November 17, 1910] 



NATURE 



77 



also offered for sale at the mere cost of production 

 and transportation to purchasers, which cost is about 

 half that which would be charged if the works were 

 issued throug^h commercial publishing houses. The 

 < xpense entailed by this work prohibits the issue of 

 large editions for free distribution ; in fact, any 

 attempt to meet the public demand for a free receipt 

 u{ the institution's publications would speedily cur- 

 tail the prosecution of research. 



In addition to the productive work referred to 

 above, there falls to the administrative division 

 <>peciallv, in the institution, a large amount of unpro- 

 ductive work. This arises from a very general mis- 

 .ipprehension as to the aims, objects, and capacities 

 of the institution. Grossly exaggerated estimates of 

 its income have generated, and tend to maintain, an 



Vkic: 



Fig. 5. — Non-magne:ic Ship C>iriii^u\ 



<xi.ii:<;%^r aggregate of fruitless correspondence. 

 Deluded enthusiasts and designing charlatans, 

 amateurs, dilettanti, arc-trisectors, circle-squarers. 

 perpetual motion men and women, and all sorts of 

 paradoxers press for endorsement, if not for pecuniary- 

 aid. It appears to be a serious defect of existing 

 •social conditions that there is no way of preventing 

 those who have nothing to communicate to the world 

 from interfering with those who have. 



In closing this brief account of the institution, the 

 'effective work it has thus far accomplished may be 

 summarilv indicated by the following statement : — 



Since its organisation, in 1902, upwards of one 

 thousand individuals have been engaged in investiga- 

 tions under the auspices of the institution, and there 

 are at present nearly five hundred so engaged. Ten 



NO. 2142, VOL. 85] 



independent departments of research, each with its 

 staff of investigators and assistants, have been estab- 

 lished. In addition to these larger departments of 

 work, organised and conducted by the institution itself, 

 numerous special reseiu-ches, carried on by individuals, 

 have been subsidised. Two obser\-atories and five 

 laboratories, for as many different fields of investiga- 

 tion and in widely separated localities, have been con- 

 structed and equipped. \ building in Washington, 

 D.C., for administrative offices and for storage of 

 records and publications, was completed and dedicated 

 in December, 1909. For ocean magnetic surveys a 

 specially designed non-magnetic ship with auxiliary 

 propulsion was constructed and put in commission 

 during the year 1909. Work in almost ever)- field, 

 from archaeology and astronomy to thermodynamics 

 and zoology-, has been undertaken, and the geograph- 

 ical range of this work has extended to more than 

 fort)' different countries. One hundred and fiftv-five 

 volumes of researches, with an aggregate of forty 

 thousand pages of printed matter, have been pub- 

 lished. Upwards of one thousand shorter papers have 

 been published in the current journals of the world 

 by departmental investigators, by associates, and bv 

 assistants. The total amount of funds expended to 

 date in the consummation of this work is, in round 

 numbers, 900,000/. R. S. Woodward. 



THE ROOSEVELT S IS AFRICA.' 



"^ O one can read this interesting book by Mr. 

 ■•-^ Roosevelt, sen., without realising how much 

 the record owes to the work of Roosevelt, jun., of 

 Kermit, the boy of nineteen to twent\- who, before he 

 had reached his twentieth year, had contributed some 

 of the finest trophies to the expedition, who, though 

 slight of build and bojish of aspect, confronted great 

 dangers with calm resourcefulness, who took admir- 

 able photograohs. and assisted the work of the expedi- 

 tion as a collector with the greatest zeal and useful- 

 ness. 



The book under review is not without its defects 

 and incongruities, and the expedition of which it is 

 the record has received heavy censure from a good 

 many people interested in the preser\-ation of the 

 world's fauna. Theodore Roosevelt, its author, has 

 the defects of his qualities. His remarkable disposi- 

 tion and character have somewhat (as in the case of 

 the late Sir Henr>- Stanley) prejudiced the judgment 

 of a good many critics. In the first place, Mr. Roose- 

 velt has not had sufficient leisure in which to do him- 

 self justice as the writer of a book on real natural 

 histor\-. Being a poor man when he left the Presi- 

 dency, he was obliged, to a great extent, to pav the 

 expenses of his very costly expedition by writing an 

 account of it to be published week by week bv the 

 newspapers, a full diary, so to speak, of the day's 

 events. Then, taking advantage of a brief rest at 

 Khartum, he puts this diar)- together in book form, 

 and has barely time to glance at the proofs before 

 leaving England for the States in June. In addition 

 to this, his publisher has thought it wise (and this 

 reviewer feels bound to say that he thinks it unwise) 

 to add to this work on natural history two speeches, 

 delivered by Mr. Roosevelt in Egypt and in London ; 

 while the author himself, not content with his wonder- 

 fully successful expedition and his own vivid appre- 

 ciation of the African fauna and .\frican landscapes, 

 has further added, under the form of a dissertation 

 on his " pig-skin " trave1-librar\'. a HUs'^rtation on the 

 world's best books, ancient and modem. 



1 " African Game Trail*." An Aoxjnnt of the African WaiHerings of an 

 American Hunter NatdraUst. Bv Theodore Roosevelt. Pp. xvi-f-534. 

 (London : John Murray, 1910.) Price i8x. net. 



