i6 



NA TURE 



[November 5, 1891 



colour, and loade 1 with soot and tarry matter, is another 

 question. The answer involves not only chemical but 

 also social considerations. With regard to the first, my 

 answer is that as long as coal is burnt you will have 

 dense fogs ; grates, kitcheners, furnaces, may be, and 

 probably will be, much improved, and fires may be 

 stoked in a better way, but that the improvements will 

 be so great that all imperfect combustion will cease I 

 think is improbable ; if this be so, there is only one other 

 alternative, as long as coal is our source of heat : it is to 

 alter our form of fuel and adopt gas and coke ; the soot 

 and tarry matters will be then done away with ; the ques- 

 tion of sulphuric acid in the air would remain, but our fogs 

 would at least be white. There is still the social part of 

 the question, which is not without serious difficulty — 

 namely, how to induce or compel people to give up the 

 use of coal. At the present day it would not be possible 

 to do as it is recorded was done in the reign of Edward I., 

 try, condemn, and execute a man for burning coal in the 

 City of London. W. J, Russell. 



together with diminished light, unavoidable during the 

 prevalency of fog— were proved at Kew to be the safest 

 for all plants during the prevalence of heavy fogs. 

 July 2c. w. Watson. 



Effects of Fog on Plants Grown in the Houses at Kew. 



The heavy fogs experienced in the last two or three 

 winters injured many plants in the houses at Kew. When 

 thick fog occurred almost daily, the injury it did to many 

 plants amounted practically to destruction. The leaves 

 fell off, the growing point withered, and in some cases, 

 such as Begonias and Acanthads, the stems also were 

 affected. Flowers, as a rule, fell off as soon as they 

 opened, or whilst in bud. Almost all flowers which ex- 

 panded were less in size than when there was no fog. 

 The flower buds of Phalaenopsis, Angraecun, some 

 Begonias, Camellias, &c., changed colour and fell off as 

 if they had been dipped in hot water. 



In the Palm-house bushels of healthy- looking leaves, 

 which had fallen from the plants, were gathered almost 

 every morning. Plants which appeared to be perfectly 

 healthy, when shaken would drop almost ev^ery leaf. 

 Herbaceous plants suffered most, i.e. Begonias, Poin- 

 settias, Bouvardias, Acanthads, &c. Some herbaceous 

 plants, however, did not suffer at all, nor were their 

 flowers injured, as, for instance, Cyclamen, Primula, 

 Hyacinth, &c. Many hard-wooded plants lost their 

 leaves and were otherwise damaged, viz. Boronias, some 

 Heaths, Grevilleas, Acacias, &c. Protea cynaroides, a 

 Cape plant with large laurel-like leaves, was much in- 

 jured in the temperate house (minimum temperature 40"), 

 the leaves turning black as though scalded. The same 

 species, however, in another house where the atmosphere 

 is drier and the temperature a few degrees higher, was 

 scarcely affected by fog. 



As a rule, the plants that were in active growth suffered 

 most. Monocotyledonous plants and ferns for the most 

 part were not appreciably affected by the fogs, the injury 

 they suffered, especially last winter, being clearly due to 

 low temperature. The effect of fog on flowers is remark- 

 able. Generally, white flowers are destroyed, but there 

 are some notable exceptions — viz. Masdcvalia tovare?isis, 

 Odontoglossum crispum, and Angraecum amongst Or- 

 chids, and Crinums, white Cyclamen, white Hyacinths, 

 white Chrysanthemums, &c. 



The green leaves of Poinsettia pulcherrima all fell off, 

 whilst the red ones (bracts) remained, as also did the 

 flowers. All Calanthes, of whatever colour, lost their 

 flowers. The buds of the white-flowered Angrcecuin ses- 

 quipedale turned black as if boiled, whilst those of A. 

 eburneum, also white-flowered, were not injured, and de- 

 veloped properly. These two plants are grown in the 

 same house under identical conditions, and they come 

 into bloom about the same time. 



The conditions most conducive to rest from growth— 

 viz, a low temperature and moderately dry atmosphere, 



NO. I 149. VOL. 45] 



THE ANATOMY OF THE DOG} 



'T^HEdoghas played by far the most important part 

 ■*■ in the elucidation of the difficult problems of 

 physiology and pathology presented by the higher 

 animal organism. It is by a firm reliance on the 

 results of experimental researches, conducted largely 

 upon this animal, that the modern physician is enabled 

 to form some idea as to the causation of the symptoms 

 of disease in man, and the mode of action of the remedies 

 which he employs ; while the modern surgeon, after a 

 preliminary testing of an operation upon the dog, fear- 

 lessly proceeds to attack the most deeply-seated tumour, 

 and to explore the most hidden recesses of the human 

 organization. What, after all, are the services of friend- 

 ship and companionship, or the more menial duties which 

 are often laid upon the dog, compared with the allevia- 

 tion of human suffering and the advancement of human 

 knowledge for which he has served as the passive instru- 

 ment, and this {pace the mendacious asseverations of 

 fanatical essayists) at the expense of the least possible 

 amount of suffering to himself.? 



For these reasons, to the physiologist, the pathologist, 

 the pharmacologist, and the scientific surgeon, a book 

 which, like the one before us, endeavours to deal with 

 the anatomy of the dog in the same detailed and sys- 

 tematic manner in which the structure of man is dealt 

 with in text-books of human anatomy cannot fail to be 

 of the utmost value. To the comparative anatomist it 

 will prove an important addition to the limited existing 



j series of monographs dealing in detail with vertebrate 



1 types, while to the veterinarian it will be an indispensable 



I vade mecutn, both in study and in practice. 



i For the work is done excellently well, a result which 

 might be anticipated from the manner in which it has 

 been set about. Not only has it been carried on under 

 the auspices of a scientific anatomist so well known as 

 Prof Ellenberger and in a veterinary school where an 

 unlimited supply of subjects was available for dissection, 

 but with a far-sighted liberality, for which the Saxon 

 Government is much to be congratulated, all the ex- 

 penses for material and instruments have been defrayed 

 by the State, and one of the collaborators has been enabled 

 to devote his whole time during a period of two years 

 entirely to the labour incident upon the preparation of 

 this work. 



The book is a large octavo of 650 pages, contain- 

 ing 208 woodcuts, a few examples of which are here 

 reproduced. There is, in addition, an appendix of 37 

 lithographed plates, representing in outline frozen sec- 



j tions through the trunk and limbs. A study of these 

 is in itself sufficient to make out the relations of the 

 organs to one another, and the authors have accordingly 

 burdened the text as little as possible with topographical 

 details. Histological and developmental references are 

 entirely avoided, partly for the reason that the facts are 

 not materially different from those which are found in 

 other mammals, partly because they have been dealt with, 

 especially for the dog, in other works, and largely because 

 it was obviously desirable not to increase the bulk of the 

 work. References to literature are also for the most part 

 omitted, for although other works have been consulted, 

 it is claimed by the authors that the present account is 



' '• Systematische u. topographische Anatomie des Hundes." Bearbeitet 

 von Dr. W. Ellenberger, I'r-fessor an der tierarztlichen Hochschule in 

 Dresden, und Dr. H. Baum, Prosekl ^r an der tier.nrztl.chen Hochschule m 

 Dresden. (Berlin: Paul Parey, 1S5 



