January 24, 1901] 



NA TURE 



297 



main, this admirable model is copied in the mammal 

 record ; but in the bird section the introductory notice is 

 confined to five lines, and the number of unnecessary re- 

 petitions of " n. sp." (as on page 38) wastes much valuable 

 space. In the reptile and fish records no introduction at 

 all is given, and the papers are not numbered. Intro- 

 ductions are likewise wanting to the Bryozoa and Coelen- 

 terata records. On the other hand, in the Tunicate record 

 the notices of work accomplished are, compared with 

 other sections, disproportionately long and too verbose. 



Again, there are many minute details where more 

 supervision on the part of the editor might, we think, 

 have been devisable. For example, some recorders use 

 " P. Z. S.," and others " P. Zool. Soc, London," for a 

 familiar zoological journal. In the case of another 

 journal we find it abbreviated to " P. New England Zool. 

 Club " in the editorial list at the commencement of the 

 volume ; but in the mammal record (p. 4) it is quoted as 

 " P. New England Club" ; and in the bird record (p. 39) 

 as "New England Zool. Club." Again, on p. 4 of the 

 reptile record we find the abbreviation " Bull. Philad. 

 Mus.," for which there is no corresponding entry in the 

 serial list. 



As an example of another type of what we venture to 

 call lack of smartness, it may be noticed that on p. 38 of 

 the bird record the entry relating to temperature should 

 have come under the heading of Ratitje instead of under 

 one of the subdivisions of the same ; and a similar re- 

 mark applies to the second entry under the heading 

 Accipitriformes, on p. 47. Again, on p. 39 of the same 

 record, we fail to see why initials are prefixed to some 

 authors' names and not to others ; and why a well-known 

 ornithologist is alluded to in one line as W.R. Ogilvie Grant 

 and a few lines later on simply as Grant. In our opinion, 

 such initials, except when there are two authors of the 

 same name, should always be omitted, whereby much 

 space would be saved. But here, as elsewhere, we crave 

 above all things for rigid uniformity, which, in our 

 opinion, should be made a sine qua non by the editor. 



We should also think it an advantage if it were de- 

 finitely decided whether reviews of papers are to be 

 included in the record. Such reviews are quoted in the 

 Echinoderm record, but are omitted in the majority of 

 the others. And here we may take the opportunity of 

 inquiring why the names of authors in the Echinoderm 

 record are printed in much larger type than in the other 

 sections of the volume. Much valuable space is also 

 wasted in this record by the very unnecessary multiplica- 

 tion of paragraphs. Catalogue numbers are also added 

 to the papers, which is not done elsewhere. 



Turning from the unpleasant task of fault-finding to 

 the more congenial duty of commendation, it may be 

 said that, apart from trivial errors and what we regard 

 as imperfections, the work on the whole has been carried 

 out in a most excellent manner alike by the editor and 

 his contributors. With the aid of the admirable subject- 

 index which has been introduced of late years by Dr. 

 Sharp in each record it is now practicable for a worker in 

 any special branch of morphology — say histology of the 

 eye — to find out what has been done in that particular 

 subject in each group of the animal kingdom. The 

 record of new species and sub-species seems to be as well 

 kept as in previous years, and at present shows no signs 

 NO. 1630, VOL. 63] 



of diminution in length. Of course there are some omis- 

 sions which ought not to have occurred — notably one of 

 a so-called new species of reindeer by the mammalian 

 recorder ; but these, it is to be hoped, will be filled up in 

 the next year's issue. 



And here it may be remarked that it is a great pity 

 that certain scientific bodies are so dilatory in despatching 

 their publications. For instance, the library of the 

 Natural History Branch of the British Museum, on 

 which so many of the contributors to the Record depend 

 for their material, only received in November last certain 

 parts of the Bulletin of the Paris Museum which were 

 issued in 1899. Consequently the names of several species 

 of mammals published during the year do not appear in 

 the present volume, and similar omissions not improbably 

 occur in other groups. 



A feature of Dr. Sharp's insect record is the inclusion of 

 an obituary list. There is no doubt that such a list is fre- 

 quently very useful, but if a separate one were made for 

 each division of the record a very unnecessary repetition 

 of names would occur, and there would be some names 

 whose position it would be difficult to allocate. A pre- 

 ferable plan, we think, would be to give a general 

 obituary list, indicating the special subject or subjects 

 connected with each name by appropriate letters. 



We believe ourselves justified in saying that the 

 Council of the Zoological Society have resolved to con- 

 tinue the issue of the Record for at least another year ; 

 and although to some it may appear an unnecessary ex- 

 penditure of time and money to do work twice over, the 

 convenience of having a special record of zoological 

 work is so great that the apparent waste of energy may 

 be justified. 



As one who has worked for some years under Dr. 

 Sharp's supervision, the writer of this review may take 

 the opportunity of acknowledging the extreme lightness 

 of the pressure of the editorial yoke, and the courtesy 

 with which his own suggestions or objections have always 

 been received. R. L. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Ptactical Lessons in Metal Turning. By Percival 



Marshall. Pp. 166. (London : Dawbarn and Ward, 



Ltd., no date). Price 2s. net. 

 Of all the different trades included in the term 

 " mechanical engineering," that of the turner is probably 

 as interesting as any, and seems to appeal to the amateur 

 mechanic rather more than the others, for, given an 

 efficient foot lathe, the work done is of general interest. 



The book under notice will be found to contain infor- 

 mation of much value to the happy possessor of a lathe, 

 more particularly to the apprentice or amateur in the 

 early stages of learning his trade ; and in dealing with his 

 subject the author prefers to devote the space at his dis- 

 posal to a description of how a lathe is worked, rather 

 than to how it is made. 



The various processes are clearly dealt with in nine 

 chapters, commencing with the important question of 

 cutting tools with their proper angles for clearance, 

 cutting and top-rake when working various materials 

 We note, however, that the question of cutting speeds 

 appears to have been overlooked, and this is unfortunate 

 because it leaves the apprentice or amateur very much in 

 the dark at the very beginning. Further on, measuring 

 appliances are dealt with. More should have been made 

 of micrometer callipers, so largely used in the States, 

 These are not even illustrated. 



