NOTICES OF BOOKS. xli 



important a part of the subject that its meagre and scanty treatment 

 of the subject of energetics is much to be regretted. 



Now that chemists are everywhere measuring ph3'sical quantities, 

 it seems a pity that they cannot make up their mind to use the C. G. S. 

 system of units in its entirety, so that one would not find work measured 

 in " Htre-atmospheres " as appears at one part of the book. In places 

 the terms ampere and volt are muddled up. Thus on p. 156 we read of 

 a current of 72 volts, while in giving directions for performing some of 

 the electrolytic experiments the current is defined in terms of " accumu- 

 lators ' without any mention of the resistance of the circuit. As an 

 experiment to show that the direct contact of metals has very little 

 effect in developing electro-motive force, the author says : " Copper 

 wires are soldered to a nickel and a silver wire, and these wires are laid 

 on a galvanometer; when the wires are thoroughly cleaned and then 

 pressed one on the other, the needle remains at rest ". Of course the 

 needle remains at rest ; in this form of experiment it would do so, 

 however great the contact E. M. F. 



The name of the translator is sufficient guarantee that this part of 

 the work has been efficiently done. 



Atuiotatioiies Zoologicte jfapoiienses, Auspiciis Societatis Zoologies 

 Tokyonensis. Seriatim Edit^. Vol. i., parts i. and ii. Tokyo, 

 25th May, 1897. 



The above-named publication marks a new departure in the 

 advancement of Zoology in the Far East. As explained by Professor 

 Mitsukuri in an admirable historical introduction, written in choice 

 English, it is an extension of the "foreign language part" of the 

 Zoological Magazine of jfapaii, now in its ninth volume — in effect 

 it is an Anzciger, in which articles will be admitted in English, 

 German, French and Italian, primarily by way of relieving the journal 

 of /he College of Science of the Imperial University of less formal 

 or preliminary notices and of making the progress of Zoology in Japan 

 known abroad. We heartily congratulate our Eastern friends upon 

 so heroic a course, and recommend this to workers in certain other 

 countries which stand in a somewhat similar relationship to the great 

 European nations, who are at present disposed to retard progress by 

 writing only in their mother tongue. In detailing the events which 

 have led up to the foundation of the Annotationes, Professor Mitsukuri 

 emphasises the interesting fact that as early as the eighth century in 

 the Christian era there was already established in Japan a University 

 with four departments ; and in tracing the influence of knowledge upon 

 the destinies of his native land, and upon its scientific productiveness 

 which is of quite recent date, he attaches much importance to the efforts 

 of a band of earnest Japanese physicians who in the middle of the 

 eighteenth century mastered the Dutch language, with a view to ascer- 

 taining something of western medicine. Proceeding to later events of 

 historical interest, he deals as gracefully as gratefully with the foundation 

 of the modern school of Zoology in Japan, in 1877, by Professor Morse, 



