434 



NATURE 



[January i, 1920 



with sea power and some economic and inter- 

 national problems should be read. Attention is 

 directed to the necessity for the revision of inter- 

 national law and to its enforcement in regard to 

 matters affecting the mercantile marine. Inter- 

 national law as developed from previous war ex- 

 perience must of necessity be inapplicable to wars 

 such as that just concluded, in which, instead of 

 small navies and armies, we had nations in arms 

 when every import is almost certain to be contra- 

 band. 



The title given to the book brings disappoint- 

 ment, for the author does not give a general treat- 

 ment of the effect of the submarine upon sea 

 power in the future. He pictures many trees, 

 some of the soil, much undergrowth, but one never 

 seems to see the forest. A. B. T. 



OVR BOOKSHELF. 



Studies in the Construction of Dams : Earthen 

 and Masonry. Arranged on the Principle of 

 Question and Answer for Engineering Students 

 and Others. By Prof. E. R. Matthews. 

 Pp. v-l-43. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., 

 Ltd., 1919.) Price 45. 6d. net. 



We gather from the preface that this little book 

 is intended to be of assistance to students pre- 

 paring for the examinations of the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers, the B.Sc. (Engineering) of our 

 universities, or other similar examinations. The 

 text is arranged in the form of "question and 

 answer," and includes references to some of the 

 more important dams constructed in different parts 

 of the world. Students who are pursuing sys- 

 tematic courses in the principles of engineering 

 will find a good many statements open to criticism. 

 Thus, at the foot of p. i, we read: "In a low 

 dam BC may be taken as being equal to AB." 

 ABC is the pressure diagram, and surely this 

 statement regarding BC is not independent of 

 the scale of pressure employed. Again, on p. i : 

 "The centre of pressure passes through the centre 

 of gravity of this triangle"; and on p. 9: "The 

 centre of pressure acting at a point H/3 above 

 base." On p. 3, r>'W should read rbW, and 

 there are several other misprints. On p. 4 the 

 reader is told that the weight of the wall will 

 act through the centre of gravity of the section, 

 but receives no directions as to how to find this 

 point, although space is wasted on p. 25 in 

 answering the questions how to find the centre 

 of gravity of a triangle and parallelogram. We 

 hope that questions such as No. 7, p. 15, do not 

 occur often in professional or university examina- 

 tions : " What are the suggestions made by Moles- 

 worth relative to the thickness of high and low 

 masonry dams? " On p. 16 we read some curi- 

 ous statements, and quote a typical one : 

 "^ = specific gravity of the masonry = for light 

 masonry 130 lbs. per square foot = 2o8." It is 

 NO. 2618, VOL. 104] 



not possible in the limits of a short notice to deal 

 with every point which might be criticised, but 

 probably enough has been said to justify the con- 

 clusion that it would be well to give the book 

 a thorough revision. 



Immune Sera: A Concise Exposition of our 

 Present Knowledge of Infection and Immunity. 

 By Dr. C. E. Bolduan and J. Koopman. Fifth 

 edition, thoroughly revised. Pp. viii-l-2o6. 

 (New York : John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; Lon- 

 don : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) Price 

 ■js. net. 



The present edition of this book has been revised 

 throughout, and fresh details have been inserted 

 where; necessary. It gives an excellent and, on 

 the whole, a simple account of the salient facts 

 connected with infection and immunity, antitoxins 

 and other sera, cytotoxins, opsonins, vaccines, 

 and other reactions of immunity, and the prac- 

 titioner will find it a trustworthy guide to modern 

 views on these subjects. We suggest that ■:he 

 details of the partial saturation method and of 

 " toxin spectra " in connection with antitoxins are 

 somewhat beyond the general scope of the work, 

 and that the space devoted to them might be 

 better employed in extending the more directly 

 practical subject of agglutination. The technique 

 of the Wassermann test for syphili-, has been in- 

 cluded in this edition in response to many re- , 

 quests for information concerning it. Here, 

 again, we think that the description is too tech- 

 nical for the average reader, and might be simpli- 

 fied with advantage. These, however, are minor 

 faults, if faults they be, and do not in any way 

 detract from the general excellence of- the book. 

 Several figures serve to visualise the descriptions 

 given in the text, and the book is very readable. 



R. T. H. 



Handbook of Mineralogy, Blowpipe Analysis, 

 and Geometrical Crystallography. By Prof. 

 G. Montague Butler. Pp. ix-i- 31 1 -f-v -f 80 + 

 viii-t-i5S. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 

 Inc. ; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 191S.) 

 Price 165. 6d. net. 



This book is in three parts, which are separately 

 paged. They are also on sale separately. The 

 first part consists of concise, clearly printed de- 

 scriptions of the different mineral species, and 

 should prove useful for their recognition by the 

 student or prospector. This will be facilitated bv 

 the use of the folding tables of the physical char- 

 acters of the different minerals, which are a special 

 feature of the work. The second part deals with 

 the blowpipe analysis of minerals. Here also the 

 results are set out in a convenient tabular form. 

 The third part, which is devoted to crystallo- 

 graphy, is not so satisfactory. The author has a 

 system peculiar to himself of describing crystal 

 symmetry which is by no means clear. He is also 

 exceptional at the present time in retaining the 

 Weiss system of notation of crystal faces. 



J. W. E. 



I 



