I50 



NA TURE 



[December i6, 1S97 



Neots the water that was obtained at a depth below the 

 surface was saline in character. A full and useful 

 bibliography completes this excellent and well-arranged 

 work. H. B. W. 



Wild Traits in Tatne Attimals. By Louis Robinson, 



M.D. Pp. vii + 329. Illustrated. (Edinburgh and 



London : Blackwood and Sons, 1897.) 

 Dr. Robinson points out in his introduction that the 

 amateur naturalist is a valuable and necessary member 

 of the scientific community. He detects a tendency on 

 the part of the professional naturalist to warn the amateur 

 off the ground. Whether any such mischievous claim of 

 proprietorship is actually set up is not clear to us ; the 

 naturalist who pursues his hobby for recreation only is, 

 according to our own experience, welcomed by every- 

 body, if only he is a good fellow, who will bring in his 

 own contributions, great or small, to the general stock, 

 and not spread false information. Dr. Robinson's 

 animated defence of the amateur naturalist may there- 

 fore be gladly allowed to prevail ; we are only surprised 

 to learn that any defence is needed. 



Our author holds that no one in these days can study 

 animals with due profit who is not a Darwinian ; he 

 would have his amateur naturalist "an evolutionist down 

 to the tips of his toes." We are not so heartily on his 

 side here. There is risk of spoiling a quick and trust- 

 worthy observer by saturating his mind with theories. 

 If natural facts are reported to us, they do not gain in 

 credibility by being expressed in evolutionary phrase. 

 It is good that every naturalist should think upon his 

 facts, but let him think independently, not as an 

 evolutionist, nor as a partisan of any school whatever. 



We like the papers which form the bulk of the book 

 much better than the introduction. Dr. Robinson dis- 

 courses upon dogs, horses, donkeys, cattle, sheep, goats, 

 pigs, cats and poultry. The first two of these seem to 

 us the most interesting, but all possess good points. The 

 author gives us a lively object-lesson upon each animal, 

 trying to explain its structure and habits by the mode of 

 life of its wild progenitors. Very many of his interpret- 

 ations have been anticipated ; that is to be expected ; but 

 everything is cast into a new and engaging form ; it 

 reads like personal experiences illuminated by the 

 writer's own reflections. No reader who thinks for him- 

 self will accept all Dr. Robinson's conclusions, but he 

 will find his interest in the subject heightened, and his 

 sagacity exercised by these amusing dissertations. 



L. C. M. 



The Psychology of the Emotions. By Th. Ribot. Pp. 

 xix -I- 455. (London : Walter Scott, Ltd., 1897.) 



In this book Prof. Ribot gives a very complete account 

 of his subject. In the first part he deals with pleasure 

 and pain and the general nature of emotion. He advo- 

 cates a theory of emotion which he terms " physiological." 

 Feeling is regarded as a primary aspect of mental life, 

 closely connected with biological conditions*; and the 

 author seems to think that it is hopeless in this region of 

 psychology, at any rate, to depend wholly on purely 

 psychological methods, the subject only becoming in- 

 telligible by going beyond consciousness and treating 

 it in its physiological relations. As part of this general 

 theory Prof. Ribot adopts, with some qualification, the 

 theory illustrated by James in the words, "we feel sorry 

 because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because 

 we tremble." In the second part, dealing with the special 

 forms of emotion, no attempt is made to give an elaborate 

 classification ; but the chief aspects of emotional life are 

 described in the order in which they seem to have 

 developed. In this part, and especially in the chapters 

 on character and temperament, the author brings out 

 the great value of pathology in the study of psychology. 



NO. 1468, VOL. 57] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



{The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neitlier can he itudertake 

 to return, or to correspmid wit/i the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is tahen of anonymous commumcations.'\ 



The Passive Condition of Resting Protoplasts. 



The appearance in your last issue of a short paper recently 

 communicated to the Royal Society by myself and Mr. F. 

 Escombe, on the " Influence of very Low Temperatures on the 

 Germinative Power of Seeds," affords me an opportunity of call- 

 ing attention to two important papers which only became known 

 to us after our own was in print. Both these communications 

 materially strengthen the argument against the necessary 

 existence in resting protoplasts of ordinary respiratory exchanges, 

 or of any metabolic changes resulting in " intra-molecular 

 respiration." 



The first paper is by W. Kochs {Biol. Centralbl., 10 (1890), 

 673), who has shown that dry seeds, placed for many months in 

 the vacuum of a Geissler's tube, do not evolve an amount of 

 carbon dioxide or nitrogen capable of detection by subsequent 

 spectroscopic examination of the contents of the tube, a fact 

 which certainly negatives the idea of any gaseous evolution by 

 " intra-molecular respiration." 



The other omission is one which is much less excusable, since 

 it has reference to a very important letter communicated to your 

 columns by Prof. Giglioli as recently as October 3, 1895. 



In continuation of certain experiments, described in 1878, pn 

 the power of resistance cf seeds of Medicago sativa to the action 

 of certain gaseous and liquid chemical reagents, Prof. Giglioli 

 re-examined the seeds which had been placed under these 

 special conditions continuously for a period of more than sixteen 

 years. He found that some of the seeds retained their vitality 

 even when surrounded by atmospheres of nitrogen, chlorine, 

 hydrogen, arseniuretted hydrogen, and nitric oxide ; whilst im- 

 mersion for sixteen years in strong alcohol, and in an alcoholic 

 solutioa of mercuric chloride, still left a large number of seeds 

 capable of subsequent germination. 



That we have been anticipated in some of the conclusions of 

 our paper, based on a totally different method of experiment, 

 will be clearly seen from the following quotations from Prof. 

 Giglioli's letter : — 



" My experiments encourage, moreover, the suspicion that 

 latent vitality may last indefinitely when sufficient care is taken 

 to prevent all exchange with the surrounding medium." ..." It 

 is a common notion that life, or capacity for life, is always c<m- 

 nected with continuous chemical and physical change. The 

 very existence of living matter is supposed to imply change. 

 There is now reason for believing that living matter may exist, 

 in a completely passive state, without any chemical change what- 

 ever, and may therefore maintain its special properties for an 

 indefinite time, as is the case with mineral and all lifeless 

 matter. Chemical change in living matter means active life, the 

 wear and tear of which necessarily leads to death. Latent life, 

 when completely passive, in a chemical sense, ought to be lifV 

 without death." 



Prof Giglioli concludes his letter with a reference to the possi- 

 bility of an extra-terrestrial origin of life on the earth, through 

 the medium of meteorites. Horace T. Brown. 



52 Nevern Square, Kensington, December 13. 



Discovery of a Large Supply of " Natural Gas " at 

 Waldron, Sussex. 



The discovery of this gas occurred accidentally while boring 

 for water in the parish of Waldron, Sussex, The boring was 

 commenced in the lower strata of the " Ashdown sand" 

 (Hastings beds), and was continued to the depth of 377 feet, 

 when the work was stopped. A strong smell of " gas " having 

 been noticed, a light was applied to the top of the lining tube 

 of the bore, and a flame immediately sprang up to the height 

 of 15 or 16 feet, and burned with great fury until it was put 

 out by means of damped cloths being thrown on to the top of 

 the tube (Fig. i). 



It is not quite certain at what level the first release of the 

 gas occurred ; and the workmen say that they noticed the smell 

 of it for nearly a month before the testing with a light occurred, 

 during which time boring was carried on. 



