NA TURE 



[December 29, 1892 



which is good enough to hold it in the open to follow it 

 into an open drain large enough for the dog to reach it." 

 Other people who hive hunted badgers have found that 

 an extremely small terrier is quite able to turn a badger 

 from its earth ; and that although the dog may be hurt, 

 even seriously, by its formidable antagonist, the contest 

 does not by any means mean " certain death " to it. 



The chapter on birds bears evidence of having been put 

 together in the most casual manner. Various contributors 

 have sent in notes as to whether, in their experience, 

 birds were rare or not, and these appear to have been 

 printed without any attempt at summarizing. The result 

 is that the whinchat is described in one line as 

 •' common," and in the next as " occasionally seen." The 

 marsh-tit is " rare," and also " generally distributed." 

 The cirl bunting is in one line called "rare "and "by 

 no means rare." The coot is "rare" (!) and "frequently 

 met with." The woodcock, according to one observer, 

 " has been seen." If it were clear that such remarks 

 applied to different parts of the county, there might be 

 some sense in printing them. As they stand, they 

 are useless and bewildering. One contributor is sur- 

 prised at the occurrence of the gannet just outside the 

 limits of the county, because " they generally inhabit the 

 Bass Rock"! They certainly do, and "there's mile- 

 stones on the Dover road." But perhaps there is nothing 

 in the who.e chapter which quite comes up to what we 

 read about two starlings that one of the contributors 

 watched " fighting furiously , . . each bird . . . trying to 

 force its bill into that of the other. He was mfornied 

 thai the purpose of each bird was by this means to render 

 the opponent insensible; so as to be tnore easily destroyed." 

 In the article on reptiles occur these remarkable 

 words : — " The slowworm is habitually ' slow,' but we 

 know of no reptile or quadruped which, in proportion to 

 its size, can move more rapidly." 



There are several errors in spelling in the list of land 

 and fresh-water shells, and it is rather misleading to 

 give "Downs, under stones," for the habitat of the 

 species here called Bacutus, without adding " near the 

 sea." 



Helianthemum polifolium is given as a Gloucester- 

 shire plant. It would be interesting to know if this is 

 correct. The localities usually given are in Somerset 

 and Devon. 



Among the illustrations are some interesting figures of 

 famous trees ; but it seems hardly worth while to have 

 inserted such a very ordinary-looking plate as that of the 

 common crayfish. 



Allusion has already been made to two chapters the ex- 

 cellence of which is all the more marked by contrast with 

 the grandiloquent flights and the trivial details of much 

 of this unfortunate volume. Rev. W. F. White's paper on 

 ants contains, as might be expected, accounts of many 

 interesting and original observations. Mr. Vmcent 

 Perkins's excellent chapter on wasps and bees, again, is 

 extremely good, though the writer deals only with the 

 neighbourhood of Wotton-under-Edge. That so imper- 

 fect, and, as far as much of its contents goes, we are 

 afraid we must say untrustworthy, a book should ever have 

 been published is matter for regret. The real " Fauna 

 and Flora of the County of Gloucester" yet remains to be 

 written. 



NO. 1209, VOL. 47] 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



The Chemistry of Life and Health. " University 

 Extension Manuals." By C W. Kimmins, M.A., D.Sc, 

 Staff Lecturer in Chemistry, Cambridge University 

 Extension Scheme. (London: Methuen and Co., 1892.) 

 This little book ^is well adapted to secure the aim of 

 the author, which is "to give sufficient information on 

 the panicular portions of the sciences involved to enable 

 readers .... to appreciate fully the fundamental 

 principles of hygiene." There can be no doubt of the 

 importance, one might truly say, the national importance,, 

 of the spread of sound knowledge regarding the laws of 

 health Such sound knowledge cannot be attained 

 except it be built upon a well-laid foundation of chemistry 

 and physiology. To lay the foundation, and rear the 

 structure, in a little book of 160 pages is almost im- 

 possible. Dr. Kimmins has, wisely, omitted much ; but 

 what he retains is of fundamental importance ; his facts 

 are clearly enunciated and systematically arranged. A 

 careful study of this book, especially when it is supple- 

 mented, as it is meant to be, by a course of lectures, 

 cannot fail to be most useful. The book is written for 

 ordinary people, not for professional students ; the teach- 

 ing is sound and clear. The first chapter, on the principles 

 of chemistry, is the least satisfactory in the book ; but in 

 this chapter the author has attempted, what is surely un- 

 attainable, to give an elementary knowledge of the 

 features of chemical action, the use of chemical symbols, 

 and the molecular and atomic theory, in sixteen small 

 pages. As an introduction to the stu 'y of the application 

 of chemical facts and principles to the conditions of 

 healthy life, the book is to be thoroughly recommended. 



Naked-Eye Botany^ with Illustrations and Floral 

 Problems. By F. E. Kitchener, M.A. Pp. 182 and fifty- 

 two woodcuts in the text. (London: Percival and Co., 

 1892.) 



On turning over the pages of this book one wonders why 

 " Naked-Eye Botany " was chosen for the title, because,, 

 although a small book, it has some reference at least to a 

 great many things that cannot be seen with the naked 

 eye. It is something in the way of Prof D. Oliver's 

 " Lessons in Elementary Botany," but one misses the 

 Professor in it. On p. 7 we are introduced to stomata, 

 and physiological processes are described in some detail. 

 Nevertheless it contains much useful matter, and with a 

 little revision and better selections would make a very 

 good first book. For example, the chickweed is chosen 

 for the first lesson. But the flowers of this plant are so 

 small and the number of parts in the various floral whorls 

 is so variable that it is not a good subject to begin with. 

 The '' problems," or questions, also at the end of each 

 chapter are too wide-reaching. Referring to Aspidium 

 Filix-mas, we are told that the " production of the feitilized 

 seed, more correctly called oosphere, from the prothallus, 

 can scarcely be made out with the naked eye." Saying 

 nothing about the name given to the fertilized body, we 

 must protest that ''scarcely" is not the word to qualify 

 the observation. 



Perhaps it is too much to ask that the headmaster of a 

 " high school " should be acquainted with even remotely 

 recent discoveries in physiological botany ; but it would 

 not be unreasonable to ask him to use the text-books of 

 specialists. It is now some years since the reproduction 

 of Lycopodium was fully described, yet Mr. Kitchener 

 still teaches that the =pores are of two sorts. 



The Great World's Far>n ; some account of Nature's Crops 



and how they are Grown. By Selina Gaye. (London : 



Seeley, 1893.) 



This is a delightful book, pleasantly written, full of 



information, and on the whole remarkably free from those 



I errors, generally the results of misunderstanding, which 



