102 



NATURE 



[November 24, 19 10 



edition. The authors have indicated b)' means of 

 signs the part of the poison schedule in which each 

 poison falls ; this is an innovation which will be wel- 

 comed by retail dealers in poisons, in view of the 

 exacting nature of the Poisons and Pharmacy Act, 

 1908. Since the last edition was published, new 

 issues of various foreign pharmacopoeias have ap- 

 peared, and these have been utilised where necessary 

 in the preparation of the fourteenth edition. 



The " Organic Analysis Chart," which is published 

 as a supplement, is intended to assist the analyst in 

 the recognition of a number of organic chemicals, both 

 natural and synthetic, used therapeutically. This 

 chart gives the results of the examination of more than 

 three hundred substances, and is the outcome of work 

 conducted in Mr. Martindale's laboratory. It is a 

 useful addendum to a book which is indispensable to 

 practitioners of medicine and pharmacy. 



A FISHERMAN'S TALES. 

 /In Open Creel. By H. T. Sheringham. Pp. xii + 



305. (London : Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1910.) 



Price 55. net. 

 1\/TR. SHERINGHAM'S contributions to angling 

 ■^^-'- literature are always welcome, and we are glad 

 to find that he has published in book form — or, more 

 accurately, has worked up with other materials into 

 a book — some of his contributions to The Field. No 

 one -need hesitate to look, into the "Open Creel"; 

 they will find plenty of fish, some hundredweight and 

 a half of trout, nearly as heavy a bag of salmon, 

 and chub, pike, and bream by the stone. In the pre- 

 face we are promised that we shall find no plethora 

 of fish in the succeeding essays, and Mr. Sheringham 

 would not have himself regarded as an over-successful 

 angler ; to the ordinary reader he certainly seems 

 successful bejond the wont of fisherman, but success 

 in angling, as in other walks of life, is seldom un- 

 deserved, and it is with interest that we look for its 

 explanation in our author's own account of his adven- 

 tures. This is to be found, we venture to think, in 

 his persistency, and his advice to others is to per- 

 severe ; he who would come home with a heavy basket 

 must needs set forth " with patience and perseverance 

 and a bottle of sweet Oil," as the snail went to Jeru- 

 salem. Yet it was his oil bottle that so tried Mr. 

 Sheringham 's patience that it came within a little of 

 ending an honourable career in the Coin at Bibury. 



It would be invidious to select for praise any one 

 essay in the book. "The Float" is excellent, so, too, 

 are the accounts of "Some Kennet Days," , and the 

 obituary notice of "Two Colne Trout," and so are 

 many others. Perhaps it is when he fishes for coarse 

 fish that Mr. Sheringham is the best company ; such 

 fishing is a more leisurely pursuit, and leaves more 

 time for contemplation and for those digressions into 

 the byways of angling that show him at his best. 

 Sometimes when dry-fly fishing he tends to become a 

 mere compiler of lists of dates and waters, flies and 

 weights of fish, yet he is never wearisome, and has a 

 most amiable weakness for Wickam's Fancy. Did 

 fly fishing give hint leisure for contemplation, Mr. 

 Sheringham might meditate upon the problem thus 

 NO. 2143, VOL. 85] 



presented; we cannot help thinking that a man's char- 

 acter should be reflected in his taste in flies, and that 

 he who loves Wickam's Fancy must be a happy and 

 contented soul and a good companion at the water's 

 side. At any rate, we have found him good company 

 in print, and recommend others to see if they cannot 

 do likewise. L. W. B. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



The Photography of Moving Objects and Hana- 

 Camera Work for Advanced Workers. By A. 

 Abrahams. Pp. 153. (London : G. Routledge and 

 Sons, Ltd., and Dawbarn and Ward, Lid., n.d.) 

 Price IS. net. 

 Mj?. Abrahams has been known during the past few 

 years as a very successful photographer of moving 

 objects, especially those in rapid motion, and in this 

 volume he describes his methods freely and fully. 

 He illustrates his experiences with more than forty 

 pictures, which are well reproduced, and these, if 

 nothing else were known of Mr. Abraham's work, 

 would demonstrate his right to speak with authority. 

 After chapters on apparatus, exposure, development, 

 and so on, he deals with the photography of railway 

 trains, athletics, rowing, football, cricket, lawn tennis, 

 horses, divers and swimmers, golf, common objects, 

 winter sports, special subjects, and press photography, 

 giving apparently all the practical details that can 

 be given in a book. 



It is of interest that Mr. Abrahams prefers pryo- 

 gallol with sodium carbonate and sulphite as de- 

 veloper, in spite of all the new reagents that have 

 been introduced, and that he actually blames metol as 

 the cause of a modified instead of a full success. He 

 advocates swinging the lens when necessary to get 

 better definition of details at various distances from 

 the camera, and justifies his advice by means of at 

 least one example. But when he says, "if you cannot 

 swing the back why not swing the lens," he appears 

 to support the common idea that the one is the equiva- 

 lent of the other. There is, of course, the radical 

 difference that swinging the lens moves the axis of 

 the lens to a different part of the plate, while swing- 

 ing the back does not. There is one other common 

 error to which the author appears to lend support, 

 when he says that the shutter-blind " should be really 

 in the focal plane " ; an obvious impossibility, because 

 the plate itself is there. 



Der Sternenhimmel By Prof. J. D. Messer- 

 schmitt. Pp. 195 4- xiii 'plates. (Leipzig: Philipp 

 Reclam, Jun., n.d.) Price 1.75 marks. 

 This little book is another well-meant attempt to in- 

 terest the public in astronomical phenomena by de- 

 scribing in simple language some of the results 

 obtained by continued observation. The general 

 appearance of the sky and the changes produced by 

 the diurnal rotation and annual revolution of the earth 

 about the sun come under notice. Separate chapters 

 are added on parallax and aberration, the precessior. 

 and nutation of the earth's axis, and the variation of 

 latitude, which last seems a small matter to introduce 

 into a work that can onlv aim at presenting- the more 

 conspicuous features. The several planets are de- 

 scribed, their general appearance and motion, and a 

 few remarks are added on comets and meteors. 



In the section devoted to the stellar system, the 

 usual information is given concerning double and 

 variable stars, clusters, and nebulae, proper motion 

 and the movement of the solar svstem in space. The 

 ground covered is that with which we have been rnade 

 familiar bv manv similar works, and it is not a little 

 difficult to justify the appearance of another treatise 



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