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    the views thus deplorably unrecognised ; and , beia » g thus familiar , his extrar ordinary assertion becomes wholly unintelligible . What are the labours Qt Buffon and Cuvier , which our zoologists ignore ? Specif y them , no matter how vaguely ; we cannot guess at what is alluded feh JJavrag ; p <| gw 4 Wem , perhaps ^ Dr ; Knox will then explain the reaping « f dragging * P * hf views of Ctoethe , Oken , and Spix" into the same sentence 5 fc © mU explain , perhaps , how English zoologists are to adopt Cutters views , as well «* the views to which Cuvier through life was most vehemently opposed . He will further explain , that Milne Edwards , a pupil and follower of Cuvier , espousing Cuvier ' s antagonism to the v « jws of Gpethe , Oken , and Spis , does not recognise them in this very work which Dr . Knox translates to supersede all English books ? The truth seems to be , that Dr . Knox is tend A ^ % mn ir . nKn ,, f * olf > hr * tf > A names with an air of easv familiarity , as it he

    were on the best terms with them ; and he does not always trouble nimseit to ascertain how these names are spelled- He might have learned from Mr . Morley ' sLK that ' ? Pallisset the potter " was named Paltssy . His kuowr ledge of the history of science is such as one might expect from one thus random in his names . The reader will do well to pass aver unread all that I >? . Knox furnishes by way of historical introduction , and devote himself to th « Manual Dr . Knox has translated , la a very compact form it gives a mass of admirably-arranged information , and is illustrated with five hundred woodcuts , mpst of them excellent . We urge the publisher , when he reprints this volume , to suppress Dr . Knpx * s unnecessary display of himself , and to give us in lieu therepf something which the book much needs—an index . Ocular Spectres and Structures as Mutual Exponents . A Treatise by James

    Jago , A . B . ( 8 vp . Qburchul ) . —We have tried to bring within our limits an exposition of this curious treatise , but the subject is not to be expounded w | tb ^ . 9 ut n ^ oye reference to anatomical details than would , be permissible here . We . prefer , ^ her ^ Gffje , d ^ c . ti ^ 't ^ e . ' ' ^ teiitiQ ^ pf otir medical and speculative readers to this attempt to explain the anfttomy of the eye by means of spectra \ appearances , and thosef : appea ^ ancea by means of anatomy . Throat Ailments , more especially the Enlarged Tonsil andMongated Uvula . By James Yearsley . Sixth edition . ( 8 v 6 . Churchill . )—TJnnappily many of pur readers may have occasion to consult this valuable little work ; for |]| f ! f * clergyman ' s sore throat" is cnly one form of the evil wbich distresses orators , stagers , actors , and quiet every ? day people ., To have an uvula sp long thatit is perpetually getting into a struggle with yourthrqat , and keeping up an incessant bickering in all the parts around it , is a common case . Mr .

    Yearsley has collected a mass of evidence ^ and hjs explained ' the efficacy pf simple treatment in such eases ' . The book is interesting to the medical profession j deeplysp to ; alj persons wi ^ : ' ^ ;^^ &o ^ ,: ' ; y 74 e ^ ;^ a ^ iK 2 fsf ;'' i ^ ' ihe New World . His adventures and dis-^ !^^ . - [\ : 1 ^ - ^ Ta . yMor ^ & : &ir . Jphn / ( 12 mo-, Longmans . }—It was an excellent idea to collect from the autobiographical digressions of the great naturalist a connected narrative of his adventures : having formed this plan , Mis . St John was further aided in it by communications from Audubon ' s friends , and by some fragments published in America . The plan has been less that of a circumstantial bicfgraphythan , of a narrative setting forth the which his as

    episodes of romance ' and ^ discovery constituted career a naturalist , ' * Of course a writer has perfect right to choose his subject , and to limit it as suits his views or his information ; and we have only-to accept what he gives us , deciding whether he has performed what he lias attempted . But should the present book reach a second edition , we beg Mrs . St . John to \ re-epnsider her plan , and try if she cannot give us an enlarged biography , arid with it even more of Audubon ' s delightful passages about Natural History . ? Her gracefulbook . is small enough to bear enlargement without fear of becoming wearisome j the subject is wide enough to admit of great Variety . At ' ¦ ¦ present the work reads like ' a long review article , with very interesting passages , brightly written and sketchily put together . We think Audubon ' s name and fame would secure an audience for a more ambitious work .

    It is rare indeed that we meet with a work at once so happy in plan and excellent in execution as the Mftimol of Marine Zoology for the British Isles . By P . H . Gosse . Part I . " (! 2 mp . Van Voorst . ) - ^ -Without being passionately fond of molusca ( and we know estimable persons with a quite mediocre interest in thpae pulpy masses ) , the reader does recreate himself at the seaside every now and then . Life is not impassioned •* by the sad sea wave . "/ The days are long . The circulating library is but a feeble enjoyment . You lounge along the shore ; in very listlesanesjs you pick up a bit of sea ,-weed , ; or a novel oivalve ; you look at it awhile , curious but ignorant , and because ignorant you speedily fling it down again , and , humming custa diva , lounge away to " fresh weeds and molluscs new . " Now , only suppose your knowledge a little increased * what a fund of enjoyment would that lounge bring with it I This you admit . , But how get the little knowledge in an easy way ? Nay , even supposing your mind has already had a strong bias for natural history , . and your curiosity , been , greatly aroused respecting these -wonders of jthe deep , how are you , unless in company with a zoologistto

    re-, cognise the stfecies you may find ? i Here Mr , Gosse steps in . We owe him much for his Vivarium / he is determined we shall owe him more . This is the ilrst part of a book which will go into your pocket , and will enable ypu to identify anjj animal you may meet with on the British coasts ( except , of course , a " swell" pr a " lion , " or animals o £ r less determinate zoologic character ) , thirty pounds would not purchase the works necessary fox suph identification ; and Mr . Gosae , for a few sbrillinga , will supply the . want in a pocket Manual . . lie gives a figure of every geuua named by him , making thrse hundred and thirty-five illustrations invtnia part alone ; and the descriptions enable you to identify the species , The text ia ai simple and lucid explanation of the physiological and anatomical ? j ^ acte ^» with brief descriptions of the various species . We repeat , the idea-is happy and the execution excellent . If our readers go to the seaside without b copy in their portmanteau , they will commit a serious oversight .

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    diansts , from annajSj archives , and jn this instance from $ hose mountains of monumental gossip , the histories of chivalry . Having ^ in farmer books discQurs , ed of tables , and the delicious things that were spread upon them or said arqund them , having in sqnie chapters of agreeable levity described the dressing of fedies , nqt " as they appeared" anywhere in public ; and havine thirdly , compounded eertain memoirs of the Hanover queens , full of Wusim * Apocrypha ? , Dr . Doran , s must tell a tale of chivalry , For large white plumes are dancing in his eye . But his anecdotes are mpre modern than we expected from one who knows all glossaries by rpte . Of course , Gyrpn , Arthur , Lancelot , and the knights of ancient ©

    raers , come upon the scene , with then- sparkling arms ; but Dr . Doran has a tendency to wander away from the chivalric epochs , from the heroic ages whaeh never existed , and from the middle ages , to the romantic scandals and tnvolities of the last century . He has " read" more of that period than he wrote" in his queen-memoirs , and must disburse both anecdote and allusion , in illustrative periphrases , sometimes very artificially dovetailed . - j However , Dr . Doran takes up his topic in the spirit of a true historian , bv putting previous historians in contrast . Lingard , who has lately enjoyed a revival , prescribes the spurred and belted orders as destitute of most "kniehtlv

    ^^ , , ^ a ** allam regards them as the great schools of moral discipline in the Middle Ages ; and Hallam , we are inclined to think , is in the right . The champions pf the distressed often used their strong arms and their good swords in behalf of their own profane audacity , and against the honour of maidens and the rights of the poor ; but these are the very fellows whom we find in the histories brought to the ground covered with blood and dust , by strange knights , in flock or shining armour . Dr . Doran illustrates his peculiar theory , by spattering Achilles with uncourtly epithets , but , where Achilles is called a " bully , " Ruy Diaz does not gain much by being called a hero . It is to be suspected that our lively tablle-talker knows more of Christian than

    of Pagan chivalry . At all events , the " real knight was brave and pure , of the type of Gyroa le Courtois , who died in defence of a lady ' s fame . The lady , seeking him in a forest , found his body , and uttered over it such funeral eloquence as Spencer might have turned into a golden canto . She knelt by the dead knight , kissed his sword , and diied upon hisbreast . That her virtues were not mere ballad idealism , Dr . Doran shows from a dedication of Jordano Bruno ' s poem to Sir Philip Sydneyj in which he says he has tasted all sorrows hut one , " that of finding false a woman ' s love , ? ' which could not have been said by King Arthur , whose wife Guinever , is presented in " Sir Lancelot du Lac" as the image of beauty , boldness , and corruption .

    Ireating , in due order , of knightly costume , weapons , armorial signs , and creations , Dr . Doran opens his second chapter with an account of the training of pages , whose happiness he contrasts with the woes endured by college scholars . But , if certain French and Dog-Latin historians are to be credited , the pages used to receive at the hands , or . under the eyes , of their mistresses , such harsh corrections as the poor students in the butteries , only they were more elegantly and tastefully applied . Be this as it may , when the youths did not cross their ladies' wishes , they lived in the houses or knights and nobles a life of easy freedom , engaged in gentle duties , or in the impertinences pf

    idleness . From the Knights of the Round Table , who first sat down at King Arthur ' s suggestion to feast off a roasted ox , the generations of chivalry appear to have revelled through their nights and days amid ail the varieties of romance and pleasure . Dr . Doran describes them at home , with interludes of horror for the sake of contrast . Among other stories , he tells that of the Knight of Cheiri , who fprced his wife to hang her lover , with her own hands , and watched her until she was starved-to death in the presence of that corpse . Also he relates , how the Landvogt Hugenbach , the ducal Lord of Burgundy , gave a splendid entertainment , to which he invited all the beautiful ladies of the district with their husbands . In the . RmirsR nf t . Vifi

    » £ wW ; * sra T MANNBEa - » lei « a » tryj WrifWthb an ^ aotes fronvfolio chronicles , from nine-volume m ' ^ dk . .

    festival the ladies were conducted into a gallery , where they were reduced to a statuesque condition with the exception of a veil over the head . The husbands were then called in , one by one , to identify their wives . Those who succeeded were forced to drink enormous flagons of wine , but those who could not recognise their Eves were flung headlong down the staircase . This fine career ended on the scaffold ; but fora long time the Burgundians , who loved " right and order , " worshipped the memory of the Landvoght Hugenbach . A chapter on the loves of knights introduces a series of pleasant episodes , and in another on duelling , death , and burial , a variety of details not altogether consonant with the popular notion of knightly heroism . With * " shirt of need" woveji by pure maidens , " in the name of the devil , " they

    also . wore masses of jointed armour , sometimes so strong and compnet ,, that when unhorsed , and helpless on the ground , the knight could only be killed by the stab of a " mercy knife" driven through the bars of his visor , into his eye . After the battle of Pavia , the peasantry collected on the field with axes , and , hewing through the armour of the wounded knights , dispatched them . But in their own encounters , conducted in knightl y style , there was little courtesy , and still less magnanimity displayed . Even the mighty Gyron , when he had prostrated his foe , jumped upon him , stamped in liis face , battered the most vulnerable parts of his armour , stripped oft' hi a helmet , and worked upon , his head with the pummel of his sword , until by those barbarous means he had dispatched him . Bayard himself considered it not uninanly to strike a fallen enemy . Other champions of great lame and

    prowess grew weary of their crusades , and retired into the shadows of peace ; some put away the helm , and took the cowl , under cover of which wo find them , in certain records not quoted by Dr . Doran , exercising upon the maidens who would have recalled them to the world , the birchen rigours bestowed by the grand ladies upon their pages , and oven , according to Bran tome , upon their handmaids , Dr . Doran ' lively chapters are bonded successively , " Female Knights and Jeanne D'Arc , " " the Champions of Christendom , " " Sir < Juy of Warwick , " " Garteriana , " "Foreign Knights of the Garter" containing an citation of historical error agairtst Mr . Macaulay— " The Poor Knights of Windsor and their Doings , " " the Knights of the Holy Ghost , " and " Jacques do Lelaing . " From the adventures of the knightly Jacques he proceeds to

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1856, page 258, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2132/page/18/