July 6, 1893] 



NATURE 



2 1 9 



hows, as do also the series of papers by various experts, 



hich are now being published by the Royal Dublin 



ociety, that the fauna is one of extreme interest. A 



laiine biological laboratory is one of those institutions 



1 which, beyond all question, the interests of pure 



'ience and its applications to industry and commerce 



o interwoven that there need not be any hesitation 



lowing and supporting it by the most " practical " 



ed individual or Government. 



ere is evidence in the shape of numerous misprints that 



ithor produced the book under stress of time. The 



niatic zoologist has a right to complain of Mr. Saville- 



s practice of naming imperfectly diagnosed genera 



-pecies. In hardly a single case is there an adequate 



: iption of a new species. Being himself a zoologist, 



ould have been more considerate to his colleagues. 



IS difficult to criticise the sixteen coloured plates 



h conclude the volume. They contain over two 



red colour sketches, selected out of a much larger 



umber from the author's note books. This being so, 



f may regard them as colour memoranda, taken on the 



and grouped as plates. Very few of them can be 



irded as drawings of the animals, since, as a rule, 



le critical points of form are omitted. The reviewer 



• becked the colours of some of the animals depicted 



etches made by himself of the same species, and 



e finds that Mr. Saville-Kent's colouration, or rather 



le lithographer's rendering of it, is accurate enough, 



ut there is no doubt that the plates are very crude. 



nartistic as they are, they serve to emphasise the glorious 



luna of the coral seas. Alfred C. Haddon. 



BACTERIOLOGY FOR THE PUBLIC. 

 Manual of Bacteriology. By A. B. Griffiths, Ph.D., 

 F.R.S.E., F.C.S. (Heinemann's Scientific Handbook 

 Series). Small crown 8vo. Illustrated. (London : 

 Heinemann, 1893) 



rHE number of bacteriological text-books is still com- 

 paratively so small, that each successive endeavour 

 ) expound the principles of this new science attracts more 

 eneral attention than is occasioned by the appearance of 

 milar treatises in sciences which have already an abun- 

 ance of such works in circulation. It might be supposed 

 lat because bacteriology is a science of such recent growth 

 would be more easy to prepare a text-book of bacteri- 

 logy, than one dealing with a science the literature of 

 hich extends over a much longer period of time. As a 

 latter of fact, however, this is by no means the case, 

 )r probably in no other experimental science has so 

 uch to be taken on trust, owing to the impossibility of 

 peating investigations under precisely similar conditions, 

 |s can be done in the case of physics and chemistry ; 

 hilst again from the very juvenility of the science of 

 acteriology, there has not yet been sufficient time and 

 pportunity for many of even the most important points 

 be firmly established through repeated observation by 

 ifferent investigators. On this account there is the 

 iiore scope for the exercise of the judgment and critical 

 acuity by the author of a work on bacteriology, and we 

 re of opinion that a heavy load of responsibility rests 

 pon the shoulders of a writer who undertakes to present 

 the public a worthy treatise on this important subject. 

 NO. 1236, VOL. 48] 



It is doubtless an appreciation of this grave responsi- 

 bility which has deterred many well-qualified persons 

 both in this country and on the Continent from publish- 

 ing works dealing with more than comparatively small 

 portions of this elastic and comprehensive science. The 

 writer of the work before us plunges confidently into the 

 task before him without even a moment's misgiving or 

 hesitation ; his preface does not contain a word which 

 might betray any fear that the pages which are to follow 

 may fail to do justice to "the important and far-reaching 

 subject of bacteriology." The table of contents indicates 

 that the information to be imparted in this little book of 

 348 small crown octavo pages,which are well printed in clear 

 large type, is to be of a most comprehensive character. 

 We find first, an introductory chapter, upon which 

 follow the "bacteriological laboratory and its fittings," 

 "methods of cultivating, staining, and mounting microbes," 

 "origin, classification, and identification of microbes," 

 "biology of microbes,"" infectious diseases and microbes," 

 "microbes of the air," "microbes of the soil," "microbes 

 of water," "ptomaines and soluble ferments,' and 

 lastly "germicides and antiseptics." To deal with this 

 extensive material in such a small compass obviously 

 requires that a very careful selection should be made of 

 the matter which is to hand, in connection with each of 

 the above divisions of the subject. The method of 

 selection to be adopted in such a case must of course 

 depend upon the kind of reader for which the book is 

 intended, but this is a point on which we are not informed 

 in the text nor on which have we been able to arrive at 

 any conclusion from a perusal of the pages. The idea 

 that the book is designed for the general reader is 

 negatived by the fact that there occur long catalogues 

 of bacterial species and of bacterial products, together 

 with technical details which can only serve to increase 

 the chaotic bewilderment in which the minds of most 

 persons find themselves with regard to the subject of 

 micro-organisms in general. On the other hand, for the 

 serious student of bacteriology the information is as 

 inadequate when detail is essential as it is discursive and 

 wandering when terseness and precision are required. 

 The entire work bears the impress of the hasty and pre- 

 mature compilation of undigested reading. We come to 

 this conclusion, as it is almost impossible to believe that 

 the author is so ignorant as some of his statements 

 would indicate. Thus it would be uncharitable to believe 

 that the author had written the following passage except 

 by oversight : " Microbes may be simply divided into 

 aerobic and anaerobic forms. Bacillus spinosus and 

 Bacillus cedematis maligiit are examples of the former ; 

 while Micrococcus candicans and Bacillus subtilis 

 are examples of the latter kind." We feel sure that 

 Dr, Griffiths is as well aware as the most elementary 

 student of bacteriology that the Bacillus subtilis is a type 

 of the aerobic and the Bacillus cedematis maligni a type 

 of the anaerobic microbe. In the special description of 

 Bacillus subtilis which follows in a later chapter we 

 should be interested to learn on what authority this 

 organism is described as "the hay-fever microbe." The 

 same paragraph furnishes another excellent illustration 

 of the kind of loose illogical writing in whif^h this book 

 abounds ; thus, it is stated that " the action of ozone on 

 both the spores and bacilli is that they are completely 



