164 



NATURE 



[April 8, 1920 



M. Landseer Mackenzie. In architecture they 

 give exactly what the trained eye would have us 

 see; in landscape, as in "The Harbour at Cal- 

 lioure," an exquisite sense of atmosphere is con- 

 veyed — and, unfortunately, this is the only land- 

 scape in the book. The travellers had no high 

 aim in art, history, or geography. They went 

 to this inlet of the eastern Pyrenees because it 

 appeared romantic at a distance. They found it 

 less romantic, but full of charm, the charm that 

 is rarely absent in provincial France. They 

 wandered on foot, and made a spirited ascent of 

 Canigou ; but their real interest lay in the old- 

 world villages, the hospitable reception at inns 

 that treat the visitor as a friend, and the general 

 air of remoteness in a land where Catalan is 

 common speech. In history the Roussillon has 

 had no special voice as to whether it should belong 

 to France or Spain. To-day it may well be proud 

 that its lot has lain with France. Was not 

 Marshal Joffre, le grand-pere, born at Rivesaltes, 

 where the wind blows in across a great lagoon 

 upon the frontier, a relic of the Pliocene sea that 

 once stretched up among the hills? From Rous- 

 sillon also came Commandant Raynal, the hero of 

 the Fort de Vaux at Verdun, and many a stout 

 defender of the northern lines. 



The author, however, is not concerned with such 

 modernities. We gather that her pleasant pil- 

 grimage was made before the war turned all 

 minds to other fields in France; but now the land 

 lies once more open to adventure, and conditions 

 of travel, as we are assured by high authority, 

 are already settling down on their old attractive 

 lines. Naturalists are also artists, and they may 

 well practise their art among the eastern spurs 

 of the Pyrenees. G. A. J. C. 



The Journal of the Institute of Metals. Vol. xxii. 

 No. 2. 1919. Edited by G. Shaw Scott. 

 Pp. xii-f-428-1-31 plates. (London : The Institute 

 of Metals, 1919.) Price 315. 6d. net. 



The new volume of this journal opens with a 

 report of the May lecture delivered by Prof. Soddy 

 dealing with the subject of radio-activity. The 

 remainder consists of the papers read at the 

 Sheflfteld meeting of the institute. Of these the 

 most discussed was one by Dr. Hatfield and Capt. 

 Thirkell on season-cracking, in which a different 

 view is taken from that recently put forward by 

 Rosenhain and Archbutt, and experiments are 

 made to determine the intensity of the internal 

 stress in the case of cold-worked brass. The con- 

 clusion is drawn that such stresses approach 

 very closely to the maximum stress which the 

 material is capable of resisting. The mercury salt 

 method has been found very useful for revealing 

 the presence of internal stress. Some very 

 remarkable alloys are described by Dr. Stead. 

 Alloys of tin, antimony, and arsenic, within certain 

 limits of composition, have the habit of forming 

 spherical segments of striking regularity. Dr. 

 L. J. Spencer gives a summary of the information 

 as to the occurrence of strongly curved crystals 

 NO. 2632, VOL. 105] 



in minerals, but no satisfactory explanation has 

 yet been given of the conditions under which such 

 curved growth takes place. 



The second report to the Beilby Committee on 

 the solidification of metals describes the isolation 

 of crystal grains from certain metals, and a com- 

 parison of their form with that of foam cells, the 

 facts pointing to the importance of the share taken 

 by surface tension in determining the grain bound- 

 aries. The remaining papers deal with the early 

 history of electro-plating, the properties of 

 standard silver, and the structure of bearing 

 metal, Britannia metal, nickel silver, and dur- 

 alumin, and the characteristics of moulding sands 

 for non-ferrous work. C. H. D. 



Applied Botany. By G. S. M. Ellis. Pp. viii + 248. 



(London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1919-) 



Price 4s. 6d. net. 

 This book is one of a "New Teaching Series" 

 of which the publishers state: "The Series has 

 been written by Teachers possessing valuable 

 practical experience and gifted with the inspira- 

 tion of the hour's occasion." The "secrets of 

 plant life " are said to be " the substance of this 

 extraordinarily interesting volume." On p. 84 the 

 author informs us that "clover is liable to clover- 

 sickness. Turnips suffer from the finger-and-toe 

 disease. These diseases are caused by bacteria " ; 

 and later we learn that Desmids and Conjugate 

 Plants are without chlorophyll. Treating of the 

 enemies of plants, the author writes : " Bacteria 

 turn the living tissue to a slimy and often smell- 

 ing pulp. The effect is very similar to decay." 

 The problems of potato blight have apparently 

 been solved, for we are told that the hyphae 

 "penetrate the stem and reach the tubers," and 

 "during the winter resting spores of the fungus 

 remain in the ground and attack the next season's 

 crop." Wart disease is a simple matter, infected 

 soil merely being "treated with sulphur and gas 

 lime." Potato-leaf curl is still due to Macro- 

 sporium solani, and winter rot to Nectria solani. 



These are but a few of the "secrets of plant 

 life " which are " the substance of this extra- 

 ordinarily interesting volume." In addition, how- 

 ever, there are many sentences such as the follow- 

 ing : " Free-swimming plants, like Chlamydo- 

 monas, must have water in which to swim " ; and 

 it is with a sorrowful interest that we read : " Very 

 attractive and useful work may be done by study- 

 ing the development of fruit, and how the seed is 

 in the end successfully disseminated. The student 

 who undertakes this kind of inquiry becomes at 

 last a worthy biologist." The rest of us must 

 learn to bear our cross with resignation. 



W. B. Brierley. 

 Rilckldufige Differ en zierung und Entwicklung. 



By Adolf Cohen-Kysper. Pp. 85. (Leipzig : 



Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1918.) Price 3 marks. 

 This book is a further attempt to reduce all life 

 phenomena to mechanical principles. It announces 

 an "ontogenetic law" worded as follows: "The 

 part returns to a phase from which the whole is 

 developed anew." 



