October 21. 1S97] 



NA TURE 



5S7 



reading. The author commences by bringing to the 

 reader's notice the properties of the sensitive plate, the 

 principles involved in its preparation and use, dealing 

 further on with the several rays which influence it, 

 namely chemical, light, electrical, mechanical, &c The 

 Rontgen rays are, of course, elaborately dealt with, and 

 their action on the photographic plate, as far as is known, 

 is discussed. 



Another chapter is devoted to the old experiments of 

 Niepce de Saint-Victor, which were made in 1857 with 

 the object of investigating whether light could be stored 

 up in bodies apart from the phenomena of phosphor- 

 escence and fluorescence : several interesting abstracts 

 are here made from the originals. The succeeding chapter 

 deals with the more recent experiments made on the 

 above lines, while the subject of the last one consists of 

 the precautions which must be taken in the preservation 

 and employment of photographic plates. 



Luce c Raggi Rontgen. By Oreste Murani. With a 

 preface by Prof. R. Ferrini. Pp. .\ -h 392. (Milan : 

 Ulrico Hoepli, 1898.) 



15 Lezioni Sperimentali su la Luce. By A. Garbasso. 

 Pp. iv -H 259. (Milan : Office of VElettricitd, 1897). 



Prof. Murani's volume upon light and Rontgen rays 1 

 does credit to Italian science. It may be described as a 

 work on light with special reference to Rontgen rays. 

 The general phenomena of light — such as reflection, re- , 

 fraction, diffraction, decomposition, polarisation, &c., are j 

 first explained, and then the character of the electric i 

 discharge in rarefied gases and high-vacuum tubes are ; 

 described. This naturally leads to Lenard's and Rontgen's | 

 investigations, and once launched in the sea of X-ray j 

 literature the author has no difficulty in finding material 

 upon which to exercise his powers of composition. The 

 work of English investigators is frequently referred to, and 

 an attempt has been made to include the best of what has 

 been done and thought in connection with Rontgen rays. 

 The illustrations are fairly numerous (there are 157, and 

 15 plates), but they are no better than those published in 

 other works on the same subject. As is common in 

 continental publications, the book is published without 

 an index. 



Dr. Garbasso's book contains a number of experiments 

 on light considered as an electro-magnetic phenomenon. 

 It is a little volume from which teachers and demon- 

 strators of physics may obtain information upon many 

 experiments, and which gives readers of Italian an 

 instructive vievy of electric oscillations. The first four 

 chapters of the book are devoted to descriptions of the 

 fundamental principles of electricity and magnetism, and 

 the remainder is devoted to the work of various investi- 

 gators of electric waves. 



Waste a?id Repair in Modern Life. By Robson Roose, 

 M.D., LL.D., F.R.C.P. Edin. Pp. 364. (London: 

 John Murray, 1897.) 

 The book before us consists of twelve essays which 

 have already been published elsewhere, and are now 

 brought up to date and collected, making a thickish book. 

 The subject-matter of these essays is very various, the 

 title of the book being apparently taken from the first two 

 essays. Amongst others the following questions are con- 

 sidered : — The art of prolonging life; the alcohol ques- 

 tion ; fasting and its physiology ; the London water 

 supply, &c. The book cannot be regarded as a serious 

 contribution to any of the subjects dealt with, and will 

 hardly appeal either to the medical profession or to the 

 readers of N.\TURE. It is, however, written in a chatty 

 style, and that section of the public which is interested 

 m the acquisition of medical superficialities will find it 

 -certainly readable, and probably instructive. 1 



F. W. T. 



NO. 1460. VOL. 56] 



Missouri Botanical Garden. Eighth Annual Report. 

 Pp. 236. (St. Louis, Mo. : Published by the Board of 

 Trustees of the Missouri Botanic Garden. London : 

 W. Wesley and Son, 1897.) 



The scientific papers in this report of the Missouri 

 Botanical Garden are as follows : — "The Mosses of the 

 Azores '"' and " On some Mosses collected in Madeira by 

 William Trelease in June 1896," by M. J. Cardot ; and 

 " Botanical Observations on the Azores " by the Director 

 of the Garden, Mr. W. Trelease (see Nature, p. 551). 

 As there is a prospect that the sum at present available 

 for the purposes of the Garden will be increased, the 

 Director has drawn up a general plan for the extension 

 and development of the institution, to bring it into full 

 conformity with the intentions of its founder, Henry 

 Shaw. One of the clauses in Mr. Shaw's will stated " that 

 scientific investigations in Botany proper, in vegetable 

 physiology, the diseases of plants, the study of the forms 

 of vegetable life, and of animal life injurious to vegeta- 

 tion, experimental investigations in horticulture, arbori- 

 culture, c&c, are to be promoted." This clause has never 

 been lost sight of, and a number of scientific papers have 

 been prepared by Mr. Trelease and his assistants. The 

 new scheme provides further facilities for research work. 

 " I hope," says the Director, "to live to see the income 

 of the Garden so ample that it shall claim among its 

 regular employees men recognised as the equal of any 

 in the country, if not in the world, in horticulture, vege- 

 table physiology, morphology, paleo-botany, phanero- 

 gams, pteridophytes, bryophytes, fungi, algit, and 

 lichens. Ultimately it is very possible that the money 

 available for research work will admit of the employment 

 in the same manner of an entomologist, and there is a 

 possibility that in coming generations other branches of 

 zoology may be represented." It is to be hoped, for the 

 sake of scientific progress, that the plans which are at 

 present only on paper will all be materialised in the near 

 future. 



Year- Book of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture for 1896. Pp. 686. (Washington : Government 

 Printing Office, 1897.) 



This Year-Book is in many respects a unique publica- 

 tion. Consisting of a bound volume of more than six 

 hundred pages, published annually at Government 

 expense in an edition of half a million copies, and for 

 free distribution, it is a standing testimony to the 

 encouragement given to scientific agriculture in the 

 United States. The first part of the volume contains a 

 brief general report on the operations of the Department 

 of Agriculture, but this only occupies fifty pages, the 

 remaining portion being taken up with papers, by agri- 

 cultural experts, discussing the result of investigations in 

 agricultural science and farm practice. In imparting this 

 information, technical language is avoided, so far as 

 possible, in order that the papers may be easily under- 

 stood by the class for whose interests they have been 

 prepared. Among the subjects dealt with are : the 

 extermination of noxious insects by bounties, the use of 

 steam apparatus for spraying, influence of environment 

 in the origination of plant varieties, potash and its 

 function in agriculture, irrigation on the great plains, 

 insect control in California, diseases of shade and orna- 

 mental trees, migration of weeds, agriculture education 

 and research in Belgium, olive culture in the United 

 States, and ambrosia beetles. Several of these papers 

 have already been noticed in NATURE, having been 

 received in the form of excerpts from the present volume. 

 Practical farmers in the United States, and students of 

 agriculture and related sciences, should be grateful to 

 the Government which so freely publishes information of 

 the kind contained in this Year-Book. 



