March 22, 1877] 



NATURE 



447 



the scientific aspect of the subject, but also on the harvest- 

 irg of the bark crop in India, as well as on the commer- 

 cial value of the Indian cinchona plantations. The 

 manual will probably find its largest circulation amongst 

 owners of land who have embarked in the cultivation of 

 cinchona as a commercial enterprise, or those who intend 

 doing so, Chapter iv. being devoted entirely to cultivation : 

 and this part of the subject is treated of very fully ; the 

 author giving the various details of suitability of climate, 

 temperature, rainfall, elevation, soil, drainage, &c., to- 

 gether with the more practical operations of preparing 

 the ground, sowing seeds, propagation, planting, and 

 other matters of a similar character, which, from the 

 nature of Dr. King's position as superintendent of the 

 Government cinchona plantations, must be trustworthy, 

 if not from his own practical experience, certainly from 

 the fact of his being able to command the opinions of the 

 best men in this important branch. The same may be 

 said of Chapter v., on the "mode of harvesting the bark 

 crop." Turning to Chapter vii. on the " local manufacture 

 of a cinchona febrifuge," we come to what is interesting 

 and important to the whole community, namely, some of 

 the practical results of the cinchona introduction into 

 India, in the production of a cheap but efficient febrifuge. 

 This preparation, which Mr. Broughton, the Government 

 quinologist calls amorphous quinine, consists of the total 

 alkaloids of cinchona bark, in the form of a non-crystal- 

 line powder, mixed to some extent with the resin and 

 red colouring matter so abundant in red bark. " This 

 alkaloid," we ai'e told, " has been accepted by the medi- 

 cal profession in the Madras Presidency, as a remedy in 

 malarious fevers, scarcely, if at all, inferior to quinine." 

 About 600 lbs. of this substance was produced in the 

 Neilgherry factory up the end of the year 1872-73, but the 

 process of manufacture was found too costly, and the 

 factory was accordingly closed. A more simple process 

 was commenced in Sikkim, by Mr. Wood, who arrived in 

 India in 1873, and by this process at the present time, 

 about a ton per week of dry red bark is being worked up. 

 The bntk, hitherto so utilised, has been chiefly derived 

 from thinnings and prunings, undertaken from time to 

 time in the interests of the trees. By the end of the 

 current financial year (1875-76) about 32,oco ounces of 

 alkaloid will have been turned out. Next year a much 

 larger quantity will be yielded. It has been calculated 

 that of this efficient febrifuge there can soon be yielded 

 from three to four tons annually, at a cost of rather less 

 than one rupee per ounce. 



Some interesting appendices are attached to the Manual 

 — one sho'A'sthe stock of trees in the Neilgherry cinchona 

 plantation, another the stock in the Sikkim plantations, 

 another the meteorology of the same plantations, and the 

 last one gives the opinions of medical men holding import- 

 ant positions in India, on the efficacy of the cinchona 

 febrifuge. With the manual are also issued three extra 

 pages, descriptive of the process at present used for manu- 

 facturing the above substance, by Mr. C. H. Wood, the 

 Government quinologist. J. R. J. 



Die Eiiganeai. Ban. tind Ccschichtc clues Vjilkanes. 

 Von Dr. Ed. Reyer. (Wien, 1877.) 



This is Dr. Reyer's first publication, and we gladly 

 acknowledge it to be a very promising one. The subject, 

 a minute geological treatise of the Euganean Mountains 

 near Padua, illustrated by a well-drawn map, hardly calls 

 for a lengthy notice on our part, but the little work is attrac- 

 tively written, and testifies to the complete mastery the 

 author possesses over his subject. He minutely describes 

 the structure of these mountains, then dwells upon the 

 consequences he draws from this regarding their geolo- 

 gical history, and raises before the eyes of the reader an 

 interesting picture of times long past, and of forms long 

 extinct. Dr. Reyer's language has the advantage of 

 being clear and to the point, and free from all unnecessary 



ornament. We have pleasure in recommending the book 

 to our readers, and hope that it may soon be followed by 

 another production from Dr. Reyer's pen. 

 Die Erde tttid Hire Volker : ein geographisches Haus- 



buclt. Von Friedrich von Hellwald. Erster Band. 



Zweite Auflage. (Stuttgart : Spemann, 1877.) 

 This work has met with deserved popularity in Germany. 

 Dr. Hellwald is known as one of the most accomplished 

 living geographers, and is well fitted to undertake the 

 compilation of a work like the present. It will, we 

 believe, be completed in two volumes, the volume before 

 us dealing with America and Africa. The author follows 

 to some extent the method of Reclus in his ma^iiuni opus, 

 though, of course, on a smaller scale. He takes the great 

 divisions of the land and water one after another, and in a 

 thoroughly interesting and clear style, summarises all that 

 is known of them on the basis of the latest discoveries, 

 and under a variety of well-selected heads. The work, so 

 far as we have tested it, is up to the latest date, and we 

 know of no more trustworthy, interesting, and handy 

 compendium of geographical information. Some of the 

 illustrations might bear improvement, especially in the 

 case of North America, where, we think, a freer use might 

 have been made of the magnificent illustrations in the 

 U.S. Survey publications. On the whole, however, the 

 work is a valuable " family book," as it is meant to be, 

 and we should think would prove of considerable service 

 to teachers of geography. We have no doubt that many 

 would welcome an English edition of the work. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[T/ie Editor does not hold himself responsible for opi^nons expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correipond with the writers of rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anojtymous communications.'] 



Science Fellowships at Oxford 



Your correspondent, Mr. Charles Wade, is an undergraduate 

 of Magdalen College, and makes the very naturalj inist»'ke of 

 supposing that fellowships once assigned to natural science are, 

 like the class of college prizes with wliich he is more familiar, 

 namely, the scholarships, regarded by the colleges giving th em 

 as in a certain sense appropriated for future vacancies, to the 

 subject which has once been connected with them. This is not 

 the case, and accordingly your readers will find that Mr. Wade's 

 enumeration of twelve fellowships, as assigned to natural science 

 at Oxford, is erroneous, whilst the statement of " an Oxford Man " 

 that only five fellowships are at this moment held as rewards for 

 proficiency in natural science, is correct. From Mr. Wade's list 

 must be removed the three Lee's readerships at Christ Church, 

 which are not of the nature of ordinary fellowships, but are 

 special foundations and enumerated by " an Oxford Man " with 

 the professorships. Of the nine remaining on Mr. Wade's list, 

 one at Merton does not exist, nor does that at Corpus, nor that 

 at Pembroke, whilst that at Brasenose was not offered purely 

 and simply for physical science. Hence there are but five 

 fellowships at Oxford now held for natural science, or six if we 

 count that at Brasenose. 



Since I have no reason to ingratiate myself either with those 

 who defend or those w^o attack the abuses of Oxford, I ihall 

 not imitate Mr. Wade, but sign myself Socius 



Spectra of Metalloids 



In a recent number of Nature (vol. xv., p. 401) I gave a 

 short abstract of a paper by Messrs. Angstrom and Thalen, 

 on which I should like to make a few remarks. It is known 

 that Pliicker first drew attention to the fact that one body may 

 have different spectra, and he seemed inclined to attribute these 

 spectra to different allotropic states of the element. Later on, 

 however, attempts were made to give another explacation of the 

 phenomenon. It is against these attempts that Angstrom and 

 Thalen chiefly protest in their paper. 'Ihey use, however, the 

 word element, in a different sense from that in which it is gene- 

 rally used. An elementary body, they jay, can only have one 

 spectrum. We are aware that bodies, as iodine and sulphur, can 

 give two spectra, but then the band spectrum is due to an allo- 

 tropic state, which, from a spectroscopic point of view, behaves 



