im.>] SOME NEW BOOKS 135 



expert mechanician, has introduced many novelties into ballooning 

 equipment. The senior author of the work is Mr Henri Lachambre, 

 tlie well-known French balloon-maker, who made AndreVs balloon 

 and went to Spitsbergen in L896 to superintend its installation and 

 inflation. This work was successfully achieved, hut the weather was 

 unfavourable and no start could he attempted that year. Few things 

 show hotter AndreVs courage and good judgment than his determina- 

 tion not to risk an ascent after the first few days of August. Even it' 

 he could then have relied on a strong, steady, south wind to carry 

 him to the pole, and a continuation of it on the other side to blow him 

 on either in Siberia or North America, he would have landed too late 

 to make adequate preparations for the winter. Andree accordingly 

 faced a certain amount of scoffing hy returning to Europe in 1896, 

 ready for an earlier start in the following season. Mi- Lachambre did 

 not offer to go north again. One summer's exile on the ice-hound 

 shores of Dane's Gat was enough for him. So it fell to the lot of his 

 nephew, Alexis Machuron, to superintend the balloon work in 1897, 

 and to see the actual ascent. 



Mr Lachambre's account of his experiences in Spitzbergen is a 

 quaint addition to Spitzbergen literature. He makes numerous 

 observations on the fauna and flora, but his knowledge of natural history 

 is too limited to render these of any value. He says, for example, 

 that the auk is the same bird as the fulmar petrel, and then calls it a 

 duck. As an example of his remarks on the vegetation we may quote 

 the following : " There is no vegetation to gladden our sight, nothing- 

 hut a few varieties of moss bearing tiny white, violet, and yellow 

 flowers ; the yellow ones, larger than the rest, resemble very much 

 the buttercups with which our meadows are dotted in spring." The 

 flower-hearing " mosses " in question are no doubt species of Ranun- 

 culus, the Arctic poppy (Papaver medicaule), and rock roses. The 

 translator by always speaking of eider-geese, for example, helps to 

 caricature the natural history notes in the volume. The photographic 

 illustrations are admirable, and help to atone for the numerous imper- 

 fections of the text. 



A New 7 Means of Research 



Practical Radiography. By A. W. Isenthal and H. Snowdeu Ward. Second 

 edition. 8vo, 157 pp. London : Published for The Photogram by Dawbarn & 

 Ward. 1898. Price, 2s. 6d. net. 



"NVe welcome the appearance of this thoroughly practical little book. 

 Now that the popular excitement due to the novelty of Dr Roentgen's 

 discovery is abating, the ical workers, those who are earnestly making 

 use of the power placed in their hands, are coming to the front. That 

 good work is 1 icing done is very clear from a perusal of the hook. This 

 is particularly marked in its application to surgery and medicine ; and 

 we are glad to find that one of its first uses has been to the alleviation 

 of human suffering, one great end of scientific research. But there 

 are many other fields where the new power will he of great value. 

 Apart from the physician, men of science interested in Roentgen rays 

 may be divided into two classes : those physicists who are investigat- 

 ing the nature and properties of the rays, and those who are occupied, 

 not so much with the discovery itself, as with its application as a 



