i895. SOME NEW BOOKS. 213 



Then it comes rather as a shock to read of an " isobar of 58°-6o° F." 

 (p. 70). The book is, moreover, not always up-to-date : thus the 

 statement on p. 62, that the cause of elephantiasis is unknown, over- 

 looks the work of Dr. Manson ; while the conclusion on p. 34 that 

 bilious remittent fever, blackwater fever, hsematuria, endemic and 

 typhomalarial fever are all " simply malarial fever distinguished by 

 some prominent symptom," seems to us to be contrary to the latent 

 evidence on the subject. In other cases the author's conclusions 

 seem a little too previous. Thus on his map he leaves two blanks to 

 the north-east of the Victoria Nyanza, thus indicating that they are 

 free from malaria. Only one European expedition has been to one of 

 these, and Count Teleki, its leader, nearly died of fever there. The 

 other and larger oasis has been practically unvisited. A few men 

 have crossed its southern margin and found that fever is exceptionally 

 severe there. On p. 78 it is explained that malaria is reported to be 

 absent from these areas " because the altitude — over 3,000 feet — is 

 too great for its production." The author adds that this is a general 

 statement, and that local conditions may modify it, but the results of 

 recent investigations in German East Africa oppose it ; and as the 

 author colours as malarial nearly all the districts in Africa over 5,000 

 feet high, we do not quite understand how to reconcile his statement 

 and his map. 



The best part of the book is that between pages 51 and 75, in 

 which short sketches are given of the principal diseases and the 

 remedies recommended. The map is constructed on a new design, 

 but as it is on too small a scale to show local conditions, its value is 

 doubtful. Its topographical information is, moreover, not above 

 suspicion, as when it runs a river from the southern end of the Albert 

 to the Victoria Nyanza, and places Kavali on Tanganyika, instead of 

 on the Albert Nyanza. 



Botany for Teachers. 



Object Lessons in Botany from Forest, Field, Wayside and Garden. Being 

 a Teacher's aid to a systematic course of one hundred lessons for boys and 

 girls. By Edward Snelgrove, B.A. Pp. 297, with 153 figures in the text. 

 London : Jarrold & Sons (no date. Received June, 1S95). Price 3s. 6d. 



Mr. Snelgrove begins his book with a quotation from Natural 

 Science, in which a reviewer insists that the most successful book for 

 education or instruction will be that which "leads its readers along 

 the same paths as the discoverers of the science must have followed.'* 

 Facts must, as it were, be rediscovered, steps wai^, conclusions draivn^ 

 and definitions led up to. These ideals, says the author, have been 

 before him in planning the object lessons. We congratulate him on 

 their successful realisation. There is no dearth of elementary 

 botanical books, but a really good one is a rarity. If the arrange- 

 ment is satisfactory the text is often full of errors, or vice versd. In 

 the case before us, however, the writer has been careful as to facts, and 

 there is no fault to be found with their arrangement. Plenty of fresh 

 specimens of leaves, flowers, or fruits are given to the children, and 

 they are led to make out for themselves, step by step, the points of 

 interest. If the teacher carefully leads his little students according 

 to the directions given he will ensure for them a very fair grounding 

 in the first elements of botany, and also instil in them a love of plants 

 and a longing to find out more and more about them. The book is 

 divided into four sections. The first, on leaves, stems, and roots, is 

 adapted for Standard III. ; the second, on flowers, for Standard I\'. ;. 



