January 22, 1920] 



NATURE 



529 



Milk-testing by the Babcock method is 

 described, and numerous other tests, such as 

 Hart's test for casein, and the testing of cheese 

 for fat by a modified Babcock method, are given. 

 The accuracy of the latter test is questionable. 



{2) Butter-making is somewhat under a cloud 

 at the present time, owing to the impossibility of 

 producing it commercially at a profitable price. 

 The information given by the authors is, however, 

 excellent, and the best up-to-date methods and 

 appliances are described. 



The extension of the practice of selling milk, 

 and the facilities now afforded the farmer by the 

 wholesale dealer or the condensing factory, have 

 not encouraged the breeding of cows giving a 

 high percentage of fat in the milk, and it is diffi- 

 cult to see how butter-making can for some time 

 to come compete with cheese-making or milk- 

 selling. Nevertheless, there will always be a good 

 demand for high-class butter, and it is most neces- 

 sary that the maker should produce an article of 

 prime quality. This volume would not have 

 reached a fourth revision unless it had met with 

 success in previous editions, and both as a manual 

 and a reference book it takes a very high place. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



Enjoying Life: and Other Literary Remains 



of W. N. P. Barbellion [B. F. Cummings] . 



Pp. xvi -I-.246. (London : Chatto and Windus, 



igig.) Price 6s. net. 

 This book is welcome because it raises a much 

 pleasanter picture of its author than did the rather 

 peevish " Journal " reviewed in these columns in 

 July last. Some of the essays, excluded from the 

 "Journal" for reasons of space, would have illu- 

 minated its shadows. One is called "Crying for 

 the Moon," but Barbellion wanted to swallow the 

 Universe. Even those of us who would be content 

 ^h the World have to learn that it is too large 

 an oyster. Life is a perpetual renunciation of the 

 unattainable. Barbellion had yet to realise that 

 the half is greater than the whole ; his only limita- 

 tions were those of a sickly body, and so he 

 seemed to scorn those who restrained the appetite 

 of the soul. Hence, in the diarist, an apparent 

 poverty of human kindness. But in his outward 

 relations, as Cummings, the defect is made good 

 or hidden. There is sympathy as well as skill in 

 his sketches of Spallanzani, Montagu, Rousseau, 

 and Goldsmith of the "Animated Nature," and 

 even for his colleagues, the Scarabees, he has a 

 good word, for he has begun to realise that the 

 driest museum entomologist may have beneath his 

 dusty coat something of a Barbellion. 



It is ungracious to criticise lapses in a post- 

 humous publication, but " Sir Hercules Reed," 

 " Museo di Stovia Naturale," and "Sir Francis 

 Galten " might have been avoided. 



NO. 2621, VOL. 104] 



The Manufacture of Chemicals by Electrolysis. 

 By Arthur J. Hale. (A Treatise of Electro- 

 chemistry.) Pp. xi-l-80. (London: Constable 

 and Co., L-td., 1919.) Price 6s. net. 

 In this monograph a brief account is given of the 

 application of electrolysis to the preparation of 

 chemical products. Most of the electrolytic pre- 

 parations of which a description has been pub- 

 lished are referred to, and references to the 

 original publications are given throughout, so that 

 the book is likely to prove a useful guide to the 

 literature of the subject. The reader is, however, 

 left to guess that certain groups of preparations, 

 such as chlorine, sodium, and the alkalis, to which 

 i no reference at all is made either in the text or in 

 I the preface, are to be described in other mono- 

 I graphs of the series. This probably accounts for 

 the impression created on reading the text that 

 the academic aspects of the subject have secured 

 in this volume undue prominence as compared with 

 its industrial applications. If, however, all the 

 really productive processes have been reserved for 

 other writers, and the author of the present 

 volume has been left to cultivate only the more 

 barren areas, he cannot be blamed for the unfruit- 

 fulness of so large a proportion of the prepara- 

 tions which he describes, and is rather to be con- 

 gratulated on having given so good an account of 

 the minor applications of electrolysis to chemical 

 industry. 



A Synoptical List of the Accipitres. (Diurnal 

 Birds of Prey.) Parts i. and ii. By H. Kirke 

 Swann. (London : John Wheldon and Co., 

 igig.) Price 4s. per part. 

 The literature of an attractive Order of birds re- 

 ceives a notable addition in this work. It is now 

 nearly half a century since the late Dr. Bowdler 

 Sharpe's "Catalogue of the Accipitres," the latest 

 complete work on the subject, appeared. During 

 this long interval innumerable contributions have 

 been made to the knowledge of the Order relating 

 to the discovery of new species, the recognition of 

 numerous racial forms, changes in nomenclature 

 and classification, extension of geographical range, 

 and much else. Thus a treatise, however modest, 

 which might bring the subject down to date was 

 a desideratum, and now, in a measure, has been 

 supplied in a highly epitomised form by this 

 synoptical list, which furnishes concise diagnostic 

 characters of families, genera, species, and sub- 

 species, and also an indication of the geographi- 

 cal range of each bird. For the species, however, it 

 has been found impossible to deal with any but the 

 plumage of adults, for the varied feather changes 

 through which many species pass ere they assume 

 the garb of maturity could only be satisfactorily 

 described in an elaborate monograph on the Order ; 

 as yet there does not appear to be any signs of 

 the advent of such a much needed work. Great 

 care has been bestowed upon the preparation of 

 this list — a task of no small difficulty — and it wilt 

 be much appreciated by all who are engaged in 

 systematic ornithological studies. 



