1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 135 
expert mechanician, has introduced many novelties into ballooning 
equipment. The senior author of the work is Mr Henri Lachambre, 
the well-known French balloon-maker, who made Andrée’s balloon 
and went to Spitsbergen in 1896 to superintend its installation and 
inflation. This work was successfully achieved, but the weather was 
unfavourable and no start could be attempted that year. Few things 
show better Andrée’s courage and good judgment than his determina- 
tion not to risk an ascent after the first few days of August. Even if 
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 Iate 
to make adequate preparations for the winter. Andrée accordingly 
faced .a certain amount of scoffing by returning to Europe in 1896, 
ready for an earlier start in the following season. Mr Lachambre did 
not offer to go north again. One summer’s exile on the ice-bound 
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 
but 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-bearing “ mosses ” in question are no doubt species of Ranwn- 
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 MEANS oF RESEARCH 
PracTIcAL RADIOGRAPHY. By A. W. Isenthal and H. Snowden Ward. Second 
edition. 8vo, 157 pp. London: Published for The Photogram by Dawhbarn & 
Ward. 1898. Price, 2s. 6d. net. 
WE 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 real workers, those who are earnestly making 
use of the power placed in their hands, are coming to the front. That 
good work is being done is very clear from a perusal of the book. 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 be 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 
