July 26, 1888] 



NA JURE 



295 



antly illustrated, Prof. Wallace has not forgotten to widen 

 the scope and interest of his very valuable book by 

 copious information as to the products, the agriculture, 

 the cattle, the instruments of husbandry, the habits, and 

 the customs of India. He has placed on record an im- 

 mense number of facts which must render his book valuable 

 for purposes of reference as well as interesting to the 

 general reader. With reference to the liberal display of 

 photographic representations, executed by Waterston and 

 is, the author looks upon them as instructive rather 

 than artistic. The photographs from which they were 

 taken were executed by himself, often under difficulties, 

 but they are none the less accurate, and therefore trust- 

 worthy. 



With regard to the present arrangement of the book, 

 the first 300 pages are devoted to descriptive matter 

 relating to the cattle and other domesticated animals, the 

 soils, implements of husbandry, and crops of India. 

 Much of the matter may be left by the busy reader, who 

 will find the special views and conclusions of the author 

 reserved for the concluding chapters. 



The book is an honest and able attempt to place the 

 peculiarities of Indian agriculture fairly before the British 

 public, and the views of the author with reference to the 

 best methods for developing the agricultural sources of 

 the Indian Empire will, we hope, receive the attention 

 they deserve. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Jncwadi Yama : or Twenty Years' Personal Experience 

 in South Africa. By J. W. Matthews, M.D. 

 (London: Sampson Low, 1887.) 



Dr. Matthews left England in 1864, soon after he had 

 taken his medical degree. He settled, in the first 

 instance, at Verulam, in Natal, where he was appointed 

 a district surgeon. Afterwards he became familiar with 

 many different parts of South Africa, and especially with 

 the Diamond Fields, the inhabitants of which twice re- 

 turned him at the head of the poll to represent them in 

 the councils of their country. He is not a very skilful 

 writer, but any one who will take the trouble to read his 

 long and somewhat elaborate narrative will be rewarded 

 by obtaining a great amount of solid and more or less in- 

 teresting information. He has naturally much to say about 

 the population of the Diamond Fields, and about the pro- 

 cess of diamond mining, and on these subjects he speaks 

 with the authority of one who presents the results of direct 

 personal observation. He has also brought together a good 

 many curious and instructive facts about the native tribes ; 

 and his descriptions of scenery, if not brilliant from a 

 literary point of view, at any rate suffice to convey a 

 general impression of some of the districts he has visited. 

 The work will be of considerable service to Englishmen 

 who think of settling in South Africa. 



First Elements of Experimental Geometry. By Paul 

 Bert. (London: Cassell and Co., 1888.) 



The book of which this is a translation was M. 

 Paul Bert's last work, and, like his earlier books 

 of a similar kind, it is written in a style that cannot 

 fail to interest children. His aim is to go straight 

 to the goal, and, as he tells us in the preface, the 

 goal of experimental geometry in elementary schools is, 

 not a knowledge of the properties of different figures, 

 but the power of measuring objects round about us. By 

 the time the pupil ha3 reached the third or fourth lesson 

 he has learnt how to measure the height of a tree, and by 



so doing has done a practical piece of work, and begins 

 to take an interest in the subject. 



The book is divided into nine parts, containing in all 

 about forty lessons. The measurement of straight lines, 

 plane areas, solids, lengths of curved lines, &c, are 

 dealt with in the first seven parts ; the eighth shows 

 the methods of constructing various geometrical figures 

 and the instruments employed ; Part 9 consists of the 

 elements of land surveying and of plan drawing. 



The illustrations and diagrams are numerous and well 

 chosen throughout, and the work has been well trans- 

 lated. At the end of the volume exercises have been 

 added for the use of teachers which are not found in 

 the French version, the translator telling us that "the 

 extraordinary character of our table of weights and 

 measures has made it almost impossible to reproduce 

 with the neatness and clearness of the original the 

 numerous examples which are based upon the metrical 

 system." 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he under- 

 take to return, or to correspond with the writers of, 

 rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part 

 of Nature. No notice is taken of anonymous communi- 

 cations.] 



The Renewed Irruption of Syrrhaptes. 



Thanks to your kindness in printing a note of mine a few 

 weeks since (p. 103), I have received from your correspond- 

 ents a large amount of help in the task I have undertaken ; but 

 there is, to me at least, a complete blank as regards observations 

 of Syrrhaptes this year in France. It is almost impossib'e for 

 the invasion to have missed that country, since Italy and Spain 

 even have been visited in greater force than upon any one of 

 the former occasions, yet not a word of the birds being seen in 

 France on the present occasion has come to me, notwithstand- 

 ing the inquiries I have made of French ornithologists. I would 

 ask such of your readers as may be in that country to send me 

 any tidings they may obtain. In 1863 there were at least a dozen 

 French localities recorded, and in some of them large flocks were 

 seen. I can hardly suppose that it has been otherwise this 

 year. Alfred Newton. 



Magdalene College, Cambridge, July 23. 



Dr. Romanes' Article in the Contemporary Review 

 for June. 



My attention has been directed to an article entitled " Recent 

 Critics of Darwinism," by Dr. Romanes in the June number of 

 the Contemporary Review. While the anonymous writer of a 

 recent article in the Edinburgh Review is rightly exposed for 

 quoting what he believes to be the opinions of men who:e 

 writings" he can never have read, or at least can never have 

 understood, it is somewhat unfortunate that Dr. Romanes 

 should have fallen into the similar error of not making 

 himself acquainted with views which he professes to express. 

 He states (on page 841) that while Cope, Semper, Geddes, 

 and Seebohm have argued " that any proof of natural selection 

 as an operating principle opens up the more ultimate problem as 

 to the causes of the variations on the occurrence of which this 

 principle depends," Weismann and Poulton, on the other 

 hand, "have not so much concerned themselves with 

 this more ultimate problem." As it is unlikely that Dr. 

 Weismann will have the opportunity of replying to this 

 statement, it is only right to point out that this eminent 

 zoologist has most certainly concerned himself very earnestly 

 with this ultimate problem, and that his original and important 

 theories upon the subject will be found in two of his recent 

 papers, viz. "Die Continuitat des Keimplasma's als Grundlage 

 einer Theorieder Vererbung," Jena, 1885, and " Die Bedeutung 

 der sexuellen Fortpflanzung fur die Selektions-Theorie," Jena, 

 1886. 



I should not have troubled to write this reply on account of 

 the allusion to myself, and I agree with Dr. Romanes in the 



