May 26, 192 1 ] 



NATURE 



391 



cuss very briefly, if at all, the quenched-spark 

 system. In 1906 Max Wien showed that it was 

 possible to quench the oscillations in the primary 

 circuit of the sending station after a few oscilla- 

 tions, leaving the bulk of the electromagnetic 

 energy to be expended in, and radiated from, the 

 antenna circuit alone. Hence the efficiency and 

 the amount of energy radiated are practically 

 doubled. The system is the standard one in 

 Germany; and the author thinks that possibly 

 national prejudice has prevented us from judging 

 its merits fairly. 



It is far too early yet to standardise in radio- 

 telegraphy. The Marconi Co. has entered 

 into an agreement with the Telefunken Co. , 

 and this will probably eliminate much healthy 

 competition. The United States has adopted 

 the Telefunken system for both land and ship 

 stations, and Messrs. Siemens, of Woolwich, 

 have fitted many stations of this type on both 

 British merchant- and war-ships. We agree with 

 the author in thinking that for marine work radio- 

 telephony will be of limited use except in the un- 

 likely event of all maritime nations agreeing to 

 the simultaneous adoption of some form of 

 Esperanto. 



An interesting description is given of the station 

 at Nauen, about 25 miles from Berlin, which is 

 the most powerful radio station in the world. Its 

 normal range is 9000 kilometres, and the 

 messages are regularly received in Australia. 



The Coco-nut. By Prof. E, B. Copeland. 



Second edition, revised. Pp. xvi-i-225. 



(London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 

 205. net. 



The first edition of this excellent handbook was 

 reviewed in Nature for February 25, 191 5 

 (p. 695). In the new edition the subject-matter 

 remains substantially the same, and the revision 

 consists chiefly in recording the results of certain 

 scientific work relating to the coco-nut industry 

 carried out in the Philippines during the last six 

 years. Reference is made to the investigations on 

 copra and coco-nut oil by Messrs. Brill, Parker, 

 and Yates in 1917, which dealt mainly with the 

 conditions governing the production of a fine- 

 quality copra of high oil-content. On the cultural 

 side an account is given of the discovery, by 

 Reinking in 1918, that the primary causative 

 organism of bud-rot of the coco-nut palm in the 

 Philippines is Phytophthora Faberi, Maub. It 

 would have been useful to mention that a serious 

 bud-rot of coco-nut palms in southern India 

 (Malabar) was described by Shaw and Sundara- 

 raman in 1914 as due to Pythium palmivortitn, 

 Butl. References are also made to interesting 

 work on the growth and behaviour of young and 

 ripening coco-nuts, and to the use of the nuts of 

 young trees as seed. In the foreword the author 

 refers to the impetus given during the war to. the 

 export of coco-nut oil from coco-nut-growing 

 countries in place of copra. In his opinion the 

 remarkable advance in this direction made in the 

 Philippines during recent years would have been 

 NO. 2691, VOL. 107] 



impossible but for the scientific and educational 

 work on coco-nut cultivation organised by the 

 Philippine Government. 



The Early History of Surgery in Great Britain. 



By Dr. G. Parker. (Medical History Manuals.) 



Pp. ix -1-204. (London: A. and C. Black, Ltd., 



1920.) ys. 6d. net. 

 Dr. Parker has written a very delightful 

 account of the rise and development of surgery in 

 our country. He is fortunate in his judgment, 

 his sense of proportion, and his style ; he is neither 

 dry nor gossipy. The great figures stand out ; 

 nothing could be better than his lightly touched 

 portraits of John of Arderne, William Clowes, 

 Richard Wiseman — all strong-willed, practical, 

 shrewd, kindly, observant men. They were 

 hindered at every turn by their lack of* more 

 science ; but they were splendid craftsmen and 

 good artists of the living fabric of the body. The 

 stories of their deeds and their adventures, their 

 sympathy, their insight, are fresh and vivid, espe- 

 cially in military surgery. Here and there a note 

 of prophecy is in their work ; thus we find Henri 

 de Mondeville (i 260-1 320) making statements 

 which were fulfilled in Lister's work. 



Three great periods come into the book : 

 (i) The twelfth century : the rise of universities 

 and of hospitals ; (2) the Renaissance ; (3) the 

 eighteenth century : the development of hospital 

 schools and of clinical teaching. The book goes 

 no further ; we must read elsewhere of the new 

 learning which came with Pasteur and Lister. It 

 came when surgery was in a bad way. The 

 development of surgery is not constant, and the 

 first half of the nineteenth century was a period 

 of arrest, relapse, almost of degeneracy. Hap- 

 pily, this fine art made a complete recovery. Let 

 us hope that the other fine arts, which now are 

 in an equally bad condition, will follow its 

 example. 



Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Antiquities and 

 Folk-lore. By A. Fornander. With transla- 

 tions. Edited and illustrated with notes by 

 T. G. Thrum, Third series. Part iii. (Memoirs 

 of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. \'ol. vi.. 

 No. 3.) Pp. iii -f 359-546. (Honolulu, H.I., 1920.) 

 The publication of the present instalment of the 

 great collection of materials made by Mr. 

 Abraham Fornander, the author of "An Account 

 of the Polynesian Ract," will be of great interest 

 to antiquaries and students of folk-lore. Many 

 of the chants now edited in the original dialect, 

 with an English translation and elaborate explana- 

 tory notes, the latter mainly based on the notes 

 by Judge L. Andrews, are comparatively modern. 

 Thus the great Wakea Creation chant is the work 

 of the priest-diviner, Kaleikuahulu, who was born 

 in 1725; but doubtless it is based upon ancient 

 tradition. The notes throughout supplv complete 

 comments upon the philology, history, and folk- 

 lore which the volume contains. Merely as a col- 

 lection of materials, for linguistic studv. the 

 volume, published in admirable style, must be of 

 great value to the philologist. 



