602 



NATURE 



[April 28, 1898 



more readily acted upon by aerobic organisms. It is 

 evident, from the description given and comments made 

 by Mr. Dibdin, that he pins his faith to the aerobic 

 method ; though, from the evidence given, it seems 

 probable that the author may in time come to modify 

 his present position. 



One of the most interesting sections in the book is 

 that devoted to the description of the various methods 

 by means of which Mr. Dibdin has obtained his results. 

 The description of the micro-filter alone would well 

 repay a perusal of the whole book ; the ingenuity ex- 

 hibited in this simple piece of apparatus marking out 

 Mr. Dibdin as, if not a born, a well-trained experimenter. 

 The methods of determining the amount of nitrates and 

 of oxygen absorbed and dissolved, will appear to the 

 ordinary reader to be considerably less complex and 

 complicated than those usually recommended. This is 

 due, in part, to the fact that some of the processes 

 have undoubtedly been simplified ; but it is due still 

 more to the fact that, having worked so much with 

 them, Mr. Dibdin is able to give clear and lucid de- 

 scriptions of the essential parts of the process without 

 overburdening them with details which, from a practical 

 point of view, are of little importance. 



A full description is given of the history of the puri- 

 fication of the Thames from the time that the reaches 

 between Westminster and Waterloo Bridges had their 

 banks covered with accumulations of offensive mud, 

 deposited from water little better than sewage, to the 

 time that fish made their way up the ditches which con- 

 tained the effluent from the biological filter-tanks at 

 Barking. The whole story is one of engineering? 

 chemistry and bacteriology, set out in plain matter-of- 

 fact form ; but Hercules' task of cleansing the Augean 

 stables was mere child's play to the problem that had 

 to be attacked and solved between the years 1855 and 

 1895. The concluding chapters of the book are taken 

 up with descriptions of some of the methods of ventila- 

 tion and deodorisation of sewers ; with a short account of 

 filtration of potable water ; a description of the character 

 of the London water supply ; with sections on the 

 action of soft water upon lead ; on the application of 

 the biological process to the purification of waste water 

 from private properties, asylums, schools, &c. ; and, 

 finally, one on the systematic examination of potable 

 water. Appendices on methods of determining the 

 amount of oxygen dissolved in water, and a detailed 

 report to the London County Council on the experiments 

 on the filtration of sewage effluent during the years 

 1892-95 complete the work. 



Although the reader may not, and probably will not, 

 always agree with Mr. Dibdin, the work on which the 

 conclusions are based appears, in most cases, to be above 

 criticism. The experiments are set out in such form 

 that each one affords ample material on which to base 

 an opinion ; the statistics, observations and descriptions 

 are of such a character that not only will they assist in 

 this, but they also give evidence that Mr. Dibdin has 

 made the subject thoroughly his own. His arguments 

 are backed by facts and figures, all the results of careful 

 investigation and of laborious work. The result is that 

 we have a book of far more than ordinary interest, quite 

 NO. 1487, VOL. 57] 



apart from the fact that the author has to deal with such 

 interesting matter — a book that may with confidence be 

 recommended to any who take an interest, however 

 slight, in the subject of the bacterial treatment of sewage. 



G. S. W. 



SCIENCE AND ART OF BUILDING. 



Modern Architecture. A book for architects and the 

 public. By H. H. Statham, F.R.I.B.A., Editor of the 

 Builder^ &c. 8vo, pp. 275. (London : Chapman and 

 Hall, 1897.) 



Co7nplete Perspective Course. Britannia Series. By J. 

 Humphrey Spanton. 8vo, pp. 282. (London : Mac- 

 millan and Co., 1898.) 



Notes 071 Carpentry and Joinery. By Thomas Jay Evans. 

 8vo, pp. 396. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1897.) 



THE first of these three books suffers from the too 

 prevalent custom of assigning a title to a book 

 that conveys the idea of a greater scope and value than 

 the contents can candidly be said to justify. In the pre- 

 face the author fairly states the origin of the bulk of the 

 book in a course of lectures delivered to a class of 

 architectural students, not, it is true, previously pub- 

 lished, but which, we venture to think, should have 

 appeared in their primary form, possessing all the in- 

 terest and actuality that such deliverances would have 

 had ; without being dressed up with a title that leads 

 the reader to expect a more serious treatment of such 

 an extensive subject as modern architecture. 



There are undoubtedly many cultivated people to whom 

 a clear account of modern architecture would be of the 

 greatest interest, inquirers who from time to time, light- 

 ing upon some fine modern building, have been puzzled 

 at the qualities which they have felt it to possess, but 

 which are not, at the same time, those of ancient build- 

 ings with which the antiquarian leanings of most English 

 people of taste might have made them familiar. Thus 

 made dimly conscious of a new spirit in architecture, 

 they have felt a novel ignorance of the aims and ideals 

 of a modern art, of which very likely they had not been 

 prepared to admit the existence. 



A layman is heard to ask an architect, " What style 

 do you call the Imperial Institute?" or "Who was the 

 architect of that fine church of St. Augustine's, Kilburn, 

 which I happened to see the other day 1 " and so on — 

 questions that show how absolute an ignorance of the 

 development of the architecture of the present day exists 

 even in cultivated circles. 



It is to this class, we imagine, that the author intends 

 to appeal as the public mentioned in his title ; but the 

 circumstances of the origin of his book in lectures of the 

 kind mentioned above, tells altogether against its useful- 

 ness in that respect. It contains a great deal of criticism 

 that was sufficiently useful when directed to the students 

 to whom the lectures were given, but which is out of 

 place in a work addressed to a special class of the 

 public outside. 



Again, the author's position as editor of the Builder 

 placed at his command a large supply of illustrations 

 for these lectures from the plates of his own journal. 



