September 2, 1920] 



NATURE 



not in the same degree. Comte's biography is the 

 work of a professed disciple, but he seems unable 

 \o make the apostle pf " Humanity " a sympathetic 

 figure. There is a feeling of something lacking 

 in the book in this respect. There is no evidence 

 that it is intended only for the elect, and the 

 ordinary reader may easily be repelled, even if 

 he belongs to the class, so generally miscalled 

 the proletariat, to whom Comte expected his 

 social philosophy to appeal most powerfully. His 

 Positivism certainly made a great impression on 

 those of the working class who attended his free 

 lectures on astronomy, the first science to become 

 "positive" in Comte's view. The Positivist 

 calendar, given as an appendix, is interesting, 

 though to the general reader many of the names 

 are quite unknown. 



(3) This book is a really fascinating character- 

 sketch of Huxley by his son, and the great 

 " agnostic " stands out a vivid, rugged, but very 

 sympathetic figure, an honest seeker after truth, 

 a resolute opponent of "dogma." We meet also 

 the outstanding personalities of his contem- 

 poraries, Darwin, with Hooker, Tyndall, and other 

 members of the famous X Club. Had the question 

 arisen forty or fifty years earlier, what would 

 we not have given to be present at a symposium 

 debating Einstein's theory of relativity? Huxley's 

 indictment of "the Church" is as thorough as 

 his championship of Darwin, and might be un- 

 answerable could we altogether ignore the limita- 

 tions of the human intellect. His logical con- 

 clusion that his views precluded the hope of future 

 rewards a.s well as the fear of future punishments 

 enforced on him the duty of living the most up- 

 right of lives, and Sir S. Walpole could not have 

 been by any means the only one to endorse the 

 verdict of the little girl who emphatically declared : 

 " I think Prof. Huxley is the best man I have ever 

 known." W. W. B. 



Our Bookshelf. 



The Dyeing Industry. Iking a third edition of 

 Dyeing in Germany and America. By S. H. 

 Higgins. Pp. viii-f-i8g. (Manchester: At the 

 University Press ; London : Longmans, Green, 

 and Co., 1919.) Price 8j. 6d. net. 



In the first edition of Mr. Higgins's book 

 (Natitke, November 7, IQ07, p. 4) the subject- 

 matter presented was mainly novel in character, 

 giving, as it did, the author's impression of the 

 state of development of the dyeing industry in 

 Germany, Austria, and the United States. A 

 second edition was issued during the war period 

 (Natike. June 4, 1917, p. 303), and the present 

 notice refers to a third edition. 



NO. 2653, VOL. 106] 

 C 



It is gratifying to find such a steady demand 

 for technical literature, which presumably arises 

 from new readers, but the revised title of the 

 book, "The Dyeing Industry," may lead such to 

 look for a systematic treatment of the various 

 aspects of the industry. This is not attempted in 

 the book, the only new features of which are the 

 inclusion of some of the author's recent valuable 

 contributions to current literature and an exten- 

 sion of the section dealing with the manufacture 

 of dyestufTs — which, by the way, is a quite distinct 

 industry. 



It is to be hoped that the author will find an 

 opportunity of producing a book dealing with the 

 dyeing industry of the present day, since infor- 

 mation gathered so long ago as 1907 is unlikely 

 now to represent the position with regard to such 

 a rapidly developing scientific industry as dyeing. 



W. M. G. 



A Handbook of British Mosquitoes. By Dr. 



William Dickson Lang. Pp. vii-i- 125-1- 5 plates. 



(London : British Museum (Natural History), 



1920.) Price 20S. 

 Dr. Lang's work makes it possible to determine 

 with comparative ease most, if not all, British 

 mosquitoes, including, so far as they are known, 

 the larvae in their various instars. The book 

 consists mainly of three sections — (i) Intro- 

 ductory ; (2) Identification ; and (3) Systematic 

 Account. In the introductory section are given 

 the characters by which mosquitoes may be dis- 

 tinguished from gnat-like flies, a general account 

 of the life-history, and such discussion of the 

 morphology of the adults and larvas as is neces- 

 sary for purposes of identification. The second 

 section is treated in an eminently practical manner, 

 and the interpretation of the directions, lucid 

 themselves, is rendered simple by the numerous 

 excellent illustrations. In the third section the 

 taxonomic aspect is considered, and our know- 

 ledge of each species summarised. 



Dr. Lang's work will prove of great value to 

 all interested in mosquitoes, and particularly to 

 those who find the existing monographs on these 

 insects too technical or involved. It gives a clear 

 insight into the characters used in distinguishing 

 these insects and their larvae, but it must be re- 

 membered that the value of some of the points 

 used, although great in separating the British 

 species, is really exaggerated, and, therefore, 

 neither they nor the sequence of instructions can 

 be rig'idly applied to foreign mosquitoes. 



Volumetric Analysis. By J. B. Coppock. Second 

 edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. 100. 

 (London : Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 

 n.d.) Price 31. 6d. net. 



Though this volume has no special features to 

 distinguish it from others of a similar type, it 

 should prove useful to elementary students of 

 chemistry preparing for examinations of Inter- 

 mediate B.Sc. standard. 



