March 2, 1893] 



NA TURE 



413 



of discursive material upon vital statistics ; and a host of 

 elementary hygienic facts with which every sanitarian is 

 conversant, — are none of them points it can ever be neces- 

 sary for the health officer to carry about with him for hasty 

 reference. 



The most useful sections, and those which most justify 

 the wfl///" of the book, are the following: — Those which 

 deal with mathematical problems, and set forth useful 

 algebraical and trigonometrical formulee, together with a 

 few logarithm tables ; that upon demography and vital 

 statistics ; and the serviceable abstract of sanitary law, 

 in which corresponding or similar sections of the Public 

 Health Act, 1875, and the Public Health (London) Act, 

 1 89 1, are considered side by side. 



There is very little in the book which is not correct and 

 up to date, save that which refers to the subject of water 

 analysis. This contains many errors, and, since the 

 utility of its introduction is very questionable, it is regret- 

 able that it mars the all-round accuracy of the work. In 

 this section Dr. Willoughby gives several results of his 

 own analyses, and those who are familiar with the 

 subject will find their experiences much at variance with 

 the writer's. 



In what he calls a typical sample of rain-water he 

 found 063 grains per gallon of nitrates as HNO3, and 

 o"ii4 and o'i72 parts per million of "ammonia" and 

 " albuminoid ammonia " respectively ; in river-water at 

 Latchford he found no nitrates, not even a fraction of a 

 part per million, and the " ammonia " and " albuminoid- 

 ammonia " were o'oS and 016 (parts per million) respect- 

 ively. Loch Katrine water is, moreover, credited (and 

 Wanklyn is quoted as the authority) with o'ooS parts 

 per million of " albuminoid-ammonia," and with o"oo4 of 

 " ammonia ; " and the former is said to correspond to 

 o'oo56 grains per gallon ! 



While unquestionably the work contains some material 

 which will make it useful to the health-officer, the health 

 student will find much in it which he may peruse with 

 advantage. 



Engler's Botanische Jahrbiicher fiir Systematik, Pflanzen- 

 geschichte und Pflanzengeographie. (Leipzig : W. 

 Engelmann.) 



Since Dr. A. Engler's appointment to the post of 

 Director of the Berhn Botanical Garden and Museum, 

 this periodical has become the organ of the very active 

 staff of botanists of that establishment ; and the com- 

 paratively recent German colonial policy has revived 

 the interest in systematic and economic botany, to 

 which it is devoted chiefly. Vols. xv. and xvi. 

 are being published concurrently. This publica- 

 tion is partly devoted to original work and partly to a 

 review of contemporary botanical literature. The fifteenth 

 volume is largely taken up by contributions to the 

 flora of tropical Africa, in the form of an elaboration by 

 various botanists of the extensive collections made by 

 numerous German travellers. Quite a host of new species 

 are described, but, truth to say", nothing very remarkable 

 in new generic types. Hybophrytiium is a new genus of 

 Scitamineae, near Trachyphryniuin, with which it was 

 generically associated by Bentham and Hooker; and the 

 Aroideae, elaborated by Engler himself, include two or 

 three new genera. Pseudohydrosme is characterised by a 

 large, almost truncate spathe and a spadix without any 

 terminal naked continuation. 



Dr. J. Urban, who has been for some years engaged 

 in collecting materials for a general flora of the West 

 Indies, contributes " Additamenta ad Cognitionem Florae 

 Indias Occidentalis," a critical work, both from a 

 botanical and a literary standpoint. No new genera are 

 described. 



One of the most interesting articles in the sixteenth 

 volume is by Dr. O. Warburg, on the mountain plants of 

 Kaiser Wilhelm's-Land, New Guinea. The collection of 

 NO. I 2 18, VOL. 47] 



plants dealt with consisted of only fifty-three species, 

 whereof thirty-two were supposed to be endemic, though 

 the material of a few was insufficient for description. 

 Two new genera are described, namely, Hellwigia 

 pulchra, a pretty scitamineous plant, and Zoelleria, a 

 singular boragineous plant, described as having ten 

 nutlets in the place of the usual four ! Among the new 

 species are five rhododendrons, and the most noteworthy 

 feature of the collection was the absence of essentially 

 Australian types. 



Another paper of general interest is Dr. Kranzlin's 

 " Beitrage zu einer Monographie der Gattung Habenaria," 

 excluding Platanthera, united with Habenaria by some 

 botanists, 347 species are described ; and they are spread 

 over nearly the whole area inhabited by orchids. 



Dr. Carl Bolle's " Botanische Riickblicke auf die Inseln 

 Lanzarote und Fuertaventura " is a pleasantly written 

 essay on the indigenous and cultivated plants of these 

 islands. The "Jahrbiicher" contain many other valu- 

 able articles. W. B. H. 



Descriptive Geometry Models for the use op Students in 

 Schools and Colleges. Designed by T. Jones, M.I.M.E. 

 (Moss Side, Manchester.) 

 The models are six in number. They are intended to 

 show a line (i) by its projections, (2) by its traces ; the 

 inclination of an oblique plane (3) to the vertical plane, 



(4) to the horizontal plane ; and to determine the angle 



(5) between two intersecting lines (6) between two planes. 

 They are accompanied by hints for fixing and studying 

 the models, and with a useful list of problems suggested 

 as exercises for students. The clearness of the explana- 

 tions, the simplicity of the constructive apparatus, and 

 the compactness of the arrangements (all being contained 

 in a handy cardboard box) commend Mr. Jones's work 

 to students of solid geometry. 



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 with the writers op, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. "[ 



Lion-Tiger Hybrids. 



I HAVE read Dr. Ball's account of this subject in the issue of 

 Nature for February 23, 1893, and beg leave to call attention 

 to the fact that the University of Cambridge possesses the 

 skeleton and the stuffed skin of an adult hybrid between a lion 

 and a tigress. I am able to supply the following information 

 (which I have verified so far as it was possible) with regard to 

 this specimen from a contemporary MS., entitled "Notice of 

 the Lion-tiger which died in Cambridge, March 1833," by J. B. 

 Melson, then an Undergraduate at Trinity College. This MS. 

 no doubt contains the substance of a paper by Mr. Melson, 

 which was communicated by Dr. Haviland to the Cambridge 

 Philosophical Society, May 6, 1833. The paper was unfortu- 

 nately not printed in the Transactions of the Society. 



The Cambridge specimen, like those mentioned by Dr. Ball, 

 was procured from the menagerie of Mr. Atkins. It was about 

 six years old, and for some time previous to its death had been 

 affected with paralysis of its hind quarters, arising probably 

 from a distortion of the lower thoracic region of the vertebral 

 column [which is still a marked feature of the actual skeleton]. 

 Although inferior in size to either of its parents, the animal 

 appeared to have attained its full dimensions. The shape of 

 the head resembled that of the father (the lion), whilst the form 

 of the body was more similar to that of the tigress. The body 

 was faintly striped, while the prevailing shade was " of a dingy 

 lion colour." The animal had neither a mane nor a tuft at the 

 end of its tail. 



The specimen was a female, and Mr. Melson states that "all 

 the individuals of this hybrid race have as yet been females. " 

 The orifice of the vagina was smaller than in the tigress ; and 



