364 



NATURE 



[November 17, 192 1 



experimental, but the cost of the coloured plate in 

 the frontispiece, presumably an advertisement of 

 the publishers, would have been better expended 

 in illustrating such pathological changes as are 

 known in the explanation of mental disease. The 

 bibliography at the end of each chapter is valu- 

 able, and the index is well compiled. We hope 

 to see published at an early date a second edition 

 of this valuable text-book. 



British Mammals. 

 British Mammals. Written and illustrated by A. 

 Thorburn. (In two vols.) Vol. 2. Pp. vi + 

 108 + plates 26-50. (London : Longmans, Green 

 and Co., 192 1.) loZ. los. net (2 vols.). 



IT is somewhat unfortunate that seals, whales, 

 and bats constitute so large a proportion of 

 our mammals, for the public, after all, take 

 a lively interest only in such creatures as come 

 under their notice. Including sub-species, there 

 are roughly eighty in all, of which twenty-eight 

 are sea creatures, mostly rare and generally 

 thrown up on our coasts in a decomposing con- 

 dition, whilst the bats, which number twelve, being 

 crepuscular or nocturnal in their habits, are also 

 known to few. \Vhen we add to this total the 

 rats, mice, and voles, for the most part shy and 

 elusive inhabitants of the earth, the total number 

 of. British mammals that come under the notice 

 even of the most observant country dwellers is 

 remarkably small. 



In his second volume Mr. Thorburn treats his 

 subject with the same care and attention to detail 

 that he gave to us in volume one. Even when 

 the subject is somewhat dull he succeeds in mak- 

 ing an interesting feature of it by means of skil- 

 fully introduced natural features or landscape. 

 We cannot say, however, that in the present 

 volume he is equally at home in depicting deer 

 or the so-called wild cattle as he is with the small 

 rodents or Cetaceae. The mountain hare is good, 

 i but the common hare is stiff and inartistic. Of all 

 our mammals it is the most difficult to draw, and 

 in this case the artist has failed to reproduce it 

 in one of its more favourable attitudes. Nor 

 are we enamoured of the pen drawings; they fall 

 far behind the brush work, and being reproduced 

 on pure rag-paper lose much of their original 

 delicacy. In his coloured plates of mice and 

 voles Mr. Thorburn is at his best, and that is 

 saying a great deal, for it is evident he has drawn 

 the majority of these from life, and has given us 

 all their sleek beauty and rotundity. Here his art 

 is triumphant, which is to say it is entirely satis- 

 factory. Such work will live and hold it's own, 

 NO. 2716, VOL. 108] 



and take high place among works on British birds 

 and beasts. Mr. Thorburn, too, has achieved a 

 notable success in his representations of the 

 British Cetaceae, difficult subjects either to render 

 accurately or to make interesting. We notice 

 few errors, with the exception that the teeth of 

 the sperm whale are too small and too white, 

 while the head and flippers of the hump-backed 

 whale are scarcely long enough. 



The letterpress gives a short and on the whole 

 very accurate account of all the species of rodents, 

 ungulates, and whales. The author describes each 

 species from careful research in standard works, 

 supplemented by interesting little notes from per- 

 sonal observation. That he is a real lover of 

 animals is evinced on every page where he de- 

 scribes the intimate habits of little harvest mice 

 and other small creatures that he has kept in con- 

 finement and allowed to escape when they have 

 been sufficiently studied and have sat for their 

 portraits. 



The second volume of " British Mammals " is 

 a notable achievement and worthy of Mr. Thor- 

 burn's high reputation, but it is not on a level 

 with the first volume. The printing, both of the 

 coloured plates and of the text illustrations, 

 leaves much to be desired. These faults, how- 

 ever, cannot be attributed either to the author or 

 his publishers, but are due to the carelessness of 

 printers and block- and paper-makers, who, we 

 think, do not take the same care and pride in 

 their work as in pre-war days. J. G- M. 



Plant Biochemistry. 



The Chemistry of Plant Life. By Dr. R. W. 

 Thatcher. (Agricultural and Biological Publica- 

 tions.) Pp. xvi + 268. (New York and London: 

 McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 192 1.) 185. net. 



OF recent years much attention has been given 

 to plant- or phyto-chemistry, if we may 

 judge from the number of books which have been 

 published on the subject. The origin of this atten- 

 tion can be traced to the strides that have been 

 made in the organic chemistry of the carbo- 

 hydrates, proteins, and other complex compounds, 

 and to the development and wide general applica- 

 tions of physical chemistry. The purely chemical 

 and physical details are the essential foundations 

 for a proper understanding of the subject and for 

 throwing new light upon the complicated chemical 

 and physical processes going on simultaneously in 

 life. Authors of books on plant chemistry have 

 an adv'antage over their colleagues in the other 

 branch of biochemistry — physiological or animal 

 chemistry — in not being cumbered with a mass of 



