February 21, 1918] 



NATURE 



483 



(2) The volume by Prof. Supino, director of the 

 hydrobiological station of Milan, forms a useful 

 practical guide to the culture of fresh-water fishes, 

 those specially considered being several species of 

 trout, Coregonus, carp, tench, and eel. Details 

 are given of the process of artificial fecundation, 

 of methods and apparatus employed for rearing 

 the young fish and for packing and transporting 

 eggs, young, and adults, and of the raising of trout 

 in ponds. Copies are given, extending to 117 

 pages, of the laws and regulations relating to 

 fresh-water fish in Italy and in the lakes bounded 

 in part also by Switzerland and by Austria. There 

 are seventy-nine text-figures and fourteen plates. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



British Rainfall, igi6. On the Distribution of 



Rain in Space and Time over the British Isles 



during the Year 1916. By Dr. H. R. Mill and 



C. Salter. The Fifty-sixth Annual Volume. 



Pp. 256. (London: Edward Stanford, Ltd., 



1917.) Price 105. 



"British Rainfall for igi6 " contains, despite 



many trying circumstances, the essential features 



which make this annual so useful. Mr. L. C. W. 



Bonacina describes the snowstorms of spring, 



1916 : on the Black Mountains of Brecon snow 



lay 5 ft. deep. Mr. Carle Salter discusses the 



differences in rainfall records due to the use of 



Halliwell and hyetograph gauges ; in connection 



with "The Measurement of Rainfall Duration" 



he decides in favour of the hyetograph. 



The number of rain-days in 1916 was above the 

 average ; both absolute and partial droughts were 

 less frequent than the average, but the absolute 

 droughts lasted longer than usual. At Dungeon 

 Ghyll o'97 in. of rain fell daily on the average 

 during seventeen days in October. At Camden 

 Square the 1916 rainfall was 34 in., an excess of 

 39 per cent, on the average, while the number of 

 rainy hours was 628, 44 per cent, above the 

 average; at Cray Reservoir, Brecon, 'j2 in. fell 

 in 1396 hours. At Kendal an inch of rain Jell in 

 32 min. on July 21. 



July 7 was perhaps the wettest day ever re- 

 corded for the east of Scotland; 29 sq. miles 

 received more than 4 in. of rain ; illustrative maps 

 indicate that the rain fell on the left-hand front of 

 a cyclonic depression which advanced froiji South 

 Wales to Hull on that day. 



On August 29, 622 sq. miles in the south of 

 Engfland received on the average 3*23 in. of rain 

 on the left-hand front of a depression coming up- 

 Channel. February was a relatively wet month 

 in England and Wales. In March the nor- 

 mal distribution of rainfall was completely in- 

 verted. A widespread drought terminated on 

 August 12. September was relatively the driest 

 month of the year, while October outdid its 

 reputation as the wettest month of the year, 

 most of Ireland receiving double the normal 

 rainfall. 



Les Uni7'ersitds et la Vie scientifique aux Etats- 

 Unis. By Prof. Maurice CauUery. Pp. xii + 

 302. (Paris : Librairie Armand Colin, 1917.) 

 Price 3.50 francs, 

 Pkof. Caullery, professor of organic evolution in 

 the University of Paris, was exchange-professor 

 at Harvard University in 1916, and during 

 his five months' stay in the United States 

 he made a study of the American uni- 

 versity system, especially from the scientific 

 point of view. In his description of the rise, 

 development, and administration of the various 

 universities in the States, and his illuminating 

 account of the extensive facilities offered for 

 scientific research on the other side of the 

 Atlantic, Prof. Caullery seeks, at every oppor- 

 tunity, to point out the lessons which France 

 might usefully learn from American experience. 

 He emphasises the success with which the 

 i universities in the United States have produced 

 not only scholars, jurists, and physicians, but also 

 engineers, agriculturists, and financiers — leaders, 

 in fact, in every department of human activity. 

 He urges the desirability of encouraging in 

 France the intimate connection between uni- 

 versity activity and contemporary life which he 

 found existing in America. 



The volume appeals almost equally to our own 

 people, and responsible authorities should 

 acquaint themselves with Prof. Caullery 's 

 message. 



The Cause, Prevention, and Treatment of Cancer 



and other Diseases. By Lt.-Col. W. H. 



Hildebrand. Pp. viii+163. (London: Cole and 



Co., 1917.) 

 The author offers in this book of fewer than 200 

 pages a complete explanation of the cause, cure, 

 and prevention of cancer and of "rheumatism, 

 sciatica, lumbago, uric acid, neuritis, varicose 

 veins, arthritis, gout, eczema, pruritus vulvae, and 

 lunacy." Another short chapter disposes of 

 "adenoids, infantile diarrhoea, tropical dysentery, 

 and hay fever." 



"Cancer is a cell-growth actually caused 

 directly by radium or other radio-active 

 mineral substance." "Drinking-water, especially 

 hard water, is the medium through which the 

 radium or other radio-active minerals . . . are 

 generally conveyed into our bodies." The 

 lime and other minerals harden the linings qf 

 the various organs, and the radium becomes 

 entangled in this excessive fibrous tissue. Once 

 safely ensconced in the fibrous tissue, it sets up 

 cancerous growth by its continuous bombardment 

 of the surrounding structures. An unsuspected 

 source of radium for this nefarious work • is, 

 according to the author, " by so-called transmuta- 

 tion of lead into radium in old water-pipes." 

 This is held to account for cancer-houses. 



Suggestions for legislation or inquiry by a 

 Royal Commission are plentifully scattered 

 throughout the book, which contains much curious 

 irformation, of no scientific value. 



NO. 



'521. VOL. 100] 



