January 12, 1893] 



NATURE 



245 



Germany, that influenza may occur sometimes as an 

 apparently primary pneumonia. 



The remaining tables deal with the data afforded by 

 the epidemics of 1891 and 1892 in this country and 

 abroad. That of 189 1 is shown to have been much more 

 fatal, especially at advanced periods of life, than that of 

 1890, while that of 1892, here treated of with less fulness 

 than the preceding, seems to have been of still greater 

 severity. Those who would follow Dr. Dixey into the 

 details of these outbreaks must study the work for them- 

 selves. It is a contribution to statistical literature of 

 very great value, and will save an infinity of labour to 

 those engaged in the study of influenza. 



A word of praise must be bestowed in conclusion upon 

 the graphic charts with which the tables have been 

 illustrated, those in particular which deal with the 

 mortality curves from influenza and its allied diseases. 

 These have been calculated and mapped out as per- 

 centage deviations from the mean, and show the main 

 facts at a glance in a way which mere columns of figures 

 fail to do. Those also which illustrate the age incidence 

 of the diseases in question are of great value. 



Nos. 



Ostwald's Klassiker der Exakten Wissenschaften. 



38-40. (Leipzig : W. Engelmann.) 

 We are glad to note the addition of three volumes to 

 this admirable series. No. 38 is the second part of the 

 original account of the photochemical researches of R. 

 Bunsen and H. E. Roscoe (1855-59). The other volumes 

 are translations of a paper by Pasteur on the minute 

 organic bodies in the atmosphere (1862), and of papers 

 by Lavoisier and Laplace on heat (1780 and 1784). In 

 all the volumes there are figures in the text. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Ati Elementary Text-Book of Hygiene. By H. Rowland 



Wakefield. (London : Blackie and Son, 1892.) 

 The appearance of yet another elementary text-book 

 upon the subject of Hygiene has the effect of aggravating 

 the embarras de richesses which already obtains in this 

 department of study ; one is therefore justified in ques- 

 tioning the utility of the present volume, and on reading 

 in the preface that it is adapted to the requirements of 

 the Science and Art Department, there is all the more 

 matter for surprise at its appearance in the face of three 

 other publications— each better than the present— which 

 have been written to meet the same end. 



The manual is well printed and concisely written, and 

 a surprising amount of matter is condensed within its 

 tiny compass. This latter fact, however, is not entirely a 

 matter for congratulation, for apart from making the book 

 " dry reading," it must have the effect of rendering it in 

 many places difficult of comprehension to those for whom 

 it is intended, i.e. those who approach the subject with 

 no prior knowledge whatever. 



And thus it comes about, that in less than 200 small 

 pages the whole range of Hygiene is surveyed, including 

 chapters upon Eyes and Sight, School Hygiene, House 

 Sanitation, Personal Hygiene, Parasites, Infectious Dis- 

 eases, Accidents and Injuries. 



Though the material given has been on the whole well 

 selected and carefully compiled, the work is a little un- 

 even ; one finds seventy-three pages devoted to " food," 

 whereas " water " is dismissed in seventeen, and "sewage 

 and its removal" in eleven. 



Here and there is evidence of the fact that the author 

 is not of the profession to which Hygiene holds a filial 

 relation, and that he was not quite at home with some of 

 the departments of the subject— even in their elementary 

 form— which he had set himself the task of handling ; 

 the very few errors and ambiguities which this fact is 

 accountable for, are, however, too trivial to much affect 

 the general accuracy of the book. 



The small work will doubtless suffice for the examina- 

 tion requirements of those for whom it is intended, but 

 the brevity and superficiality of treatment which is so fre- 

 quently apparent within its pages, will not justify one in 

 recommending it to those who wish to lay a good and 

 useful foundation for a study of the science of Hygiene. 

 NO. 1 211, VOL. 47] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond tvith the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



Geographical Names. 



As the names of places given to the public with the 

 authority of the Geographical Society of London are very apt to 

 be accepted by geographers and be ultimately inserted in atlases 

 and works on geography, I have to call attention to the para- 

 graph " Nomenclature of the Karakoram Peaks," under " Geo- 

 graphical Notes," p. 857, in the December number of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the R.G.S., 1892, which I have lately read. It is 

 to be regretted that so much reliance and importance has been 

 placed on what a native drew on the sand, and the names he 

 gave to various peaks. Natives are not always to be depended 

 upon, not even when the topographical features are in sight, and 

 unless verified from other and independent inform a ion, the 

 names they give cannot be implicitly trusted and placed on 

 record, as is so well exemplified in this case. The traveller 

 must also have a considerable knowledge of the native languages 

 or he may be very much misled. As fortunately I know both 

 the places bearing the names given for two very conspicuous 

 peaks, it may not be too late to prevent these names thus put 

 forward from being accepted and perpetuated. " Skeenmung " 

 or " Skinmang " is the name of a comparatively level piece of 

 somewhat grassy ground at the great bifurcation of the Punraah 

 Glacier, the name itself is expressive and is derived from 

 " Skeen" an ibex, and *^ Matig," a level place in Balti = .^ar^, . 

 Kashmiri, Maidan Hindustani — which disposes of it as a likely 

 designation for a peak. 



Next we have " Chiring " given as the name of K2, the 

 second highest peak in the Himalayas, quite as inaccurate, for 

 it happens to be the name of another camping spot or bivouac 

 at the end of a spur and about halfway between Skeenmang and 

 the Mustakh pass, as used about the period I was there (i860). 

 It is situated just above a very narrow part of the glacier, where 

 its action is most marked on the rocky sides. *' Chirna" in 

 Hindustani is to rend, tear, and Chiring Cause is the name of 

 all that portion extending six miles up to the main watershed. 

 H. H. GODWIN-AuSTEN. 



Shalford Park, Guildford, January 7. 



The Weather of Summer. 



The number of days with rain, in summer, at Greenwich, 

 during most of this century, has been subject to a pretty regular 

 fluctuation. The curve (from 1825) having been smoothed by 

 means of five-year averages, we obtain that shown in the dia- 

 gram. And putting with it a curve of sun-spots, we find a 

 strikingly definite correspondence (somewhat " lagging " in char- 

 acter) throughout at least four of the sun-spot cycles, the rain day 

 maxima coming soon after the sun-spot maxima, and rain day 

 minima soon after sun-spot minima. In recent years, how- 

 ever, the curves appear to have got out of step (so to speak) 

 with each other ; so that, e.g. we find a rain day maximum in 

 1880, two years after the sun-spot minimum of 1878, and a rain 

 day minimum in 1885, two years after the sun-spot maximum 

 of 1883. 



I do not remember to have seen the facts of our summer 

 weather put in this way. But it is well known that, in the dis- 

 cussions which arose some time ago about sun-spots and rain- 

 fall, there appeared some reason to believe that in the period of 



