlas we have placed at the head of our list we have sixteen maps that are most of service to beginners, boldly and clearly printed with sufficient colour, but not a confusing profusion thereof, and wisely arranged in regard to the names being just enough, and not more than enough, for beginners. The land stands out clear in relief from the light blue tint of the water; large political divisions are marked by a bold red line; mountains by an equally bold dark blue line, and the main line of rivers marked without the needless addition of unnamed tributaries. This, we take it, is as it should be, in contradistinction to many maps ostensibly for beginners which are unwisely forced to do duty for everythingBotany and Zoology included. In the Shilling Atlas of the same series, we have twenty-four maps, and this collection done up in durable cloth.

The Penny Maps (14 by 11 inches), are issued in four series. Coloured ordinary maps with names; projections; outlines; and test maps, in which names only are omitted. Of these Penny Maps, the latest additions are an excellent set of county maps remarkable for clearness, and printed in pale red or pink tint. Of these, Surrey appears to be the most finished, as it contains,in addition to the roads, railroads, and rivers, the principal range of hills that extends lengthwise through the county, from Westerham to Reigate, Dorking, and Guildford, and terminates with the Hog's Back at Farnham, and also the isolated eminence of Leith Hill. Neither Middlesex nor Kent (the only others of the county series we have before us) contains marks for the hills. In regard to Middlesex, Highgate and Harrow ought thus to be marked, if not the elevated district that borders Hertfordshire, and culminates at Highwood, north of Mill Hill. Kent may, with more reason, complain of its hills being omitted. Its North Downs are a continuation of the Surrey heights, before mentioned, and extend through the county to Dover, and thence form most of the eastern elevations to Margate, where the chalk gives way to the clay that culminates in the Sheppy cliffs. In the map of Middlesex we have London marked by shaded lines that will soon have to be extended, and which in the present map stretch from Kensal Green on the west to Blackwall on the east; and from Holloway on the north to Camberwell on the south. We must now greatly extend our range, and notice Rolfe's truly magnificent map of The Western Hemisphere which Messrs. Johnston have just printed for themselves and Mr. Rolfe of Chicago. This noble map is printed in colours, (5 ft. by 4 ft.,) and has the coast marked by an additional tint. The most important territories, besides being tinted, are further indicated by delicate single or double oblique lines in contradistinction to territories merely coloured. accuracy, beauty, and completeness, this map leaves nothing to be desired. The corners are filled up with maps of the North and South Polar Regions; the distribution of plants and animals, and the distribution of

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The above remarks will apply, mutatis mutandis, to Rolfe's Eastern Hemisphere, similar in size and other particulars to the Western. Together these maps form one of the finest illustrations of geographical science hitherto published, and can be used for smaller divisions with little to be desired in the way of detail. The four accompanying small maps illustrate the distribution of plants and animals, and wind and rain over the Eastern Hemisphere, and also the hemisphere of the greatest amount of land, and a corresponding one of the greatest amount of water.

Next we have, on the same magnificent scale, a Map of Wales (4 ft. 2 by 3 ft. 6 inches) and which is as remarkable for boldness as for beauty. The names of towns and villages are printed in large type, varying in three forms according to the importance of the place, i.e., county towns being printed in full capitals, other towns in Roman, and villages in Italic type. The principal mountains have also a distinct type to themselves, of clear small capitals with the heights given in figures; the rivers have also their special type, and so have the bays and other openings. The railways and roads are also shown, and the main physical features given. In this we should like to see a few more names, such, for example, as the beautiful falls of the Tawe, and those of the Mynydd on its course towards the Neath. To the sons of old Cambria this map cannot fail to be welcome, and will doubtless find a place in every school in Wales, not only in regard to its excellence, but also on account of its cheapness; it being issued, varnished on cloth and roller, for 12s. This wall map is accompanied by a sixpenny hand-book descriptive of the Principality, which we should like to see expanded by larger type, and accompanied with wood-cut illustrations.

On the same large scale Messrs. Johnston have brought out a map of British North America, measuring 7 ft. by 4 ft. 2 inches, which will be particularly welcomed throughout Canada and other portions of the Dominion.

Africa, similarly treated in size and carefulness of finish. contains the most recent particulars down to the termination of the Zulu and Transvaal contests. The details of the south-western coast are much more fully treated than on any map we have seen. The comparatively unknown regions are also well filled up, and the dimen sions given of the great central lakes. The Cape and other portions of South Africa of course are marked by a greater abundance of names, sufficient indeed for the educational requirements of all the schools of Cape Colony and Natal.

Every-day Life in our Public Schools. Edited by Charles Eyre Pascoe. London: Griffith and Farran.

This book is the work of nine writers, including the editor, who contributes an introductory historical chapter to each school, and the entire account of St. Paul's, Merchant Taylor's, and Christ's Hospital Schools. The book is readable to all, and must be particularly so to old scholars, or those now going through their course at the respective schools. The latter will be especially interested in the details of school life together with the multitude of allusions and slang terms peculiar to each school. To the general reader the opening chapters will be perhaps more interesting, and, in addition to the historical details, the influence of these great educational institutions on the national character cannot fail of arousing thoughtful

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