May 3, 1917] 



NATURE 



18 



in T as if they were w„ w,, w., referred to fixed 

 axes; here Prof. Byerly is not so clear as Routh, 

 and althoug-h he makes no mistake (the chapter 

 is on impulsive forces), he may mislead his reader 

 unwittingly. As a mere matter of typography 

 we may note that «^- cos ^ is much clearer than 

 cos B^- (and so in many other cases). In the 

 answer (p. 9) on the simple pendulum (ex. 2) it 

 would be well to reduce R to a configuration ex- 

 pression (R = (3 cos^ — 2 cos o)mjg') ; on p. 18 read 

 •' mg the weight of the dog " ; and there may be 

 other trivial blemishes of the same sort. 



It may be added that there are proofs of Thom- 

 son's and Bertrand's theorems in the proper 

 -dualistic form, examples taken from hydro- 

 dynamics and electrodynamics, and two appen- 

 dices — one on dynamical formulae, the other on 

 the calculus of variations. We hope that Prof. 

 Byerly 's book will have the full success which it 

 deserves. G. B. M. 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE. 



Tropical Agriculture. By Dr. E. V. Wilcox. 



Pp. xviii + 373. (New York and London: D. 



Appleton and Co., 1916.) Price los. 6d. net. 

 nPHE selection of a title is sometimes not an 

 -*- easy matter, "Tropical Agriculture ". has 

 been given as the name of the book before us, 

 written by Dr. E. V. Wilcox, of the States Rela- 

 tions Service of the U.S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture. The book deals very briefly with nearly 

 every product of the tropics, whether agricultural 

 or otherwise. In this case the title is, therefore, 

 misleading. But in the preface the author speaks 

 of "tropical products," and one wonders why he 

 did not give his book that name. It would have 

 been fully descriptive and appropriate. 



The author tells us that his book was "written 

 from the standpoint of the general reader, busi- 

 ness man, and agricultural student." But in the 

 next breath the agricultural student is dismissed 

 and the book is then said to deal with tropical 

 agriculture in the commercial sense. Moreover, 

 Dr. Wilcox regards the literature of his subject 

 as abounding in exaggeration — rather hard on the 

 authors of the numerous publications enumerated 

 by him in the appendix. Still, it is satisfactorj- 

 to be assured that our author, knowing the short- 

 comings of his predecessors, will not likely err in 

 overdrawing his pictures of the wonders and 

 resources of the tropics. 



The opening chapters on tropical climate, soils, 

 agricultural methods, etc., might with great 

 advantage be carefully revised and reconsidered. 

 The assumption, for example, that the inhabitants 

 of tropical countries were ignorant of agriculture 

 until the "white race" invaded their country is 

 very nearly an entire misconception. It is cer- 

 tainly not true of India. China, and Japan. The 

 systems and methods these peoples are now fol- 

 lowing came down to them through countless 

 ages. It is quite uncalled for and, moreover, 

 Irrelevant to say that "the native races are obvi- 

 ously inferior to the white race, and that their 



NO. 2479, VOL. 99] 



supposed rights to property in tropical countries 

 must yield to the superior demands of the white 

 race." It would be more correct to affirm that 

 the closer we study native conceptions and prac- 

 tices — the evolutions of centuries towards environ- 

 ment — the more readily ' and completely shall we , 

 attain to the higher flights of tropical industry. 



So much for the speculations of our author. 

 Turning over the pages of his book cursorily, the 

 reader is disappointed to note a lack of propor- 

 tion, an utter disregard of uniformity in treat- 

 ment, and an entire absence of method — qualities 

 essential in a book of reference. The plates serve 

 a pictorial rather than a practical purpose. 

 Facing p. 144, for example, a hand is seen to 

 ' thrust the rhizome of an aroid into view. Below 

 i the illustration has been printed "Dasheen Tuber, 

 I Trinidad Variety." There is no number to the 

 plate (nor, in fact, to any plate), so that the reader 

 has to turn to the index to find the text — some 

 eleven pages farther on. But in the text no refer- 

 ence is made to the plate, so that, after perusing 

 the book through, the reader may remain ignorant 

 that the "dasheen " has been illustrated. 



The book has twenty-one chapters, as well as 

 an appendix and an index. Turning to chap, xii., • 

 which deals with fibres, it is found that two pages 

 have been devoted to cotton, three-fourths of a» 

 page to jute, four pages to sisal, and so on — no 

 attempt at proportional spacing to importance of 

 subject. But in the twenty-one lines given to jute 

 the writer manages to inculcate three egregious 

 errors. He speaks of the flowers being " rather 

 conspicuous," which they most certainly are not, 

 gives the Indian area of the crop at half what it 

 is, and speaks of a yield at very nearly four times 

 the record production of the crop. On p. 70 it 

 is observed that tea has been cultivated in India 

 since 1875, ^vhereas it was extensively grown in 

 that country thirty to forty years before that date. 

 A photograph of Japanese hedges of the tea plant 

 is given, apparently as being illustrative of the 

 great tea cultivation from which the supplies of 

 commerce are drawn. Nothing could be less 

 accurate. The geography of our author is often 

 startling, as, for example (p. 141) : "Large quan- 

 tities of pistachio-nuts are shipped from Afghan- ■ 

 istan to India." 



The book, as it stands, cannot become a text- 

 book for either the merchant or the student. It 

 needs drastic revision. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



Science and Education: Lectures delivered at the 



Royal Institution gf Great Britain. Edited, with 



an Introduction, by Sir E. Ray Lankester. Pp. 



200. (London : \V. Heinemann, 1917.) Price^ 



15. net. : 



These lectures were given at the Royal Institution 



in 1854, and the lecturers were Whewell, the 



famous Master of Trinity College, Cambridge^' 



Faraday, Latham, the philologist, Daubeny, then 



professor of chemistry and botany at Oxford, 



Tyndall, James Paget, the eminent surgeon and 



