462 



NATURE 



[March 17, 1898 



we are not able to follow the author very dearly in this 

 part of his treatise ; but so far as can be seen, the 

 conclusions are inadequate. For instance, the tide at 

 Kerguelen is triumphantly pointed to as proving the 

 coincidence of the tidal crest with the moon's passage 

 over the meridian ; but there is no reference to Fiji, where 

 the tide lags some six hours, and the conditions for 

 observation appear equally favourable. We do not 

 propose to follow the author in his discussion of such 

 niceties as the diurnal tide, and prediction for a par- 

 ticular port. If any other remark be needed to indicate 

 the character of the work, it will be found on p. 40 : " the 

 swaying of the axis of the tidal spheroid about the axis 

 of the earth's rotation gives us a clear explanation of the 

 production of the phenomenon of nutation." 



A Practical Physiology : a Text-Book for Higher Schools. 

 By Albert F. Blaisdell, M.D. Pp.vi + 448. (Boston, 

 U.S.A., and London : Ginn and Co., 1897.) 



This is not a handbook for the physiological laboratory, 

 but a school lesson-book on elementary anatomy, physi- 

 ology, hygiene, nursing, and ambulance work. A manual 

 of this kind can hardly be otherwise than superficial, 

 but the information it contains ought to be accurate as 

 far as it goes. In the present case, however, signs of 

 carelessness abound throughout ; and the teaching, when 

 not absolutely erroneous, is often misleading. A few 

 instances will suffice to give an idea of the traps which 

 await the unwary student of these pages. Peyer's patches 

 are stated by implication to consist of glands which 

 secrete intestinal fluids. In a figure representing the 

 heart and great vessels, the innominate artery is called 

 the " right subclavian," the left common carotid appears 

 as the " right common carotid," and the left subclavian 

 is labelled the "left common carotid." In a diagram 

 intended to illustrate intestinal absorption, the veins of 

 the mesentery are represented as inosculating with the 

 lacteals. "The power which the pancreatic juice pos- 

 sesses of acting on all the food-stuffs appears," it is 

 asserted, " to be due mainly to the presence of a specific 

 element or ferment known as trypsin^'' It is impressed 

 on the student that he should learn how to tie a "reef" 

 knot. But in the figure given to illustrate the directions 

 of the text (which are correct), the author has delineated 

 an unmistakable " granny." After these specimens of 

 erroneous and careless treatment of the subject, it is of 

 minor importance to note that in the repeated denunci- 

 ations of the use of alcohol and tobacco, inserted, as the 

 preface informs us, in compliance with the laws of most 

 of the States, little or no attempt is made to distinguish 

 between the effects of ordinary and toxic doses of these 

 substances. A book like the present is far more likely 

 to retard than to advance the cause of elementary 

 physiological teaching in schools. F. A. D. 



Die Photographische Praxis. Part i. By Prof H. W. 

 Vogel. (Berlin : Gustav Schmidt, 1897.) 



Our first words must be to congratulate Prof Vogel 

 that he has recovered from the illness that has delayed 

 for three years the completion of this section of the new 

 edition of his " Handbuch der Photographie." The part 

 now issued is the first part of the third volume, and deals 

 with photographic studios and apparatus (excluding 

 lenses, which are treated of in a previous volume) and 

 the negative processes with collodion and with gelatine 

 emulsions. The chief differences between this and the 

 previous edition are that the practice of photography is 

 now regarded from a general rather than from a merely 

 "professional" point of view, portable apparatus and 

 shutters being considered, and that chapters are given on 

 the use of colour sensitised plates and film photography. 

 Collodion, on account of its continued application in the 

 reproduction processes, retains the premier position ; 

 gelatine following with about the same number of pages 



NO. 1481, VOL. 57] 



devoted to it. Considering the space given to the various 

 branches of the subject, it is surprising that some of the 

 most important advances made during the last ten years 

 or so are not represented. We refer to advances of 

 immediate practical importance, such as the methods of 

 determining the exposure required, recent methods of 

 determining the sensitiveness of plates, and the efficiency 

 of shutters. Intensification also is dealt with in a very 

 inadequate manner. But looking at the volume as a 

 whole, it is a valuable addition to photographic literature, 

 and the opinions and preferences of its distinguished 

 author must always be of interest to English students. 



The Miner's Arithmetic and Mensuration. By Henry 

 Davies. Pp. x -h 316. (London : Chapman and Hall, 

 Ltd., 1898.) 



This little volume comprises a collection of questions in 

 arithmetic, the larger number of which are purely and 

 simply arithmetical, ranging from compound addition to 

 cube roots, whilst a smaller number illustrate the mode 

 of solving some of the simpler numerical problems with 

 which the miner has to deal. The work is naturally 

 more or less elementary, and the formulae given appear 

 to be in most -cases fairly correct; in some instances, 

 however, as in the formulae given under the head of 

 " the barometer," simplicity has been gained only at the 

 expense of accuracy. 



The book seems well calculated to serve its purpose, 

 that of enabling the miner to learn how to answer some 

 of the easier numerical questions usually set in the mine 

 manager's examination, without requiring from him any 

 particular mental effort. Whether it is, however, upon 

 the whole a good thing that the pupil, as well as his 

 teacher, should have a collection of rule of thumb 

 methods, that tax merely their memories, without 

 appealing at all to their intelligence, is quite another 

 matter. 



Inspector-General Sir James Ranald Martin^ C.B.y 

 F.R.S. By Surgeon- General Sir Joseph Fayrer, Bart., 

 K.C.S.I., LL.D., &c. Pp. xvi + 203 ; plate i. (London : 

 Innes and Co., 1897.) 



The name of Sir James Ranald Martin is known to few, 

 and the details of his career to still fewer. It is for 

 this reason that the volume before us will be welcomed 

 by all interested in the birth and development of the 

 medical profession, and sanitary science in India. Sir 

 Ranald Martin left sanitary science, in the broadest 

 sense of the term, and the position of the medical 

 officer in India, in positions very different to those in 

 which he found them. It would have been difficult— 

 indeed, impossible — to have found a better biographer 

 than Sir Joseph Fayrer, whose intimate knowledge of 

 all that concerns medicine in India is absolutely un- 

 rivalled. So far as we are aware, the role of biographer 

 is new to Sir Joseph ; we can only say that from ap- 

 parently scanty material he has constructed a biography 

 accurate, interesting and instructive. 



The biographer, put shortly, describes Sir Ranald's 

 early life and early work in India, following him through 

 the disastrous Burmah campaign 1824-26. Then follows 

 a record of his public services in India. Amongst these, 

 perhaps, the most striking are the inauguration of a 

 system of medical statistics and the sanitary improve- 

 ment of Calcutta. In 1840, at the age of forty-four. Sir 

 James Ranald Martin returned to London, and took up his 

 residence in Grosvenor Street. From this onwards, with 

 the exception of some time devoted to literary work, 

 which bore fruit in the shape of his treatise " On the 

 influence of tropical climates on European constitutions," 

 he devoted himself entirely to administrative work in 

 connection with medicme and sanitary reform in India. 

 His services in this direction met with but tardy public 

 recognition, for it was not until i860, sixteen years 



