386 



NATURE 



[May 27, 1920 



committees, associations, and individual observers. 

 The author shows not only that much progress 

 has been made towards the solution of the prob- 

 lem, but also that some of the methods which 

 have been tried, such as the score-card method of 

 inspection, are by no means so useful' as some 

 enthusiasts on this side of the Atlantic have pro- 

 claimed. 



The author is justly impressed by the merits of 

 the North system (p. 78), the object of which is 

 to prevent contamination of the milk at the time 

 of milking by simple but essential precautions 

 which can be taught to any farmer, the part of 

 the work which cannot safely and economically 

 be carried out at an ordinary farm being under- 

 taken at well-equipped stations. 



The quality of the milk is determined by the 

 amount of butter-fat and the number of bacteria. 

 A premium is paid for milk containing less than 

 10,000 bacteria per c.c, and also when the butter- 

 fat exceeds a certain standard — say, 37 per cent. 



Notwithstanding many repetitions, the book is 

 interesting from beginning to end, and is written 

 in a clear and popular style, which to an English 

 reader derives a certain quaintness from its 

 Americanisms. Sheridan Del^pine. 



Our Bookshelf. 



The Whole Truth about Alcohol. By George Elliot 

 Flint. With an introduction by Dr. Abraham 

 Jacobi. Pp. xii + 294. (New York: The Mac- 

 millan Co. ; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 

 1919.) Price 6s. net. 

 The writer of this book is an uncompromising 

 anti-prohibitionist, and a whole-hearted supporter 

 of St. Paul's dictum with regard to the use of 

 alcohol. He considers that alcohol has been 

 greatly maligned, that many of the vicious attacks 

 upon its use have no basis oif real evidence, of 

 reason, or of common sense, and that its influence 

 for evil and as a deteriorator of the human race 

 has been, at least, greatly exaggerated. He dis- 

 cusses seriatim the many statements that have 

 been advanced regarding the deleterious action 

 of alcohol, even in the most moderate doses, and 

 the better state of total abstinence, and he adduces 

 many arguments and some facts contravening 

 these. 



On the whole, the tenor of the book is reason- 

 able, and the conclusion is that moderation never 

 hurt anyone, and in some respects is better than 

 total abstinence. With many of the author's 

 views we are in sympathy, and we fully agree that 

 prohibition is not the best route to temperance. 

 Like him, we doubt if the moderate use of alcohol 

 is in any sense deleterious ; but the difficulty is 

 to define what is moderation, and we are sure 

 that many who take alcohol in what they regard 

 as strict moderation are exceeding the harmless 

 NO. 2639, VOL. 105] 



dose. For anyone who desires the anti-prohibition 

 view the book will furnish a wealth of matter, 

 but it is written largely from the American point 

 of view. 



Dr. Jacobi contributes a brief but interesting 

 introduction, in which he states that in the worst 

 cases of sepsis and toxaemia — e.g. in diphtheria 

 and puerperal fever — alcohol in the largest doses 

 furnishes the only salvation. With this view we 

 largely agree ; but the use of alcohol in disease is 

 of course on a very different footing from the 

 general use of alcoholic beverages in health. 



R. T. H. 



TJie Geography of Plants. By Dr. M. E. Hardy. 

 Pp. xii-t-327. (Oxford : At the Clarendon Press, 

 1920.) Price 75. 6d. net. 



The present volume is a continuation of the 

 introduction to plant geography by the same 

 author issued in 1913 as one of the series of the 

 Oxford geographies designed by the late Prof, 

 and Mrs. Herbertson. It may be regarded as an 

 expansion of part iii. of the earlier work ; the 

 slight survey of the continents given there has 

 served as the plan for the new book, which em- 

 bodies a discussion of the conditions in which 

 plants flourish, and their distribution in the great 

 geographical divisions of the earth. The great 

 continents are considered in successive chapters 

 —Asia, North America, South America, Australia, 

 Africa, and Europe— and each chapter gives a 

 concise account of the physical features and 

 climate, the bearing of these upon the extent and 

 character of the vegetation, and their relation to 

 the support and development of mankind. The 

 book is profusely illustrated with maps and a well- 

 selected number of photographic reproductions of 

 aspects of vegetation. There is a geographical 

 index, and also one of plant names, in which the 

 scientific and popular names of the plants referred 

 to are arranged under the different continents. 

 The little volume should interest alike students of 

 geography and botany, and botanists especially 

 will welcome it as filling a gap in their series of 

 text-book's. 



A Handbook to the Vertebrate Fauna of North 

 Wales. By H. E. Forrest. Pp. v+io6. 

 (London: Witherby and Co., 1919) Price 65.. 

 net. 



Mr. Forrest, the author of "The Vertebrate 

 Fauna of North Wales " (1907), has now published" 

 this shorter "handbook," convenient for 

 naturalists and interested visitors. It deals with 

 28 prehistoric mammals, 8 mammals extinct 

 during the historic period, 43 existing mammals,. 

 227 birds, 5 reptiles, 6 amphibians, and 151 fishes. 

 Under each species is a brief summary showing 

 its status and distribution in the area. Trust- 

 worthy information has been collected from many 

 observers, and the whole work is marked by 

 careful precision, an indispensable quality ins 

 faunistic census-taking. 



