276 



NATURE 



[December 29, 1910 



working knowledge of the language, which proved of 

 service to him in his travels and intercourse with the 

 natives, and in obtaining trustworthy information. 



The present volume, unlike its predecessors, is made 

 up of a series of desultory notes or essays written at 

 intervals during his fifty years in Chung-lceng, the 

 majority having already appeared in some published 

 form, while the remainder are printed for the first 

 time. Taken together, they form an interesting addi- 

 tion to the author's well-known work, and are pub- 

 lished as they were written, no attempt being made 

 to edit or rearrange the material. It is best so, as 

 they are characteristic of the author, who won his 

 way to the hearts of the alien folks among whom he 

 lived and wandered in security for so many years, a 

 people who would fain see the last of the average 

 foreigner, whose aggressive commercialism they do 

 not love. 



In his discussion of foreign trade with China the 

 author traverses familiar ground, but he affords some 

 insight into Chinese diplomatic delays in his account 



The concluding chapters on the Chinese drama, 

 with examples of native plays, and on Confucianism 

 are new, and sustain the scholarly reputation of the 

 author. A. series of excellent photographs add to the 

 attraction of the volume. J. T. 



THE CALORIMETKY OF MAN.' 



A GREAT deal has been said previously as to the 

 general excellence of the methods and apparatus 

 developed in connection with the '"respiratory calori- 

 meter " now in use in the Nutrition Laboratory in 

 Boston. That they are original and are carried to a 

 unique degree of perfection, that they have been 

 utilised in the solution of very interesting problems. 

 All this is well known, and will be found frequently 

 dealt with by the authors of the publication referred 

 to below. Gratitude has been freely expressed on 

 these points. 



In this recent publication the authors, experienced 



investigators advantageouslv' equipped for the pur- 

 of the years spent in fruitless endeavour before | pose, have set themselves the task of laying a base 



line for further calorimetric re- 

 search. They will receive the 

 thanks of every interested technical 

 observer for the splendid series of 

 data which they have compiled, but 

 they have overhauled them in a 

 nianner open to some criticism. 



To develop this statement let us 

 take one set of their facts, namely, 

 that the oxygen consumption and 

 heat production of the human being 

 vary during periods of sleep within 

 wide limits when assessed per man, 

 or per kilo of man, or per square 

 metre of the surface of man. Of 

 these three forms of assessment, the 

 last is the most interesting since 

 the loss of heat, ' and therefore the 

 oxygen consumption and heat pro- 

 duction by which it is compensated, 

 is largely conditioned by extent of 

 surface. Now it is of some import- 

 ance that no surface nieasurements 

 have been made and that the esti- 

 mations of surface are really de- 

 rived from the measurements of 

 weight. The authors refer to this 

 point with some expression of 

 regret, and a promise of contribu- 

 tory data, again of an indirect kind, 

 in future. It would, however, have 

 been of far greater interest had they 

 dealt soundly with their data of 

 height and weight in such a way as to show with 

 unmistakable clearness that no probable corrections 

 in their surface estimations will account for the differ- 

 ences in heat loss observed. A clear statement that 

 they had found variations not accounted for, and never 

 likely to be accounted for, by variations in surface 

 would have been of substantial value. 



That this end might have been met by an adequate 

 comparison of the measured heights and weights of 

 their "tall lean men, tall men, short fat men, short 

 men," with average anthropometric data, there can 

 be no doubt whatever. Thus let us take the par- 

 ticular instance of the individual giving the minimum 

 heat loss per man, or per kilo, or per square metre 

 of the surface of man, as compared with the seven- 

 teen other individuals whose fortunes can be fol- 

 lowed through most of the tabulated statements. His 

 height may best be described as the cube root of his 



1 " The Metabolism and Fnerey Transformations of Healthy Man during 

 Rest." By F. O. Benedict and T. M. Carpenter. Pp. viii+255. (Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington, 1910.) 



Fig. 2.— a quiet reach on the Upper Yangtse. From " Gleanings from Fifty Years in Ch 



Chung-keng was thrown open as a treaty port. Mr. 

 Little was the first to take a steamer through the 

 gorges of the Upper Yangtse, a feat so daring and 

 hazardous as to prove what had been foreseen, that 

 the route was impossible for regular steam traffic. 



In his historical notes on the provinces from Marco 

 Polo's time, who was the first to describe the region, 

 he states that an interval of some 600 years elapsed 

 before Abbe Hue gave some further account of the 

 country in 1844. He overlooks the claims of Fradelli, 

 Regis, and Bonjour, who, early in the seventeenth 

 century, surveyed and described the western provinces 

 of China, their products, and people. 



We can do little more than name some of the other 

 subjects dealt with in the volume — the possible parti- 

 tion of China, China's Christian missions, an essay 

 in which the views expressed may not meet with the 

 approval of those engaged in the' work, although he 

 pays a just tribute to the workers as "the promoters 

 of all good in the advance made by China in the past 

 fifty years." 



NO. 2148, VOL. 85] 



