33^ 



NA TURE 



[March i6, 1922 



Berber Surgery and Sport in the Aures 



Mountains. 



(i) Among the Hill Folk of Algeria : Journeys among 



the Shawia of the Aures Mountains. By M. W. 



Hilton-Simpson. Pp. 248. (London : T. Fisher 



Unwin, Ltd., 1921.) 21s. net. 

 (2) Shooting Trips in Europe and Algeria : Being a 



Record of Sport in the Alps, Pyrenees, Norway, 



Sweden, Corsica, and Algeria. By H. P. Highton. 



Pp. 237. (London : H. F. and G. Witherby, 



1921.) 165. 



(i) 'nr^HE gregarious nature of the British tourist 

 X is illustrated by Captain Hilton-Simpson's 

 claim that during his excursions among the Algerian 

 hills near Biskra, which he describes as one of the 

 most popular tourist resorts of the whole world, his 

 wife was the first European woman to be seen by 

 many of the people of the adjacent hills. His journeys 

 in the mountains of Aur^s, the Mons Aurasius of the 

 Romans, were conducted mainly to study the native 

 surgery and make a collection of the instruments used 

 for the Pitt- Rivers Museum, Oxford. The most 

 valuable chapter in his book is the account of Berber 

 surgery, which is not easily studied, as the French 

 apply to the Northern Sahara the law that a fatal 

 operation conducted by a man who is not medically 

 qualified is manslaughter. Captain Hilton-Simpson, 

 by gifts of drugs and surgical instruments, was able 

 to gain the confidence of some of the native practi- 

 tioners. He secured admission to some operations, 

 and has collected much interesting information as 

 to the methods of treatment. The most remarkable 

 success is in trepanning. 



The author has made seventeen visits to Algeria, 

 so he knows the country well, and his book is a valu- 

 able record of contemporary native life in the remoter 

 villages of the Southern Atlas. He refers to indications 

 of a greater ramfall at the time of the Roman occupa- 

 tion, though the general evidence given in the book 

 indicates that the cHmate in Roman times was much 

 the same as it is to-day. 



(2) The same district has been described from a 

 very different point of view by Mr. H. P. Highton, 

 a science master at Rugby. He, also, discarding the 

 ways of the ordinary tourist, has devoted many of 

 the generous holidays allowed at the public schools 

 to shooting trips, in one of which he visited the moun- 

 tains of Southern Algeria in quest of the Barbary 

 sheep and the Dorcas gazelle. Other journeys were 

 in chase of chamois in the Alps and the Pyrenees, of 

 elk and reindeer in Norway and Sweden, and of moufflon 

 in Corsica. Chamois-hunting he calls the prince of 

 sport. His narratives are brightly written. He con- 

 NO. 2733, VOL. 109] 



eludes with a defence of shooting based on the nature- 

 red-in-tooth-and-claw principle, and the claim that^ 

 though animals suffer greatly from mental anguish 

 when chased, as presumably in fox-hunting, they feel 

 little physical pain. This line of argument is almost 

 the opposite to that adopted by Roosevelt, based on the 

 quickness with which wild animals forget sudden alarm. 



The War and the Royal Engineers. 



The Work of the Royal Engineers in the European War, 



1914-19. 

 (i) Water Supply. Part I. : General Development of 



Organization, Plant, and Works. Pp. 54-^32 pls.-i- 



2 maps. Part II. : Operations. Pp. 55 - 92 -f- 9 



pis. + 8 maps. 



(2) Bridging. Pp. 87 + 2>Z pls- + 3 n^aps. 



(3) Supply of Engineer Stores and Equipment. Pp.109. 



(4) The Signal Service in the European War of ig 14 to 

 1918. (France.) By R. E. Priestley. Pp. xvi-l- 

 359 4- 20 pis. 



(Chatham : Secretary, R.E. Institute ; W. and J. 

 Mackay and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 



(i) T N the last year of the war operations involving 

 X " concentrations of unexampled density could 

 be successfully undertaken at short notice in any 

 areas, and at the points most desirable for strategical 

 or tactical reasons, without reference to the presence 

 of JWater in or near the surface." The ways and means 

 by which this result was achieved are well set forth 

 in the work under review. Amongst them may be 

 mentioned the erection of semi-permanent and exten- 

 sive supply systems with head works and pipe-lines, 

 such as those at Roosbrugghe, the free use of mechanical 

 transport, and the extensive use of boring plant. 

 Drills were used on a small scale in the chalk area in 

 1915, the air-lift pump soon giving a great impetus to 

 boring operations. Portable air-compressor plants 

 mounted on lorries visited a borehole and worked 

 so long as was necessary to fill the local storage plants. 



Scarcely less important than the supply of water 

 was the purification of it, and full details of the methods 

 used are given. Large purification plants did excellent 

 work of a pioneer nature in supplying potable water 

 from canals — in some cases through pipe-lines several 

 miles in length. 



(2) The need for heavy bridges was first experienced 

 on the Aisne. From that time the history of bridging 

 during the war was determined largely by the in- 

 creasingly important role played by the heavy artillery 

 and tanks, the maximum axle load to be carried rising 

 from thirteen to thirty tons. With the aid of drawings 

 and some excellent photographs, the various standard 



