September 29, 1898] 



NATURE 



519 



given, but in some instances the names of the character- 

 istic species are also mentioned. This portion of the 

 work would, we think, bear amplification in a new edition. 

 We note that ^ozoon is abandoned as a fossil. The 

 Archaean system is regarded as Eozoic, as the bands of 

 limestone and graphite which it contains are probably of 

 organic origin, while among the Longmynd rocks 

 *' obscure traces referred to worm-tracks and trilobites 

 have been found." 



Concluding chapters deal with the origin of landscape, 

 with escarpments, base-levels, &c., and there is a brief 

 outline of economic geology. Too little attention is 

 perhaps, as a rule, given to this last professional aspect of 

 geology ; but in his introduction the author rightly 

 observes : 



" Pursuing these studies we are brought into contact 

 with constituents of the earth's crust which are of value 

 in the arts and manufactures, and it is our business to 

 learn about them, where they are found, and how they 

 were formed, and if possible to point out where similar 

 things may be found elsewhere." 



Applied geology must of course be based on the firm 

 footing of science — on a foundation the main features of 

 which are so ably delineated in the present little volume- 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Plant Life., considered with special reference to Form 



and Function. By Charles Reid Barnes, Professor of 



Plant Physiology in the University of Chicago. Pp. 



viv -h 428. (New York : Henry Holt and Co., 1898.) 

 It is rather difficult to speak with justice about Prof 

 Barnes' little book. The idea, set forth in his preface, 

 of attempting to give a general and somewhat philo- 

 sophical account of plant life such as shall be useful to 

 young readers, is an ambitious one, and the author has, 

 here and there, almost realised parts of it. But we must 

 confess that, taken as a whole, the book is not satis- 

 factory — it is more provocative of yawning and som- 

 nolence than keen interest. At times, too, it is amazingly 

 behind the times. The discredited figures of centro- 

 somes are reproduced with a fidelity worthy of a better 

 cause, and the account given of the ascent of sap is 

 worse than misleading. Some of the figures, too, are 

 very bad, and it is difficult to see the use of a delineation 

 of a Fucus egg, such as presented in Fig. 42. 



The physiological part is in some respects, perhaps, 

 less open to objection than much of the rest of the 

 volume ; but here also there is a deal of useless talking 

 round points, giving wordy definitions instead of definite 

 ideas. What is the good of telling young students that 

 irritability is the power of responding to a stimulus, 

 without giving them some idea of what a stimulus itself 

 consists ? Quite enough knowledge of chemistry is 

 presupposed in the earlier chapters to have warranted a 

 more precise e.xplanation of the nature of a stimulus 

 than " the external change which brings about the re- 

 action"; and the metaphor of the trigger and loaded 

 gun ought to be carefully explained, if it is to be put 

 before young readers. 



These are a few of the defects which mar the execution 

 of a task perhaps almost impossible of fulfilment within 

 the compass of a small book ; but if the author has not, 

 at least in our judgment, succeeded in writing a book 

 pre-eminently useful for students, it may, as a kind of 

 note-book, prove of service to young teachers. The 

 volume ends with tolerably good appendices containing 

 directions for laboratory work and the collecting of 

 suitable material for study. 



NO. 1509, VOL. 58] 



Stories of StarLmd. By Mary Proctor. Pp.186. (New 



York : Potter and Putnam Co. London : G. W. 



Bacon and Co., Ltd.) 

 To write a book in a conversational style for the in- 

 struction of children requires a deal of art and close 

 familiarity with the curious workings of young minds. 

 Books of this kind have usually to be classed as failures, 

 and the present volume only rises in parts above their 

 level. In the first place, few of the illustrations will 

 interest children, and the figures of Mars on p. 69, and of 

 the Orion Nebula on p. 157, are in no way satisfactory. 

 Then the children's questions and answers are too ready 

 and apt for an average child to follow or retain in his 

 mind. Thus, on the four pages 20-23, Master Harry, who 

 plays the part of the inquiring boy, has impressed upon 

 him that it would take a train nearly one hundred and 

 seventy-five years to get to the sun, that at the rate of 

 two cents a mile the fare would be nearly two miUion 

 dollars, that walking at the rate of four miles an hour for 

 ten hours a day the journey would occupy more than six 

 thousand years, that a cannon ball would take nine years 

 to reach the sun, and the sound of the explosion fourteen 

 years, and that if an imaginary long arm touched the 

 sun, the pain of burning would not be felt for one hundred 

 and fifty years on account of the time taken in the trans- 

 mission of sensation through nerves. 



Now all this may be very well in a popular lecture in 

 a country village, for grown-up people sometimes like to 

 be impressed by statistics of the millions upon millions 

 type, but it has no educational value whatever, and is 

 entirely out of place in a volume intended for the in- 

 struction of children. In fact. Miss Proctor makes the 

 common mistake of crowding too many uninteresting 

 details into her book, and of describing too many 

 appearances which her pupils will be unable to see for 

 themselves. 



By far the best part of the volume is that in which the 

 chief constellations are described, and the legends con- 

 nected with the constellation figures are related. These 

 star-stories from the mythology and folk-lore of different 

 peoples are better suited to the mental condition of a 

 child than the descriptions of petty details concerning 

 planetary motions and appearances. 



A number of short poems of variable quality are inter- 

 spersed through the pages, and may help to relieve the 

 narrative when children of poetic temperament are the 

 readers or listeners. 



Canalisations dectriques. By R. V. Picou, Pp. 172. 



(Paris : Gauthier Villars. Masson et C'«.) 

 Details concerning the erection and working of aerial 

 lines for electric currents are given in this volurne, which 

 belongs to the well-known Aide-Mdmoire series. The 

 first part of the volume includes descriptions of the wires 

 used, the various forms of insulators, and different kinds 

 of posts and supports used to carry the wires ; the second 

 part is concerned with the mounting of lines, all the 

 details as to earths, tension, and protection against elec- 

 trical and other disturbances being dealt with. In the 

 third part of the volume the chief formula; and tables 

 used by electrical engineers engaged in wiring work are 

 brought together. 



Contributions a F Etude de t HirMitd et des Principes de 



la Formation des Races. By J. M. Harraca. Pp. 172. 



(Paris : Fdlix Alcan.) 



Here and there in this little volume the reader will find 



an interesting point referring to facts or views bearing 



upon heredity, but the search for this material for thought 



in a waste of words is very wearying. The author writes 



with apparent conviction that he has new things to say, 



and he certainly does express some ideas which appear 



to merit consideration, so that students of heredity may 



I find it worth their while to glance through the volume. 



