366 



NATURE 



[May 26, 1910 



this matter the example of Egypt should be constantly 

 borne in mind, both as showing' the difficulties and 

 loss incurred when survey is allowed to lag behind 

 the necessities of land development and taxation, and 

 also as an example of the methods upon which the 

 cadastre of such a piece of country should proceed. 

 The map before us is produced in the excellent style 

 that its origin would lead us to expect, and the thanks 

 of all geographers are due to its compilers and pub- 

 lishers. E. H. H. 



Th". Anatomy of the Common Squid, Loligo Pealii, 

 Lesueur. By L. W. Williams. Pp. xv + 92. 

 (Leyden : late E, J. Brill, n.d.) Price Jos. 

 This work, published under the patronage of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, but printed in 

 Holland without date, is a very complete and well- 

 illustrated description of the anatomy of one of the 

 commonest Cephalopods. As such it should meet 

 with a warm welcome from all serious students of the 

 mollusca. We believe the squid is a type not usually 

 dissected by zoological students in this country, but 

 for the sake of comparison, at any rate, the work 

 should find a place in the zoological laboratory. 



We do not expect very much in the way of novelty 

 in a memoir of this kind, but the author is to be 

 congratulated on the important discovery of a pair of 

 giant nerve-cells situated in the pedal ganglion, and 

 each giving off a giant fibre. The giant fibres pass 

 backwards to the centre of the visceral ganglion, 

 where they cross one another, forming a " chiasma " ; 

 each fibre then passes on through the viscero-stellate 

 connective to the stellate ganglion of the side opposite 

 its origin, where it divides into a number of branches, 

 one of which enters each of the larger nerves given 

 off from that ganglion. There appears to be no 

 doubt about the facts of the case, which are suffi- 

 ciently remarkable, but the term "chiasma" hardly 

 seems suitable for the simple crossing of a single pair 

 of fibres. According to the author, this is the first 

 time such fibres have been described in any mollusc, 

 though similar structures are, of course, widely distri- 

 buted throughout the animal kingdom. We may 

 mention that in the first text-figure we have what 

 seems to be a variation of Lankester's well-known 

 schematic mollusc which does not appear to us to be 

 any improvement on the original. 



The Siege and Conquest of the North Pole. By 

 George Bryce. Pp. xyi + 334. (London: Gibbings 

 and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price ys. 6d. 

 As a record of a group of Arctic journeys which had 

 the object of attaining the North Pole, this volume 

 has a real value. It gives, usually in the explorers' 

 own words, the most stirring stories of the Far North, 

 many of which are now difficult to procure in the 

 original form. The record onh' deals with the last 

 hundred years, the three centuries of earlier efforts 

 being dismissed in a brief introduction. The expedi- 

 tions chronicled are those of Parry in 1827, Kane in 

 1853-5, Hayes in 1860-1, the German expedition of 

 1869-70, the Polaris expedition of 1871-3, the 

 Austro-Hungarian expedition of 1872-4, the British 

 expedition of 1875-6, the voyage of the Jeannette 

 in 1879-81, Greely's in 1881-4, Nansen's in 1893-6, 

 Sverdrup's in 1898-1902, the Duke of the Abruzzi's in 

 1899-1900, Peary's from 1886 to 1909, and lastly, 

 Cook's in iqo7-9. There were, of course, several 

 other expeditions in the period covered, some, such as 

 Andree's, avowedly aimed at the pole; others, like 

 the Jackson-Harmsworth, the Ziegler, and the W\^ll- 

 man expeditions, in which the attainment of the pole 

 was at least as much an object of ambition as was 

 the case with Nansen, and much more so than with 

 Greely or Sverdrup. We are, indeed, inclined to 



NO. 21 17, VOL. 83] 



suspect that the hope of gaining the fame of first 

 reaching the pole has animated a good many ex- 

 plorers whose ostensible ideals were more modest. 



The author's comments and criticisms are few, but 

 usually sound; and we are the more surprised to. 

 find that in the light of the adverse opinion of the 

 University of Copenhagen he was able to say "it 

 is impossible at present to pronounce a final judg- 

 ment" on the story of Cook's journey in 1908. The 

 summing up is strongly in favour of Dr. Cook's: 

 claim, and Mr. Bryce does not seem to be staggered 

 by the coincidence of a group of highly improbable 

 statements. He seriously reproduces, without com- 

 ment or criticism, the absurd assertion that, after 

 finding a latitude of 89° 59' 45", the explorer 

 advanced "a distance equal to the 15"." With the 

 exception of the last chapter, however, we can com- 

 mend the book unreservedly as giving in brief compass 

 a graphic account of many of the greatest trials of 

 human endurance. The sketch-mAps suffer from the 

 common fault of being over-reduced, but they help 

 the reader to follow the narratives all the same. 



The author does not point out, but the book itself 

 bears abundant testimony to the fact, that the 

 greatest results have been gained since the naval or 

 military organisation of polar expeditions has been 

 abandoned, ■ and the' personal ambition or scientific 

 zeal of the leader has become the driving power of a 

 small, well-equipped party, strong in the realisation of 

 the lessons of past failure. 



Les Etats physiques de la Matiere. By Prof. Ch, 



Maurain. Pp. 327. (Paris : F. Alcan, 1910.) Price 



3.50 francs. 

 This book is, as the title suggests, an exposition of 

 the properties of matter in its various states. The 

 author confesses, however, in his introduction, that he 

 is principally concerned with the properties of crystals, 

 the different states of solid bodies, liquid crystals and 

 colloids. Thus we find only twent3-three pages de- 

 voted to the study of gases, and rather more than 

 fifty to that of liquids. Prof. Maurain has found it 

 convenient to preserve the old divisions of solid, liquid, 

 and gas, but he points out that the distinctions are 

 as regards degree only, and that no properties are 

 peculiar to a particular state. 



The treatment is practically devoid of mathematics. 

 The contents of the book are mainly a collection of 

 experimental facts, particularly those which have been 

 brought to light by the use of the microscope and 

 ultramicroscope. The former as applied to crystals, 

 and the latter to emulsions and colloids, have recently 

 widely extended the knowledge of these states of 

 matter. 



There are, in all, eleven chapters. The first is de- 

 voted to gases and gaseous ions. Reference is made 

 to the kinetic theory, and estimates are given of the 

 sizes and masses of the molecules. The second chapter 

 deals with the properties of liquids. Much attention 

 is paid to the question of the thickness of liquid films 

 and its bearing on the molecular dimensions, and 

 there is also included a discussion of the various 

 methods of estimating the molecular weights of sub- 

 stances. In the next three chapters the properties of 

 solid bodies are fully treated. The various systems of 

 crystals are defined, and examples are given of their 

 directed properties relating to thermal and electrical 

 conductivities, elasticity, magnetism, and optics. The 

 crystalline structure of solid bodies as seen through the 

 microscope is described, and is applied to explain the 

 various properties of metals. Chapter vi. deals mainly 

 with the production of double refraction in isotropic 

 bodies by external means, such as mechanical pres- 

 sure and electric and magnetic fields. Liquid cr3'stals 

 form the subject of chapter vii. The special properties 1 



