Self-help seems to be the guiding spirit of the present age, and amateur workmen are multiplying on all sides. With this development of popular taste comes a growing demand for handy practical books, containing the necessary hints and instructions, without enlarging on the theories and principles, or discussing the historical stages, of the particular art or industry under consideration.

The original volume of 'Workshop Receipts' was prompted by a desire to afford technical knowledge in a cheap and convenient form. Its success led to the publication of a Second Series, devoted to trades of a more or less Chemical character.

The present volume is a further instalment of valuable information connected with Electrical and Metallurgical matters. Within the last few years immense strides have been made in the application of Electricity, and it has become almost a domestio science. The theoretical treatment of this subject has' received abundant attention; but the details of its praqtical employment have hitherto only appeared in fragments, in stray pamphlets and periodical literature. The article on Electrics, here presented, embraces a host of facts and instructions in an accessible form, and should prove eminently useful to the many who are adopting electric bell and lighting systems, or who take an interest in the construction and working of batteries, or the manipulation of microphones, phonographs, and similar novelties. The Metallurgical articles, in their practical features, are far ahead of any existing work, being brought down to the most recent dates, and including some subjects on which the scantiest possible information has before been issued in a collective form.

In the editing of the present series, one or two improvements have suggested themselves, and these, coupled with the carefully-prepared contents and index, should ensure the book a reception equal to that which has been accorded its two predecessors.

Charles G. Warnford Lock.