6o4 



NA TURE 



rM. 



1922 



of chemistry, and formulated its theories. He wishes 

 to learn something of their characteristics, where and 

 how they laboured, and what were the conditions 

 and circumstances under which their discoveries were 

 made. This no doubt would have involved search, 

 wide reading, insight, and power of characterisation, 

 but it would have added greatly to the human interest 

 of the work, and have imparted vitality and colour to 

 what we are constrained to say is a rather bald and 

 impassive story of human achievement. 



The author attempts in some degree to meet what 

 we suggest by reproducing a copy of a print belonging 

 to the National Germanic Museum at Nuremberg re- 

 presenting an " Alchemist's Laboratory " ; by a picture 

 of Berzelius as a rather slim young man in knee- 

 breeches, well - developed calves, court shoes and a 

 tight, cut-away coat, seated in a well-upholstered chair, 

 watching, whilst reading, a highly idealised piece of 

 distillation-apparatus, heated by a Roman lamp — a 

 picture reproduced from No. VII. of Kahlbaum's 

 " Monographien." When one recalls the humble 

 kitchen in the Swedish Academy's apartments which, 

 \mder the despotic sway of old Anna the cook, served 

 the great chemist as his laboratory, this representa- 

 tion of the well-groomed philosopher in the perfectly- 

 appointed parlour provokes a smile. It is pleasing, 

 but it is not history. More realistic is Prautschold's 

 better-known drawing of the interior of the Giessen 

 Laboratory as it appeared in 1842. It represents a 

 crowded assemblage of workers who resemble the 

 German students of opera-bouffe, but it is probably 

 characteristic. As the names of those figured are 

 known it would have added to the interest of the 

 picture to have given them. Some of them at least 

 are not unknown to fame. The remaining plate is a 

 photographic reproduction of van't Hoff's private 

 laboratory at Amsterdam, taken from Prof. Cohen's 

 memoir. The illustrations are probably given as types 

 of laboratories of their respective periods, but happier 

 selections are available and might have been intro- 

 duced. 



The ideal history of chemistry has yet to be written. 

 There already exist a number of works of the character 

 of the one now noticed, but many of them are not 

 much above the range of ordinary school histories. 

 The subject is worthy of a fuller treatment ; its several 

 periods should be dealt with in special monographs and 

 in the manner of professed historians. The story during 

 the last 70 or 80 years — infinitely the most fascinating 

 and the most fruitful period in its history — has not yet 

 been adequately handled. But the man who could 

 handle it most effectively is probably too busy in 

 augmenting it. 



T. E. Thorpe. 

 NO. 2741, VOL. 109] 



Antarctic Polychaeta. 



Australasian Antarctic Expedition, igii-14, under the 

 Leadership of Sir Douglas Mawson. Scientific Re- 

 ports : Series C — Zoology and Botany. Vol. 6, 

 Part 3, Polychaeta. By Dr. W. B. Benham. Pp. 

 128 + plates 6 + Map i. (Sydney : Government 

 Printing Office, 1921.) 125. 



THE labours of Kinberg, Grube, Ehlers, Gravier, 

 Pixell, Ramsay, Benham (1909), and others, 

 besides those described in the Challenger volume, 

 have rendered us more or less familiar with some of the 

 Antarctic Polychsets. The present memoir of Prof. 

 Benham, an able and experienced observer, adds 

 notably to our knowledge of such forms as have been 

 obtained within the half-circle round the Antarctic land. 

 The materials on which his report is based came chiefly 

 from Commonwealth Bay, Adelie Land (Australian 

 Antarctic), though a few were procured off Macquarie 

 and Maria Islands and Tasmania, the collection con- 

 taining fifty-eight species, of which eleven are new. In 

 his summary of Antarctic forms hitherto obtained the 

 author shows that the largest number of species belong 

 to the Terebellidae, followed in diminishing numbers by 

 the Syllidse, Phyllodocidse, Aphroditidse, Maldanidae, 

 Serpulidae, and Sabellidae, the other families having 

 fewer numbers. Moreover, some species occur in large 

 numbers, such as Thelepus antarcticus, Harmothce spinosa, 

 and Potamilla antarctica,^a. feature not uncommon in 

 similar species in European waters. Of his new species, 

 perhaps the most interesting is Amythas membranifera, 

 from Commonwealth Bay, an Ampharetid which has 

 an introversible frilled membrane instead of the usual 

 oral tentacles. 



The author has extended the distribution of various 

 known species, as well as, by the aid of well-preserved 

 examples, added to our knowledge of their structure, 

 sexual variations, and otherwise. Careful investigation 

 had led Prof. Benham occasionally to differ from his 

 predecessors, but he shows fully and fairly the grounds 

 on which his arguments rest ; e.g. in the distinctions 

 between Harmothoe and Hermadion. He does not 

 enter into the structure of the foot in diagrammatic 

 vertical section as Mr. Southern has done in the Indian 

 forms from the Chilka Lake, probably because such is 

 unnecessary in the discrimination of species, though it 

 may be useful in critical cases. The careful methods 

 adopted by Prof. Benham enabled him, for instance, to 

 observe the chitinous supporting rod in the long 

 metastomial cirri of Pelagobia vigueri which M. Gravier 

 had overlooked. It may be open to doubt, however, 

 whether his new species SphcBrodorum spissum is not 

 more closely connected with the European forms than 

 is at present supposed. 



