July 25, 1918] 



NATURE 



403 



Fauna and the Fiona will be dealt with in separate 

 volumes. We are glad to know that along with 

 the published records there is growing up a local 

 collection of actual specimens — in short, a regional 

 survey museum. For these "Faunas" and 

 "Floras" are not appreciated at their highest 

 value when considered by themselves ; their larger 

 importance is as components of an integrated 

 survey ; and those who may think that we are 

 saying too much about a book consisting mainly 

 of careful records of the finding of hundreds of 

 spiders, insects, molluscs, and worms have yet 

 to understand that one of the factors in secure 

 progress must be — more than heretofore- — an inti- 

 mate and scrupulously accurate survey of all the 

 facts of every region. 



OVR BOOKSHELF. 

 A Handbook of Briquetting. By Prof. G. Franke. 

 Translated by F. C. A. H. Lantsberry. Vol. ii., 

 Briquetting of Ores, Metalfurgical Products, 

 Metal Swarf, and Similar Materials, including 

 Agglomeration. With Appendices. Pp. 



xi + 214. (London: C. Griffin and Co. Ltd., 

 1918.) Price 155, net. 



The promised second volume of the translation 

 of Prof. G. Franke 's work on briquetting has 

 now appeared, dealing with the briquetting of 

 materials other than fuels. These materials are, 

 first and foremost, iron-ore, to which the greater 

 part of the work is necessarily devoted ; next flue- 

 dust and certain other metallurgical by-products ; 

 and, finally, metallic borings and turnings, which 

 the translator is pleased to designate " swarf. ' ' The 

 work is distinguished by the same amount of 

 careful detail, particularly in the description of the 

 mechanical appliances, that characterised the first 

 part, but it is evident that the author has not 

 the same practical familiaritv with this portion of 

 his subject as he displayed in dealing with fuel in 

 his former volume. Much of his information is 

 derived from current Uterature, and is neither so 

 complete nor so accurate as it was in the case of 

 coal. His handling of the important subject of the 

 briquetting of iron-ores is far inferior, for example, 

 to the paper on the same subject read before the 

 Iron and Steel Institute last autumn by Messrs. 

 Barrett and Rogerson. For instance, the list of 

 Swedish briquetting works given by the author 

 refers only to the year 1906, and is now hopelessly 

 out of date. Still worse is the* total omission of 

 the entire group of modern sintering processes, 

 such as the Dwight-Lloyd, Huntington-Heberlein, 

 Greenawalt, etc., which are generally looked upon 

 a.> the most promising of any of the methods 

 hitherto devised for treating iron-ores. It cannot 

 I be denied that these defects rob the work of much 

 ' of its value, though anyone desiring detailed 

 accounts of the older methods will find them given 

 very fully. 



I' As regards the translation, it is possibly an 



improvement on that of the first volume, but still 

 leaves very much to be desired. 

 NO. 2543. VOL. 1 01] 



State Geological and Natural History Survey. 

 (State of Connecticut. Public Document No. 47.) 

 Vol. v., Bulletin 22. Guide to the Insects 

 of Connecticut. Part iii. The Hymenoptera 

 or Wasp-like Insects of Connecticut. By H. L. 

 Viereck, with the collaboration of A. D. 

 MacGillivray, C. T. Brues, W. M. Wheeler, and 

 S. A. Rohmer. Pp. 824+ plates x. (Hart- 

 ford : Printed for the State Geological and 

 Natural History Survey, 1916.) 

 Collectors and observers of insects in New 

 England are fortunate in having at their disposal 

 such a "guide " as this to lead them in the dis- 

 crimination of genera and species in that most 

 fascinating, but systematically most difficult, 

 order, the Hymenoptera. Some of the most eminent 

 of American entomologists have collaborated in 

 the production of this volume, and their careful 

 diagnoses and analytical tables are rendered the 

 more comprehensible to the beginner by clear 

 structural text-figures. As very many genera i.re 

 common to both the western and eastern conti- 

 nents, this book will be of value to European 

 workers, who will be interested to find that not a 

 few of the Connecticut species of ants, wasps, and 

 bees are identical with familiar British insects. 

 Although the treatment is predominantly system- 

 atic, information on the habits of many of the 

 families is furnished, and the plates illustrating 

 gall-forming and nesting activities are instructive. 

 Good line-drawings would have been preferable to 

 the photographic reproductions of museum speci- 

 mens of insects, many of which are badly set and 

 some mutilated. The great merit of the book 

 consists in its presentation of the modern classifi- 

 cation of all the families and the more important 

 genera of Hymenoptera in a single, if somewhat 

 bulky, volume. G. H. C. 



The Baby. ("Manuals of Health,'" ii.) By Dr. S. 

 I Seekings. Pp. 63. (London : Society for Pro- 

 moting Christian Knowledge, 1918.) Price gd. 

 net. 

 We do not find anything particularly novel in this 

 little book on baby management, nor does it seem 

 to present anything that cannot be found in several 

 other books of a similar type. It is written clearly 

 ! and simply, and the directions can be easily fol- 

 I lowed. For artificial feeding it is recommended 

 I that the milk be always scalded, but no direction 

 ! is given on the importance of cooling in hot 

 I weather. In the chapter on common ailments (or 

 i elsewhere) we find no mention of vaccination and 

 1 the treatment of the arm, while, though compara- 

 j tively infrequent in the infant, measles and whoop- 

 i ing-cough are discussed. It is stated that measles 

 causes more deaths among children under a year 

 { old than at any other age. This is incorrect : 

 I almost twice as many children die in their second 

 [ year from this cause as in the first year, and the 

 \ measles death-rate in the second year is nearly 

 i eight times that in the first year. Some 

 i useful directions are given in an appendix for the 

 j Dreparation of barley and albumin water, etc., and 

 for knitting infants' garments. R. T. H. 



