So 



NA TURE 



[November 22, 1900 



sometimes made by the agricultural press in their quota- 

 tions from them. This is generally due to the alterations in 

 the manures on some of the plots during the long course 

 of the experiments, the average produce of the plot given 

 in the table thus sometimes bears no relation to the 

 manure which the plot is now receiving. In the summary 

 tables now separately printed for the use of visitors to 

 the fields these errors are avoided by calculating the 

 average produce for those periods only to which the 

 present manuring applies. 



A melancholy interest attaches to the present issue of 

 the " Memoranda "as being the last with which Sir J. B. 

 Lawes, the founder of experiments, will be personally 

 connected. R. W. 



The Scenery and Geology of the Peak of Derbyshire. By 

 Elizabeth Dale. Pp. viii + 176. (Buxton : C. F. 

 Wardley. London : Sampson Low and Co., Ltd., 

 1900.) 



The main object of the author, who is Pfeiffer student of 

 Girton College, Cambridge, " has been to give a simple 

 account of the geology of this most interesting district, 

 treating this limited subject in such a way as will make it 

 possible for the book to serve as an introduction to the 

 study of the science." That this purpose has been carried 

 out in a thorough and praiseworthy manner will not be 

 questioned. Miss Dale is well acquainted with the dis- 

 trict ; she has herself contributed to our stock of know- 

 ledge, and has gathered other information from the best 

 authorities. The country of the Peak is attractive to 

 lovers of scenery as well as geological students ; and a 

 handy volume which tells as this does of the numerous 

 fine sections, of good localities for fossils, of the origin of 

 the physical features and of the caverns and their varied 

 contents, is sure to be appreciated. We doubt, however, 

 the wisdom of introducing so much general geology in 

 what is essentially a local guide. It would have been 

 enough to point out the lessons to be derived from the 

 rocks in the district without dealing with other matters, 

 such as the nebular theory, or the growth of geology and 

 its relation to modern thought. Those who reside in 

 Derbyshire, and have no other geological books, may be 

 glad to have such full information ; but those who want 

 only the local facts, and explanations of them, will not be 

 so pleased. The work throughout bears evidence of 

 painstaking research, and we notice very few errata. The 

 book has a somewhat provincial aspect in its " get up ; " 

 some groups of illustrations, when they occupy a whole 

 page in the text, are notified as plates, while, curiously 

 enough, Plate vii. is placed before Plate vi. There is a 

 well-printed and clear geological map of Buxton and 

 neighbourhood ; but it ends off in the middle of Kinder- 

 scout, which is marked on the map as " The Peak." The 

 pictorial illustrations are fairly good ; they would have 

 been excellent if well printed. 



Malaria. By Angelo Celli, Director of the Institute of 

 Hygiene, University of Rome. Translated by John 

 Joseph Eyre, with an introduction by Dr. Patrick 

 Manson. Pp. xxiv -f 275. (London : Longmans 

 and Co., 1900.) 



Since Laveran's great discovery of its parasitic nature, 

 war has been waged with ever-increasing vigour against 

 malaria, and Italy has always been in the forefront of 

 the battle. 



The fortunate combination of an ample supply of 

 niaterial and men capable of taking advantage of it has 

 resulted in great and important additions being made to 

 our knowledge of the fever and its etiology. 



Among the Italian workers Prof. Celli is one of the 

 most prominent, and the present volume, founded on a 

 recent course of lectures delivered in Rome, gives us a 

 cursory glance at much of the work on which his 

 eminence is based. 



NO. 162 1, VOL. 63] 



By dealing, as he does here, only with the malaria 

 fevers of the Roman Campagna, Prof. Celli loses nothing 

 in interest, for though we agree with him when he says 

 malaria is a local phenomenon which must be studied on 

 the spot, and data gathered in a particular territory can- 

 not be generalised, yet a book that will enable English 

 readers to readily acquire a succinct and fairly complete 

 knowledge of the recent progress towards the elucidation 

 of the malaria mystery cannot fail to be gladly welcomed. 

 The lectures contain necessarily much that is true 

 without being new, and the information, though sound 

 on the whole, is on some points rather scanty. This is 

 specially true of the description given of the various 

 mosquitoes responsible for Roman malaria ; the informa- 

 tion on this point is slender and quite inadequate for the 

 identification of species. The bionomics of the mosqui- 

 toes are also insufficiently detailed, and several important 

 points are omitted. No mention is made of the peculiar 

 attitude assumed by Anopheles when at rest, nor is the 

 tendency of Culex to lay their eggs in artificial receptacles 

 of water noticed. 



It is, moreover, inaccurate to say that mosquitoes live 

 only in low-lying places. In British Central Africa they 

 have been found at an altitude of several thousand feet. 



One of the best parts of the book is that which deals 

 with the local or physical causes of predisposition or of 

 immunity, and it will be seen how remarkably it agrees 

 with the accounts of similar observations in other parts 

 of the world. Readers who are aware of the efforts now 

 being made to improve the conditions of European life 

 in the tropics will appreciate the emphasis with which 

 this part of the subject is treated. 



Part ii. deals with Prophylaxis in its various aspects, 

 and here the author is at his best. The advice he gives 

 is excellent and practical, and if intelligently followed 

 would greatly reduce the ravages of malaria. No 

 mention is, however, made of either mosquito curtains or 

 punkahs. It is satisfactory that justice is done to Ross's 

 epoch-making work, an example which might well be 

 followed by some other Italian writers. 



The nomenclature differs somewhat from that now 

 generally adopted in England ; haemosporidia being 

 substituted for haemamoebidas, and sporozoites for blasts. 

 The translator has done his work well, though his 

 choice of words is not always good. The illustrations are 

 good throughout, but we think it a mistake to represent 

 the mature zygote in Fig. 19 as possessing a double- 

 walled capsule, and the unstained blasts on the same 

 plate are not correctly depicted. 



A Year with Nature. By W. P. Westell. Pp. xvi -f- 276. 

 Illustrated. 8vo. (London : H. J. Deane, 1900.) 



With every desire to be charitable to an author who, so 

 far as we are aware, has seen his work "within covers'* 

 for the first time during the present year, we are fain to 

 confess ourselves at a loss to conjecture the class of 

 readers for whom the volume before us is intended. 

 Clearly it is not for the professional naturalist ; and we 

 doubt whether the average reader interested in natural 

 history will find much entertainment in its pages. 



Apparently the general plan of the work is intended 

 to be a kind of naturalists' calendar, but intercalated in 

 several of the chapters are essays on subjects which 

 seem to have no connection with the one in hand. We 

 fail, for instance, to see any connection between birds' 

 tails and October, or between their beaks and September; 

 neither do we realise the affinity between January and 

 Mr. Rothschild's museum at Tring Park — certainly none 

 such could have been suggested by the author's reception 

 when he visited that admirable institution. 



In his preface the author very candidly, although 

 perhaps somewhat superfluously, informs his readers 

 that he has " not tried to cultivate any literary style or 

 artistic merit." He might have added that his mode of 



