February 24, 1898] 



NATURE 



2>^7 



birds or systems of classification ; above all, he never put 

 questions of the slightest scientific interest. It was 

 enough for him to draw his birds as they looked when 

 alive, and now and then to note some curious detail in 

 their mode of life. His less famous helper, MacGillivray, 

 was far better furnished and far more productive. 

 Audubon's " Birds of America " has great artistic merit, 

 but less scientific value than a good series of photo- 

 graphs from life. 



Audubon's career is now revealed to us more fully and 

 more pleasantly than in any earlier account. He was born 

 of French parents at Mandeville, on Lake Ponchartrain, 

 somewhere about 1780. His first seventeen years were 

 spent almost altogether in France, and he showed his 

 turn of mind by making 200 drawings of the birds of 

 France. Then he was sent out to Philadelphia, where 

 his father had landed property. After another two years 

 in France he came back to America, which henceforth 

 he always claimed as his fatherland. At first young 

 Audubon lived like a young gentleman of property, hunt- 

 ing, fishing, shooting, skating, but drawing birds too. 

 He was a bit of a dandy in those days, and a favourite 

 with young ladies. He went into business, married, and 

 should according to all expectation have settled down 

 as a money-making American. But he was intent upon 

 birds and not upon money. He was easily diverted from 

 a business-journey by a glimpse of a new bird, and was 

 regularly cheated by his partners, agents, employers and 

 customers. He complained that one of his partners cared 

 only for money ; the partner on his side complained 

 that Audubon had no turn for commerce, and was con- 

 tinually in the forest. The advantages with which he 

 started were soon lost, and in a few years we find him 

 roving about in America, giving drawing-lessons, music- 

 lessons, dancing-lessons, drawing portraits, but always 

 adding to his portfolio of birds, and always studying 

 how to make his delineations more life-like. The hope 

 of publishing his great collection gradually became more 

 definite. In 1826, being then near fifty years old, he 

 came over to Europe to get subscriptions and engage 

 draughtsmen. His diary shows him to us as sobered 

 down by this time to a modest, careful man, minding his 

 chances, and thoughtful for his wife and children. His 

 success in publishing the " Birds of America," his later 

 ventures, his expeditions to Labrador, Florida and the 

 Missouri River, as well as his charming family life, are 

 all described in the book before us. In 1847 his faculties 

 began to give way, and he died in 185 1. 



The "Birds of America" has maintained its reputation 

 in spite of its enormous bulk, its costliness, and its want 

 of scientific utility. It is now a luxury, only to be pos- 

 sessed by the wealthy, and very seldom enjoyed even by 

 them, an unprofitable jewel in comparison with the homely 

 tools which the working ornithologist requires. To have 

 published a book which \ery few men can afford to buy, 

 gives a certain kind of distinction. Audubon has better 

 claims upon our attention than this, but the ever-rising 

 price of his "Birds of America" has helped his fame. 



One thing in the journals moves our indignation, but 

 it will hardly excite remark among the naturalists of to- 

 day; we mean the profuse and needless slaughter of wild 

 animals, which fills almost every page of the journals. 

 Audubon rises in the morning, snatches his gun, shoots 

 NO. 1478. VOL. 57] 



everything that shows itself, and then sits down to draw 

 his victims. Some naturalists look upon all this blood- 

 shed and torture as inevitable, or even enjoyable. That 

 is the way to get together a museum of dried skins or a 

 portfolio of drawings ; it is not the way to solve scientific 

 questions, nor to gain real insight into the works of 

 nature. L. C. M. 



SEWER GAS AND HEALTH. 



Sewer Gas, and its Influence upon Health. Treatise by 

 H. A. Roechling, C.E. Pp. 224. (London : Biggs 

 and Co., 1898.) 



THERE is hardly a Corporation in the United 

 Kingdom, we venture to say, to whose members 

 sewer gas is not a hideous nightmare. It is the 

 legacy of a bygone generation of hygienic enthusiasts, 

 and is likely to prove the bete noir of many a succeeding 

 generation of despairing sanitarians. Despite the bril- 

 liant achievements in the domain of hygiene of which 

 the present century can justly be proud, the sewerage 

 problem remains still a gordian knot the disentangle- 

 ment of which seems as far off as ever. 



Public opinion has swayed backwards and forwards, 

 immense sums of money have been expended in what 

 may be designated as vast hygienic experiments, sewers 

 have been laid and relaid, ventilators introduced and 

 abolished, and innumerable devices invented and applied 

 in the hope of effectually getting rid of this mysterious 

 and subtle influence in our midst. 



Mr. Roechling in the above volume has added one 

 more to the many indictments which have been published 

 against sewer gas. These indictments are necessarily 

 of a somewhat vague description, founded, as they must 

 be, more on personal conviction than on strictly scientific 

 facts ; for our precise knowledge of the character and 

 properties of this gas is at present so extremely limited, 

 that we are frequently reduced to the manipulation of 

 mortality statistics for a basis of attack. We must not, 

 therefore, approach this book in the hope of finding a 

 pyramid of new facts, for we may have to be satisfied 

 with hardly a molehill, but we may recommend it 

 as containing a useful summary of the circumstantial 

 evidence which can be adduced against sewer gas. 



The arrangement of the material, however, leaves 

 much to be desired, and the writer is needlessly verbose. 

 Considerably more than half the book is taken up with 

 appendices, to which the preceding portion of the book 

 has constant reference, and these appendices would be 

 very much the better for judicious pruning. Page after 

 page, for example, are devoted to detailed reports of 

 cases of supposed poisoning through sewer gas ; over 

 twenty pages are occupied with reporting in full the legal 

 proceedings connected with a case of blood-poisoning, &c. 

 All this, no doubt, serves to swell the size, but it certainly 

 does not increase the value of the volume. 



As an example of the justifiably perplexed condition of 

 some of our public authorities on the question of sewe 

 gas, we may cite the case of Leicester as mentioned by 

 the author. Up to the year 1881 the sewers of this city 

 were in a very foul condition, and were not ventilated in 

 any way, and the typhoid death-rate was as high as 32*2 

 per 100,000. In 1881, however, the Town Council 

 decided to open up the sewers, thoroughly cleanse them. 



