New updated edition 2019. The planets and countless other objects revolving around our Sun make up the Solar System. As scientists discover more about these heavenly bodies, including our own planet, Earth, they are also finding further mysteries and extraordinary space puzzles. Our Solar System is but one of billions in the vastness of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and the Universe itself contains countless more ever-changing galaxies. This newly updated book covers all of these subjects, from the tiniest dwarf planet to vast nebulae, and from space probes searching out new life to the International Space Station, making it a fascinating home reference guide to our Solar System and beyond. 300 amazing photographs and detailed illustrations take you on a whirlwind tour of the cosmos, while an additional reference section contains fact charts, star maps and a glossary of terms.

Well versed in natural history, particularly geology and ornithology, Hugh Edwin Strickland (1811-53) became fascinated by the dodo and mankind's influence on its extinction. Seeking to investigate this flightless bird and other extinct species from islands in the Indian Ocean, he invited the comparative anatomist Alexander Gordon Melville (1819-1901) to help him separate myth from reality. Divided into two sections, this 1848 monograph begins with Strickland's evaluation of the evidence, including historical reports as well as paintings and sketches, many of which are reproduced. Melville then analyses the osteology of the dodo and Rodrigues solitaire, describing his findings from dissections of the few available specimens and making comparisons with similar species. A seminal work, it correctly concluded that the dodo was more closely related to pigeons than vultures, and the book also inspired others to take up the search for new fossil evidence.

This joint reissue comprises two works on military medicine, providing instruction on the treatment of ailments common to soldiers, and methods for preventing their occurrence. The title work, written by Charles Alexander Gordon (1821-99) and published in 1873, is followed by A Guide to Health for the Use of Soldiers by fellow surgeon R. C. Eaton (1842-1902), which first appeared in 1890. Intended to be read by infantrymen and officers, both works offer succinct and practical advice on topics ranging from malaria to drunkenness. The texts take slightly different approaches in their presentation of advice: Gordon adopts a crisp and formal style, while Eaton incorporates instructive medical facts in his brief yet fluent explanations. Together, the works provide an effective exposition of problems and practicalities that would assume tremendous significance decades later in the trenches of the First World War.

Furnace Penitentiary: the world's most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface. Convicted of a murder he didn't commit, sentenced to life without parole, "new fish" Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries. Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where inhuman creatures in gas masks stalk the corridors at night, where giants in black suits drag screaming inmates into the shadows, where deformed beasts can be heard howling from the blood-drenched tunnels below. And behind everything is the mysterious, all-powerful warden, a man as cruel and dangerous as the devil himself, whose unthinkable acts have consequences that stretch far beyond the walls of the prison.

Together with a bunch of inmates--some innocent kids who have been framed, others cold-blooded killers--Alex plans an escape. But as he starts to uncover the truth about Furnace's deeper, darker purpose, Alex's actions grow ever more dangerous, and he must risk everything to expose this nightmare that's hidden from the eyes of the world.