420 



NATVRLl 



[June 3, 1920 



been in the greatest difficulty to know whence to 

 draw his ore supplies, to be informed officially 

 that the probable reserves are more than 94 million 

 and the possible reserves more than 435 million 

 tons, he meanwhile knowing but too well tha.: 

 only a very small fraction of even the smaller 

 figure is ever likely to find its way to hi.? 

 furnaces. H. Louis. 



Our Bookshelf. 



Practical Pharmacology : For the Use of Students 



of Medicine. By Prof. W. E. Dixon. Pp. 



viii + 88. (Cambridge : At the University Press, 



1920.) Price ys. 6d. net. 

 We welcome the appearance of Prof. Dixon's 

 manual ; it is certainly the most practical and use- 

 ful guide to students of experimental pharmacology 

 which we know. The experiments are extremely 

 well chosen to illustrate the underlying principles 

 of therapeutics, and the text, with its illustrations 

 and tables, is so clear and logical that a student 

 can at no time be in doubt as to the methods for 

 performing the experiments, or fail to appreciate 

 their bearing on the practical application of the 

 drugs in disease. 



The experiments, some seventy-eight in number, 

 are classified to explain the action of drugs on 

 the various systems of the body, and while use 

 is made mainly of the pithed frog, suitable experi- 

 ments with mammalian tissues are introduced. 

 Experiments with decerebrated mammals are not 

 described, the author considering that their use 

 in large classes is impracticable and that they 

 may be replaced by suitable demonstrations under 

 Certificate C. A chapter is devoted to a descrip- 

 tion of the essential physical properties of import- 

 ant drugs, and there is appended a useful table 

 of the doses required to produce typical pharmsi- 

 cological effects in animals. 



We have no hesitation in recommending this 

 book as an excellent guide to the study of practical 

 pharmacology. It is one which will be extremely 

 useful to students of medicine, whether they are 

 receiving experimental tuition in the laboratory 

 or not, and it will also be read with much profit 

 by medical men who have not had the advantages 

 of a practical training in the action of drugs. 



The Teaching of Science in the Elementary 

 School. By Gilbert H. Trafton. (Riverside 

 Text-books in Education.) Pp. x + 293. (New 

 York : Houghton Mifflin Co. ; London : Con- 

 stable and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 6s. 6d. net. 

 In a brief introduction Prof. Cubberley states 

 that the author's aim was " to construct a simple 

 and helpful volume for the teacher who is called 

 upon to teach elementary science lessons, and yet 

 has neither scientific training nor apparatus for 

 the work." The statement prepares the reader 

 for the limitations of the book, Mr. Trafton 's 

 scheme includes practically no chemistry, and the 

 physics is both exiguous and scrappy; by far the 

 NO. 2640, VOL. 105] 



greatest part consists of simple observational 

 work upon plants and animals. Within these limi- 

 tations, however, there is much that is both attrac- 

 tive and useful, and the limitations themselves 

 correspond to those of most rural elementary 

 schools in this country. 



Mr. Trafton classifies his subject-matter under the 

 headings of biological, agricultural, physical, and 

 hygienic science, and rightly insists that, however 

 rudimentary the work along these lines may be, 

 it should be done in the genuine scientific spirit. 

 In his introductory chapters he gives a good 

 deal of sound and practical advice with regard to 

 the choice of subject-matter and the methods of 

 teaching, and the bulk of the book consists of 

 sections in which typical parts of the curriculum 

 he recommends are worked out in detail. The 

 curriculum is, of course, chosen with reference to 

 American conditions, but the English teacher 

 should be able to profit by Mr. Trafton 's sugges- 

 tions. There is a carefully compiled bibliography, 

 covering practically the whole field treated in the 

 book, but consisting entirely of American titles. 



Peoples of the Philippines. By Prof. A. L. 

 Kroeber. (American Museum of Natural 

 History: Handbook Series No. 8.) Pp. 224. 

 (New York : American Museum of Natural 

 History, 1919.) 



The interest of the Philippine Islands to the 

 ethnographer lies in the fact that they are the 

 largest of the possessions of the United States, 

 and the only one of importance in the Eastern 

 hemisphere ; that they form a considerable and 

 growing nationality ; and that they display in an 

 unusually complete manner the stratification of 

 races and cultures. Three types of race can be 

 identified in the present population, and these 

 may be arranged in the probable order of their 

 arrival — the Negritos of the interior, a short, 

 black people with an elementary type of religion 

 and culture; the Indonesians, of the Mongoloid 

 family, but presenting fewer specific Mongoloid 

 features than the third race, the Malayans, 

 occupying the coastal areas. As regards culture, 

 the remarkable fact is the predominance of Indian 

 influence as compared with that of China, which 

 provided little more than certain manufactured 

 products. India did not furnish the Filipinos 

 with a definitely crystallised religious cult, or, if 

 so, this cult had already disappeared before the 

 Europeans appeared on the scene. But there 

 came from the Indian races, probably by Malay 

 intervention, a mass of religious practices, ideas, 

 and names, a considerable body of Sanskrit words, 

 a system of writing, the art of metallurgy, a vast 

 amount of mechanical and industrial knowledge, 

 and unquestionably a much higher degree of 

 civilisation than their predecessors had acquired. 

 These facts are clearly brought out in the present 

 handbook, which provides in small space much 

 information, and is furnished with good maps 

 and illustration?. 



