436 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



I September i, 1910. 



The Editor's Book Table. 



ALL THE WORLD'S AIR-SHIPS. (FLYING ANNALS.) FOUNDED 



! 1 [ane, author of "Fighting Ships," etc. With a 



I chapter on "Aerial Engineering," by Charles di G Sell's. 



M. i.nst. c. e. !■ dor Sam son Low. Marston ,\ Co., Limited. 



1909. [Cloth, Oblong. Svo. Pp. 370. Price, £1 i*.] 



A GLANCE at this sumptuous volume will give a clearer idea 

 **• perhaps than anything else we can recall of the extent of 

 the interest in aeronautics as a practical field of endeavor. It 

 embraces not only a list of several hundred dirigibles and aero- 

 planes, but in most cases illustrations are given of these from 

 photographs. There will thus be found the views of every type 

 of machine in which aerial flight has been made in any country. 

 It some cases diagrams are given indicating details of construc- 

 tion. This is true of the Zeppelin type for instance, of which four 

 pages of plates are given. In nearly every instance the dimen- 

 sions are specified, lifting power, motor, propelling and stirring 

 apparatus, details of material used in construction, and so on. 

 Flying machines manufactured in 22 different countries are de- 

 scribed, and there is a long list of owners of standard machines. 

 Several essays on aerial engineering are included, and the value 

 of the work is enhanced by a glossary of technical terms in Eng- 

 lish, French, German and Italian. Considering how new is the 

 art of aviation, its progress has been most astonishing and, as we 

 have indicated, this book sets forth this progress very capably. 



TERRY'S MEXICO. HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELERS. BY T PHILIP 

 Terry. City of Mexico: Sonora News Co. Boston: Houghton Mifflin 

 to 1909. fCloth. i2mo. Pp. cr.XL + 595 + plates. Price, $2.50 

 gold.] 



The highest standard of guide book making has been aimed 

 at by the scholarly compiler of this new help to travelers in Mex- 

 ico. Mr. Terry is thoroughly acquainted with the Mexican re- 

 public and its people; he is aware likewise what intelligent trav- 

 elers are most likely to be interested in, whether in the way of 

 antiquities or present day life ; and last but not least he possesses 

 the capacity to impart knowledge of the kind referred to in a 

 pleasing and helpful way. Mr. Terry acknowledges his indebt- 

 edness to the Baedeker form of guide book as the basis of style 

 of his own work, and Baedeker is widely acknowledged as the 

 best in existence. This book not only tells how to get to any 

 place on the Mexican map, but has general suggestions as to 

 when to travel, how to understand local customs, and particu- 

 larly how to figure in Mexican money. It has a good map of 

 Mexico, 25 plans of cities and districts, and a very full index. 

 The book is pocket size, printed on "Bible paper," and bound in 

 flexible cloth. 



THE GREAT STATES OF S< IUTH VMERICA. A CONCISE ACCOUNT 



ol lheir Condition and Resources, with the Laws Relating to Govern- 



f' ,r o " c J S5 ' ons ; • 1!v Charles W. Domville-Fife. • - - London : 



1 Limited. 1910. [Cloth. Svo. Pp. xv. + z 3S + maps 



and plates. Price 12s. 611.] ' T P 



In- view of the growing interest in South American affairs in 

 Europe and the United States, the appearance at this time of a 

 book of the character indicated in the above title is particularly 

 fortunate, and all the more so since it comes from a hand so 

 competent. The author, who has published other South American 

 studies, points out that in order to describe so large an area 

 within a book of moderate size lu- has frit obliged to sacrifice 

 literary style to bare statement of fact. None the less the style 

 in which this book is written is attractive, and the business de- 

 tails are so intermingled with the author's comments as to 

 make the whole alike readable. Besides, one who once gets 

 the book in hand will be tempted to examine the unusually good 

 half tone pictures, of which there are nearly a hundred, in ad- 

 diti n to eight good maps. 



This book ought to be interesting to North American readers 

 just now if for no other reason than that their country is rep- 

 resented in the Pan-American Congress at Buenos Aires, which 



meeting is likely to do so much towards fostering closer rela- 

 tions between the two greater divisions of America. Mr. Dom- 

 ville-Fife's book will be helpful in the matter of acquainting us 

 as a people with our neighbors in the far South. 



Our author makes numerous references to rubber, but they 

 have not always been clear to some of his reviewers. When, for 

 instance, he speaks of "rubber and caoutchouc" (page 88) there 

 might have been a clearer use of definitions. At another place 

 he does refer to the "caucho tree" (page 158) and this term 

 should have been used throughout when Hevea rubber (Para) 

 is not referred to. Caucho, of course, is the Spanish word for 

 rubber in general, and it came to be used in commerce because 

 the first rubber exported from Spanish South America was of 

 different class from Para, which came from Portuguese-speaking 

 Brazil. To-day, with both classes of rubber produced in all the 

 countries bordering on the Amazon, it is still convenient to use 

 the term caucho to distinguish the product of the Castilloa tree. 



THE BRAZILIAN YEAR BOOK. ISSUED UNDER THE PATRONAGE 

 of the Brazilian Government. Second Issue — 1909. Compiled and 

 Edited by J. P. Wileman. Editor of The Brazilian Review, and ex- 

 Director of the Commercial Statistical Service of Brazil. Rio de 

 Janeiro: Brazilian Year Book. London: McCorquobale & Co.. Lim- 

 ited. [1910.] [Cloth. 8vo. Pp. xxiv + 826 -f- pocket map. Price 

 1 guinea; $5.50 gold.] 



The admirable features of the first issue of this work have 

 been repeated in the volume now before us, with the addition of 

 other matters of interest. For one thing, the trade statistics 

 have been brought forward two years. Mr. Wileman, while no 

 longer at the head of the Brazilian statistical department, retains 

 the intimate knowledge of the financial, commercial, and indus- 

 trial conditions of the nation with which that position brought 

 him into contact, to say nothing of his position, for so many 

 years, as editor of an important financial paper at the Brazilian 

 capital. While bearing the date 1909, the work has only just 

 been issued from the press. 



That Brazil is no unimportant factor in the world's progress, 

 even a cursory glance at this volume will show. In the matter of 

 area it is only slightly less than the United States. The distance 

 from the national capitol to Manaos, the rubber center, is 3,204 

 miles, and there are other places of commercial importance in 

 the country even more remote. There is a much wider range of 

 commerce in Brazil than many readers probably are aware of. 

 The export list is not so large in the number of items, but prac- 

 tically everything manufactured seems to be included among the 

 imports. Speaking of exports, the statistics of rubber are given 

 from 1827, when the transactions included only 69,003 pounds, 

 of the estimated value of ii.053 [=$5,124.42]. 



The development of planting as well as of commerce and 

 transportation throughout Brazil has been promoted largely with 

 foreign capital, mainly through joint stock companies, of which 

 an extensive list is given in this book with a most satisfactory 

 fullness of details as to their conditions. Such companies, for 

 instance, are the American companies now improving the harbor 

 at Para and building the Madeira-Mamore railway. Ample de- 

 tails are given likewise regarding the public debts, which are cre- 

 ated by the several states rather than by the federal government. 



Any one wishing to become acquainted with actual conditions 

 in Brazil cannot hope to find in any dozen other sources so much 

 information so well arranged and apparently so authentic as in 

 this volume. A good map of the country is included, and the 

 appearance of the book generally is exceedingly pleasing. 



OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED. 



INTERNATIONAL CABLE DIRECTORY OF THE WORLD. IN CON- 

 nectior with Western Union Telegraphic Code System. Compiled and 

 published by International Cable Directory Co. New York and Lon- 

 don: 1910. [Cloth. 4to. Pp. 964. Price, $7.50.] 



