June 12, 1919] 



NATURE 



283 



The closing chapter, on "Tetanus," describes 

 one of the greatest triumphs of preventive medi- 

 cine. In the early days of the war tetanus con- 

 stituted one of the greatest terrors that the 

 wounded man had to face and the surgeon to 

 witness. The routine use of anti-tetanic serum 

 as a prophylactic injection in every case of a 

 \yound or abrasion caused this dreadful complica- 

 tion to disappear almost entirely. 



With the cessation of hostilities there will be 

 less occasion to practise surgery as described in 

 this book, but every medical officer to whose lot 

 it may fall in the future to take part in any mili- 

 tary campaign will be well advised to include 

 Wallace and Eraser's handv little volume in his 

 kit. 



OVR BOOKSHELF. 



A Star Atlas and Telescopic Handbook {Epoch 

 1920) for Students and Amateurs. By Arthur P. 

 Norton. New and enlarged edition. Pp. 25 + 16 

 maps. (London and Edinburgh : Gall and 

 Inghs, 1919.) Price 3s. 6d. 



It is not surprising that a second edition of this 

 work has been called for, remembering the grow- 

 ing interest in astronomy and the necessity that 

 every follower of the science feels for a good star 

 atlas. I^he first edition appeared in 1910, and we 

 have no reason to depart from the opinion of 

 its merits then expressed in these pages. Fifty 

 years ago R. A. Proctor gave in the Monthlv 

 Notices (vol. xxviii., p. 188) the conditions with 

 which a work of this kind should comply: (i) A 

 moderate number of maps ; (2) hot too large for 

 convenient use; (3) uniform in size and shape; 



(4) on the scale of an i8-in. globe at least; 



(5) with little distortion; and (6) with little varia- 

 tion of scale or area. 



I Mr. Norton's atlas contains eight double maps 



—that is to say, each forms a double-page open- 

 ing of a book 1 1 in. by 9 in. Two of them cover 



; a cap of 40° radius round each pole, whilst each 

 of the remaining six covers a lune from 60° N. to 

 60^ S. declination, about 5 hours of right ascension 

 in width, the distance from pole to pole in the 

 maps being about 23 in., from which it will 

 be seen how well the first three of the above 

 conditions are satisfied. Stars to the sixth magni- 

 tude, nebulae, and clusters are shown to the 

 number of more than 7000, and a feature that will 

 appeal to many students of the heavens is the 

 reference to catalogues of various kinds and other 

 useful information given by the lettering. 



It has not been found necessary to make any 

 alteration in the maps, which are as they were 

 in the first edition, but the prefatory notes have 

 been considerably amended and enlarged. The 

 addition of a paragraph on the classification of 

 star spectra is to be noted, and another of a list 

 of novae, which includes that of last year. A 

 small table of the effects of atmospheric absorp- 



|L tion is now given, and the sketch map of the 



P NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 



moon has been furnished with an index, both of 

 which add to the usefulness of this moderately 

 priced work. 



Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. Guides to 

 Smallholders. No. i : Pig-keeping, pp. 32. 

 No. 5 : Farm Crops, pp. 32, No. 6 : Soils 

 and Manures, pp. 30. No. 7 : Fruit-growing 

 on Small Holdings in England and Wales, 

 pp. 30. No. 9 : Potato-growing on Small 

 Holdings, pp. 32. (Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries, 3 St. James's Square, S.W. i, 1919.) 

 Price 2d. each. 



It is always difficult to cater for smallholders 

 because of their great variation ; in their ranks 

 are found many types of men, some fairly well 

 educated, who, for one reason or other, have 

 taken up farming late in life, while others are 

 shrewd, capable labourers who have risen in the 

 ranks, and, but for their lack of education, would 

 long ago have been successful farmers on their 

 own account. The booklets before us are de- 

 signed particularly for the first type of men, but 

 they will also prove helpful to the second. 



The information is sound, and put in the 

 colloquial form now so much in favour in extra- 

 official publications. The soil is described in one 

 place in TuH's picturesque phrase as "the pasture 

 of plants "; it is elsewhere likened to "the plant's 

 kitchen," and the organisms producing the useful 

 nitrates are called the "domestics that serve the 

 crops." "When the land becomes waterlogged 

 things go wrong in the plant's kitchen. The un- 

 healthy yellow colour of corn crops so often asso- 

 ciated with cold weather in spring is not really 

 so much due to cold as to epidemics among the 

 ' domestics ' and a stoppage of the plant's supply 

 of food." Such descriptions at least show the 

 cultivator that the soil is more complex than it 

 seems, and must be treated with respect. The 

 practical advice is quite good : the smallholder 

 is told how much seed to sow, in many cases — 

 especially fruit and potatoes — he is told what 

 varieties to select from, and useful hints are given 

 on the general management of the crop. 



The publications are in the form of booklets of 

 large postcard size, and they are well got up; 

 they represent a serious attempt, which we hope 

 will be successful, to help the smallholder on 

 many of the technical points that are likely to 

 trouble him. 



Inorganic Chemistry. By Prof. James Walker. 

 Pp. viii + 327. Eleventh edition. (London : 

 G- Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1919.) Price 55. net. 



Prof. Walker has recast his popular elementary 

 text-book of inorganic chemistry. The general 

 and systematic portions are in this edition less 

 strictly separated. All the common elements now 

 receive brief systematic treatment, and the theo- 

 retical sections have been enlarged. In its new 

 form the book should be even more widely adopted 

 than hitherto. 



