April 3, 1919] 



NATURE 



83 



ader, giving- a brief history of the whole develop- 

 :ent of electrical theory during the past century. 

 It is always hard to lay down precisely the limits 

 of the knowledge of the general reader; we confess 

 ihat we should be surprised if anyone could be 

 discovered who could find both something new in 

 I he first chapter and something comprehensible 

 in the others; but on this matter the opinion of 

 -o practised a writer as Prof. Righi is not lightly 

 ' be disputed. However, we must insist that, in 

 Idressing the general reader, an author under- 

 lakes certain responsibilities. If he addresses an 

 expert audience, he can do no harm to anyone but 

 himself if he does not give as much weight and 

 prominence to the views of those who differ from 

 him as to his own ; if he addresses those who are 

 not experts, he has not the same liberty of choice 

 in this matter. Judged on this principle, Prof. 

 Righi 's treatise will scarcely pass the test; we 

 do not think he offers his readers a fair chance 

 'of deciding between him and his critics. 



From the excellent quality of type and paper, 



we conclude that Italy is free from war-time 



strictions, which affect our own publications 



) adversely. But, then, what excuse is to be 



viffered for the absence of an index or any 



adequate summary of contents? N. R. C. 



OUS BOOKSHELF. 



Pharmacy, Theoretical and Practical, including 

 Arithmetic of Pharmacy. By Prof. Edsel A. 

 Ruddiman. Pp. vi + 267. (New York : John 

 Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman and 

 Hall, Ltd., 1917.) Price 8s. 6d. net. 

 The object of this little work is to present in as 

 lew words as possible essential facts which every 

 pharmacist should know. The book is divided 

 into three sections, viz. arithmetic of pharmacy, 

 theoretical pharmacy, and practical pharmacy. The 

 first treats of weights and measures, and contains 

 a number of arithmetical calculations of a very ele- 

 mentary nature. Theoretical pharmacy is discussed 

 in fifty-five pages, which, it must be admitted, 

 would be a very meagre allowance if the subject 

 were treated in any detail ; that, however, is 

 not the case, as it is intended that the book 

 should be used in conjunction with the United 

 States Pharmacopoeia or the National Formulary. 

 Practical pharmacy is dealt with in a similar 

 manner; formulae for the various preparations 

 considered are not given, the author confining 

 himself to notes on the precautions to be taken, 

 the reactions that occur, and so on. 



The work contains a good deal of information 

 in a small compass, and it certainly comprises 

 many essential facts that every pharmacist should 

 know. It is not, and apparently is not intended 

 to be, a work from which phafmacy should be 

 studied, but is rather a summary of facts such as 

 a student would take note of during a course 

 of lectures and demonstrations in pharmacy. 

 Elementary students and students revising their 

 work before examination would undoubtedly find 

 It useful. 



NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 



Afforestation. By John Boyd. Pp. 39. (Lon- 

 don : W. and R. Chambers, Ltd., 1918.) Price 

 IS. net. 

 In this small brochure Mr. Boyd deals with the 

 afforestation question as it now presents itself to 

 this country. As he correctly remarks, if, after 

 the troubles we have experienced during the past 

 four years in providing the timber required for 

 effectively waging the war, we have not learned 

 our lesson we are not likely ever to do so. 

 After briefly describing the extensive forests 

 which existed in Scotland, now replaced by bare 

 hill- and mountain-sides, the author points out 

 the great dependence of the community upon the 

 products of the forest, both in their everyday life 

 and in industries. The great value of forestry to 

 agriculture, and the manner in which the small 

 holding can be placed on a sound footing by being 

 associated with forestry, are dealt with in some 

 .detail. Mr. Boyd, with considerable practical 

 experience of the trouble caused, speaks with 

 authority on the game question in its application 

 to forestry, and his remarks on rabbits, black 

 game, red deer, and so forth are worthy of study. 

 Some practical suggestions are made with refer- 

 ence to the ground to be taken up for planting, 

 natural herbage forming a guide for the classifica- 

 tion of areas. The author concludes with a few 

 notes on various trees likely to be useful for 

 afforesting waste lands. 



A Manual of Elementary Zoology. By L. A. 



Borradaile. Second edition. Pp. xiv + 616. 



(London : Henry Frowde, and Hodder and 



Stoughton, 1918.) Price 165. net. 

 In this new edition there are, besides smaller addi- 

 tions, three new chapters dealing respectively 

 with protozoa as parasites of man, with nema- 

 todes, and with cold-blooded vertebrates. In the 

 first of these chapters a short account is given of 

 Entamoeba, Balantidium, Trypanosoma, and 

 Plasmodium, and of their modes of transmission. 

 There would seem 'to be no sound reason for 

 employing the name Entamoeba dysenteriae in- 

 stead of the well-known E. histolytica, especially 

 in a junior students' text-book. In the chapter on 

 nematodes the author gives an account of 

 .Ascaris, a summary of the principal types of life- 

 history met with in the group, and a short state- 

 ment of the special characters of parasites. In 

 the account of Filaria bancrofti it should have 

 been stated that the larvae taken up by mos- 

 quitoes finally reach the labium (proboscis), 

 and not the salivary glands (as stated on 

 p. 304). In the chapter on cold-blooded verte- 

 brates the figure of the cranial nerves of the skate 

 is not correct in certain particulars. The outer 

 buccal nerve (part of the seventh cranial nerve) 

 is labelled wrongly as the maxillary branch of 

 the fifth nerve, and the real maxillary is not 

 labelled. The direction of the internal mandibular 

 nerve and the external mandibular are not well 

 shown. But these are only small blemishes. The 

 book is excellently illustrated and written with 

 a broad outlook. 



