December 2, 1897] 



NA TURE 



99 



point of view of the present reviewer, the work would 

 have been doubled in value had it been diminished by 

 at least one half in bulk. 



Passing by these long chapters devoted to the smaller 

 birds, more general interest will be found in the section 

 on hawk-catching, as this is a subject on which com- 

 paratively little is often found in works on hawking ; and 

 it is decidedly interesting to know how the captors 

 are themselves taken. We have descriptions of the 

 capture of the Peregrine in our own islands, of the 

 Gyrfalcon in Iceland, the Shahin in India, and many 

 other species in different parts of the world. After full 

 descriptions of the capture of swans and geese, several 

 very interesting chapters are devoted to the taking of the 

 various kinds of ducks, in the course of which driving 

 and spearing, snaring, the different types of decoys, and 

 clap-nets, receive their full meed of attention. The in- 

 formation in regard to decoying in Europe may, for the 

 most part at any rate, be found in other works, but 

 much of that relating to Japan and other Oriental coun- 

 tries appears to be new to English readers. The 

 Japanese are described as peculiarly dexterous in 

 the use of an ingenious collapsible triangular hand- 

 net, in which they take the birds already enticed into 

 the pipe of the decoy. They have three favourite 

 methods of using this ingenious and handy instrument. 

 The first is to spoon the duck into the net as the bird 

 is swimming ; the second, to capture the bird as it rises 

 from the water in the pipe ; while the third feat is to 

 hurl the instrument at a duck flying out of reach, and 

 bring it to the ground entangled in the meshes. In the 

 >• course of one of these chapters on duck-catching, the 

 shot-gun is for once introduced, in connection with a 

 method of attracting the wily birds within range by 

 means of a brilliant light and reflector. Another pecu- 

 liarly Japanese method is to fish for ducks with a hook 

 and line. 



Numerous and various are the methods employed for 

 trapping and decoying the various kinds of pigeons and 

 game-birds, but, interesting as many of them are, they 

 must be passed without notice. The last chapter relates 

 to the ostriches and their kindred, in which we have 

 accounts of African, Patagonian, and Australian hunt- 

 ing. Here the author is doubtless right in his state- 

 ment that the Arabs used to kill ostriches by disguising 

 themselves in the skin and feathers of one of these 

 birds ; but was not the same method in use among the 

 Bushmen of the Cape ? 



In the matter of letterpress and illustrations the book 

 is for the most part all that can be desired ; and it can 

 scarcely fail to claim a wide circle of readers. R. L. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Life Histories of American Insects. By C. M. Weed, 

 D.Sc, Professor of Zoology and Entomology, New 

 Hampshire College. Pp. xii ■\- t.'ji. Woodcuts. (New 

 York : The Macmillan Co. London : Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd., 1897.) 



We opened this book with lively expectations of some- 

 thing good. Though there has been considerable activity 

 among American entomologists during the last ten years, 

 our knowledge of the life histories of American insects 

 is still very defective, and there is urgent need of more 



NO. 1466, VOL. 57] 



labourers, especially of such as bend their minds to the 

 solution of really important questions. Not only the 

 title of the book, but the printing and the figures are 

 attractive, and we began the first chapter with high hopes, 

 only to draw a blank. The author had nothing particular 

 to say about Belostoma. Chauliodes came next — nothing 

 of the slightest importance here. Then came the tiger- 

 beetles and their larvs — again nothing new. The rest 

 of the book is of the same slight texture. Nothing is 

 worked out with any completeness ; we have merely 

 scraps of information, mostly from printed sources. The 

 author's use of books is uncritical. Thus Dr. Le Conte 

 is quoted for the explanation of the leaping of the click- 

 beetle, and Prof. Comstock for the description of the 

 sonorous file of the cricket, though these authors did not 

 discover the facts for which they are cited. Let us hope 

 that Prof. Weed or some one else will before long give 

 us a book which is really entitled to bear the name of 

 "Life Histories of American Insects." L. C. M. 



The Rontgen Rays in Medical Work. By David Walsh, 



M.D. With an introductory section by J. E. Greenhill. 



Pp. x -h 144. (London : Bailli^re, Tindall, and Cox, 



1897.) 

 This book, as is intended, will be of interest chiefly to 

 the medical profession. The introductory part, which 

 deals briefly though clearly with the practical and 

 physical side of the subject, will also be found useful 

 by those who desire to employ X-rays for other purposes. 



The book is methodically arranged, well got up, and 

 is illustrated with a large number of remarkable and 

 excellent specimens of X-ray photography, mostly of 

 anatomical interest. 



Altogether it contains good evidence of the real value 

 of X-rays in practical surgery and medicine, especially 

 the former, and of the rapid progress that their employ- 

 ment has made in their application to these important 

 fields. 



It is interesting to note that while the author is fully 

 cognisant of the powerful effects that X-rays under 

 certain circumstances may produce upon the skins of 

 particular individuals, he is satisfied that, so far as present 

 experience goes, they have no particular action upon 

 micro-organisms. 



The introduction is somewhat misleading where it 

 states, on p. 23, that the action of the induction coil 

 depends upon the fact discovered by Faraday, that an 

 electrified body is capable of inducing a similar condition 

 in an unelectrified body lying within the sphere of its 

 influence. It was electro-magnetic, and not electro- 

 static induction which Faraday discovered, and it is 

 owing to the former, and not to the latter phenomenon 

 that the induction coil is possible. Again, there is 

 another slip on p. 26, where it is mentioned that kathode 

 rays can be reflected, refracted, polarised, and deflected 

 by a magnet just as ordinary light. Kathode rays, of 

 course, have never been refracted or polarised, and 

 ordinary light is not deflected by a magnet. 



Air, Food and Exercises ; an Essay on the Predisposing 

 Causes of Disease. By A. Rabagliati, M.A., M.D., 

 F.R.C.S.Ed. Pp. xvi -f 220. (London : Bailli^re, 

 Tindall, and Cox.) 



The book under review is an amplification of papers 

 contributed to the Scalpel during the year 1896. The 

 main proposition elucidated in the essay may, in the 

 words of the author, be said to be this : " that there are 

 three predisposing causes of disease, as there are, con- 

 versely, three chief predisposing causes of health, and 

 that these are air, food and exercises." In the course of 

 his essay, the writer gives his opinion on the subject of 

 heredity, which, he thinks, " counts for very little as a 

 predisposing cause of disease and of health, among 

 adults at least, if not even among persons who have 



