November i6, 191 i] 



NATURE 



7?> 



meter as compared with the open-bar disc photometer 

 for general gas-testing work. 



Several chapters are devoted to the minutiae of 

 photometric work, whilst in chapter ix. the measure- 

 ment of illumination is dealt with, and another 

 chapter describes the practical application of the 

 methods employed, the work concluding with a valu- 

 able review of the subject of dioptric distribution of 

 light. 



The whole work is excellent from all points of 

 view, and will form an addition to the engineer's and 

 architect's library of far more than ordinary value. 



MODERN GEOGRAPHY. 



(i) The Nations of the Modern World: an Elementary 

 Study in Geography. By H. J. Mackinder. Pp. 

 xvi + 319. (London : G. Philip and Son, Ltd. ; Liver- 

 pool : Philip, Son, and Nephew, Ltd., n.d.) Price 



25. 



2) A Geography of Ireland. By O. J. R. Howarth. 



Pp. 224. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 191 1.) Price 



2S. 6d. 

 2) Aberdeenshire. By A. Mackie. Pp. x+198. 

 ■4) Huntingdonshire. By the Rev. W. M. Noble. 



Pp. ix+152. 

 5) Worcestershire. By L. J. Wills. Pp. ix+ 154. 

 Cambridge: L'niversity Press, 1911.) Price is. 6d. 



each. 



i) nPHE first of these works must not be regarded 

 *- merely as a reading book for schools. 

 t is, as its author observes, "a book of mingled 

 reography and history," and contains so much matter 

 hat it was surely worthy of an index. \\'hile it 

 evelops the theme of three previous works, and brings 

 lUt the bearing on human relations of the geographical 

 onditions there described, it forms at the same time 

 in independent treatise, which will stimulate the 

 nemory of many readers of full age. It is these, in- 

 leed, who will enjoy it thoroughly. A knowledge of 

 nodern history, and much of it obtained at first hand, 

 necessary for the complete appreciation of the 

 hanges of the map of Europe. Mr. Mackinder brings 

 he older stages, such as those accompanying the Seven 



ears' War and the Napoleonic epoch, tersely and 

 ividly before us. The later steps, the freeing of 

 Venice, the partition of Lorraine, the uplifting of 

 Josnia, belong to our own eventful times. But we 

 re led also to trace the rise of the Cnited States and 

 f Japan, and to take a large and scientific view of the 

 nevitable expansion of Germany (p. 250), where men 

 Imost of our own blood are looking out also on the 

 .•orld. It may be somewhat ironic to suppose (p. 257) 

 hat the immense progress of Egypt under British 

 rganisalion incited the Turks to improve their own 

 ome government; but the author's treatment of the 



ritish Empire as a whole forces a sense of respon- 

 ibility upon the most insular and reluctant conscience. 

 Ve may not like the reference nowadays (p. 258) to 



pan and Turkey as "two heathen Powers," a phrase 

 lat has slipped in somehow from Mr. Mackinder's 

 tudies of the early nineteenth century; but his out- 

 )ok is elsewhere that of the philosophic traveller. 

 Jnder his direct and closely written sentences, we 

 NO. 2194, VOL. 88] 



trace always that fine feeling for duty which is man's 

 highest possession on this strange rotating globe. 



(2) Mr. Howarth's " Ireland " is a welcome addition 

 to the Oxford Geographies, a series edited by Prof. 

 Herbertson. Aided by maps and excellent photo- 

 graphic illustrations, it brings the features of the 

 country, grouped in natural regions, well before us. 

 The author makes somewhat little (pp. 44 and 45) 

 of Jukes's classic explanation of the courses of the 

 southern Irish rivers, and seems to think that the 

 Blackwater may have run against the face of an up- 

 raised fault-block at Cappoquin. Lamplugh's justly 

 accepted explanation of the Scalp is neglected on p. 64, 

 while the gorge of the Dargle is strangely described 

 as having been deserted by its stream. Fig. 5, show- 

 ing a drumlin-covered country backed by the Curlew 

 Hills, is not so representative as it should be of " the 

 Central Lowland," and the geological descriptions 

 generally seem to date from the appearance of Hull's 

 " Physical Geology and Geography of Ireland." We 

 thus have Archaean granites (Fig. 3) opposed to large 

 areas of "Cambrian and Silurian " strata in the meta- 

 morphosed regions; but the author himself must be 

 held responsible for the insertion on his map of a 

 Silurian district in the extreme south. Chapter xxvi. 

 might be improved by an account of the cooperative 

 organisation of agriculture, which has been largelv 

 aided by the fact that Ireland is a convenient and 

 detached geographical unit. The publications of the 

 Irish Department of Agriculture will assist Mr. 

 Howarth in his next edition. The book has so many 

 good points, and so clearly connects the structure of 

 the country with the life of its inhabitants, that we 

 hope it will meet with ready recognition. 



(3) The county geographies issued by the Cambridge 

 L'niversity Press, with their coloured physical and 

 geological maps, and numerous landscape illustrations, 

 have already taken a high rank. Aberdeenshire is 

 largely a granite county, with solemn ice-worn high- 

 lands, and castles as stern as the jutting rocks along 

 its coast. Mr. Mackie is a student of nature with a 

 keen literary taste, and human interests and anti- 

 quities are evidently as attractive to him as are the 

 birch-woods and the moors. 



(4) The Rev. W. M. Noble's " Huntingdonshire " in 

 the same series presents a very different country, where 

 the fundamental rocks rarely appear from beneath the 

 covering of glacial detritus and alluvial fenland. Too 

 little emphasis seems to be laid (p. 31) on the high 

 interest of the boulder-clay. The agricultural features, 

 the great manor houses, and the stone bridges along 

 the grand old highways are excellently illustrated and 

 described. 



(5) In "Worcestershire," Mr. L. J. Wills has a 

 fascinating field. He describes the high ridge of 

 Archaean granite in the Malverns, which rise on the 

 western border like a blue wave against the evening 

 sky. He illustrates the British formations up to the 

 oolites of Bredon, and then directs attention to the 

 upland vegetation of the Lickey Hills and the relics of 

 old forests in the lowlands. The frosts in the hollows 

 of the fruit-growing districts (p. 45) are, we presum'.\ 

 due to the creej) of cold air downwards on still night;-'. 



