April 14, 1898] 



NATURE 



559 



is probably often imported in grain, without establishing 

 itself permanently in the country ; and among subjects 

 of minor importance, cockroaches, earwigs, and the like, 

 may be noted the importation of dead locusts in some 

 numbers in fodder from the Argentine Republic. There 

 is evidence that their consumption has caused injury to 

 horses, perhaps through mechanical irritation. Needless 

 to say. Miss Ormerod does not encourage the idea that 

 the introduction of live locusts, which in small numbers 

 is almost an annual occurrence, is likely to cause an 

 invasion. 



It must, we imagine, be a source of regret to the 

 author that the example she sets does not lead to a 

 more thorough study of our insect pests. In many cases, 

 the good that can be done by a referee, restricted as to 

 opportunities for field observation, and depending largely 

 on the capacity and good-will of correspondents, soon 

 reaches a limit, which requires to be extended by broader 

 methods of inquiry on the lines which have been so 

 well developed in the United States. And it is satis- 

 factor>' to note that the economic treatment of that very 

 troublesome pest, the Currant Gallmite, discussed in a 

 special appendix, is now being made the subject of ex- 

 tended research at the Woburn Experimental Fruit 

 Farm. \V. F. H. B. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Elements of Comparative Zoology. By J. S. Kingsley, 

 S.D., Professor of Zoology in Tufts College. Pp. 

 344, small 8vo. ; with 148 illustrations. (New York: 

 H. Holt and Co., 1897.) 



The reputation of the author of this little book justifies 

 the expectation of novelty, and in this we are not dis- 

 appointed. The work, which has a local flavour, is based 

 upon a conviction expressed in the preface, that while 

 " laboratory guides are somewhat numerous . . . general 

 outlines of zoology adapted to beginners are few," and 

 that "nature studies are truly educational only when the 

 student is trained to correlate and classify facts." Im- 

 parting a knowledge of the zoological alphabet by the 

 now universally adopted Huxleyian method, the author 

 proceeds to supplement that by a sort of reading lesson, 

 in the form of a very brief outline of some of the chief 

 structural limitations and ordinal characters of each 

 group of which a typical species has been previously 

 more fully examined, leading thus up to class distinc- 

 tion and the definition of phyla. In this manner the 

 gnathostomatous vertebrata are first taken in hand in 

 ascending order, and next the invertebrata in descend- 

 ing ; and after a short chapter on each of the great 

 animal sub-kingdoms, the work concludes with others 

 on the metazoa, protozoa, comparative physiology, 

 morphology, and on the animal kingdom. The practical 

 mode of elementary instruction in biology by the type- 

 system was never intended to go unsupplemented ; and 

 while the plan here adopted is one which must have 

 been elsewhere in vogue, as the natural result of the 

 growth of the system, to the author is due the credit of 

 having first developed it in print. His chief novelty 

 lies in the substitution of an interrogatory for the 

 time-honoured didactic mode of treatment of the prac- 

 tical portion of the subject, with the introduction of a 

 series of " Comparisons " in the form of questions which 

 make for correlation of ideas. A very ingenious 

 departure I but we would rather await the verdict of 

 time upon it than pronounce outright. Fair consider- 

 ation is given to habit, distribution, and other topics 

 where desirable ; and the book, though thin, is on the 



NO. 1485, VOL. 57] 



whole trustworthy and fairly up to date, its weakest part 

 being the physiological, the few short pages devoted to 

 which are hackneyed and behind the times. A goodly 

 amount of sound advice is scattered throughout the 

 introduction and the text. The illustrations are very 

 unequal. Fig. 63 being a positive burlesque on nature, 

 Fig. 25 antiquated and useless, and Fig. 69 erroneous, 

 by lack of knowledge of the large series of observ- 

 ations finding their focus in Boas's discovery of a 

 prepulmonary aortic arch in the frog's tadpole. As 

 leading error may be cited the allegation concerning 

 the function of the marsupial bones, and as ill-advised the 

 adoption of the Hasckelian classification of birds. In 

 formulating so common-place a system as the dental 

 of the dogs, the author has gone astray ; and special 

 interest attaches to the remark that he, an American, 

 should write of the Ruminantia Cavicornia that their 

 " horns are never shed," and give, in illustration of this 

 assertion, a picture of the American Prongbuck, notorious 

 as the only exception to that rule ! We would recom- 

 mend the consideration to the zoological brotherhood. 



The Tutorial Chemistry. Part ii. Metals. By G. H. 

 Bailey. Pp. 300. (London : W. B. Clive, 1897.) 



The present volume is intended to supply the student with 

 his second year's course of study, the first year having 

 presumably been spent over the "non-metals." The first 

 section, occupying about one-third of the book, deals with 

 chemical physics, the remainder being taken up with the 

 systematic description of the commoner metals. There 

 are three appendices, dealing with crystallography, spec- 

 trum analysis, and some suggested experiments. The 

 section on chemical physics commences with a description 

 of the methods available for the determination of atomic 

 weights, this being followed by a discussion of the relations 

 existing between the numbers thus found and the physical 

 properties of the elements. Chapters iv. and v. deal with 

 dissociation, specific volume, and the optical properties of 

 liquids. Thechapteron solution is the largest in thesection ; 

 but the treatment of this important branch of the subject 

 is not so satisfactory as that of the other portions dealing 

 with physical chemistry. Thus, while a considerable 

 amount of space is devoted to the hypothesis of Grotthus, 

 which the student will afterwards have to unlearn, the 

 work of Hittorf is not mentioned, although the latter 

 forms the keystone of the modern theory of solution. 



In spite of the great compression necessary, only 150 

 pages being allotted to a description of some fifty 

 elements, the latter portion of the book gives a clear and 

 concise account of the preparation and properties of the 

 metals, each group being preceded by a summary of the 

 reactions common to its constituents. 



The classification of Mendeleeff is adopted throughout ; 

 and since the clear exposition of the periodic law requires 

 the inclusion of certain of the "rare" metals, such 

 elements as gallium, indium, thallium and uranium are 

 described in their proper places along with commoner 

 elements, instead of being relegated to a kind of museum 

 of curiosities in the form of an appendix — a practice 

 unfortunately usual with the smaller text-books. 



The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe: being Sketches oj 

 the Domestic and Religious Rites and Ceremonies of 

 the Siamese. By Ernest Young ; with illustrations by 

 E, A. Norbury. Demy 8vo. Pp. xiv -f- 399. (West- 

 minster : Archibald Constable and Co., 1898.) 



The author has had the advantage of several years' 

 residence in Siam, during which time he learned the 

 language, and his educational duties enabled him to 

 observe the working of the native mind. He writes with 

 an evident sympathy for the common people ; and in his 

 sketches of the every-day life of the capital, he has 

 caught not a little of the humour which is one of 

 its chief characteristics. He discourses pleasantly on 



