Eclectic Physical Geography. By Russell Hinman. (Sampson Low and Co.)—This
work, by an American author, and printed at the Eclectic Press, Cincinnati, appears to give a comprehensive and, in the main, clear account of the principal phenomena observed at the earth's surface. The variety of subjects included necessitates a brevity of treatment which in some parts detracts from lucidity, and leaves much for the teacher to fill in ; but we have only noticed one unscientific statement,—namely, on p. 10, where the author seems to think he has explained why the inten- sity of gravitation varies inversely as the square of the distance. There are nearly two hundred clearly printed maps, diagrams, and figures, which largely increase the usefulness of the book, in many cases not merely illustrating, but supplementing the information given in the text. One novel map of the world, for instance, shows mean annual "isabnormak," which unexplained word appears to mean lines drawn through places where the mean annual land temperature shows an equal variation from what would be the normal temperature if that depended only on latitude, the abnormally hot and abnormally cold parts being coloured with varying shades of pink and blue respectively. The volume has a good index.
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