I02 



'NATURE 



[June 4, 1891 



preached in Christ Church Cathedral on May i8, 1890, 

 by the Bishop of Missouri. The book is illustrated by 

 plans of the garden, a large number of views of the 

 museums and other buildings, including Mr. Shaw's 

 house and a fine statue of Humboldt. 



Everything is now in full working order, and we have 

 just received from Prof. Trelease a capital synopsis of the 

 American species of the difficult genus Epilobium, con- 

 taining full botanical descriptions and figures of all the 

 species. The herbarium now contains about 20,000 

 mounted sheets of flowering plants and ferns, also a 

 large collection of Fungi and other Cryptogamia. 



J. G. B. 



Geolo^ie: Principes— Explication de VEpoque Quater- 

 natre sans Hypothhes. Par H. Hermite. Pp. 145. 

 (Neuchatel, 1891.) 

 On taking up this little book the geological reader is at 

 once struck by the words " sans Hypotheses" in the title. 

 A volume on Pleistocene geology free from hypotheses 

 would seem to him to usher in a new era in geology, and 

 would be most heartily welcomed by him. The title of 

 the present work, however, is misleading ; the book is 

 almost entirely devoted to theoretical explanations of 

 purely hypothetical facts. We have not space to notice 

 in detail the various subjects of which the author treats, 

 but as an example of his method we may point to his 

 " Origine des Pluies Quaternaires " (p. 39). In this 

 section he' accepts the hypothetical Quaternary " Pluvial 

 Period " — which, by the way, seems to have been charac- 

 terized by a singularly poor aquatic fauna and flora— and 

 he then accounts for the supposed excessive rainfall during 

 Tertiary and Quaternary time by the amount of vapour 

 thrown out by volcanoes, adding that the small rainfall of 

 the Secondary periods is accounted for by the absence of 

 volcanic action during those periods ! Then we meet 

 with our old acquaintance the former excess of carbonic 

 acid in the air and its influence on the ancient climate of 

 the polar regions — possibly correct, but certainly hypo- 

 thetical. Further on, speaking of the origin of the con- 

 tinental platform at a depth of 200 metres, the author 

 states that this feature results from the raising of the 

 general level of the sea from the melting of the 

 Quaternary ice ; and from this hypothetical raising he 

 arrives at the result that the mass of the Quaternary ice 

 corresponded to the total mass of the sea now lying 

 above the level of the continental platform. Another 

 speculation relates to the breaking through of the Indian 

 Ocean across Siberia to the Polar seas, thus causing a 

 milder climate, and accounting also for the parallel roads 

 of Glen Roy and the terraces in Norway and Greenland. 

 We cannot pretend to follow the reasoning, but it is all 

 somehow connected with the author's theory " qu'a une 

 diminution de la density des mers correspond un abaisse- 

 ment de leur surface." C. R. 



Webster's International Dictionary of the English Lan- 

 guage. Revised and Enlarged under the Supervision 

 of Noah Porter, D.D., LL.D. (London : George Bell 

 and Sons. Springfield, Mass. U.S.A. : G. and C. 

 Merriam and Co.) 

 Webster's Dictionary is so well known on both sides 

 of the Atlantic that it is unnecessary to do much more 

 than note the appearance of the present edition. The 

 work was published originally in 1828, after which it was 

 steadily improved in successive issues. It has now been 

 revised so thoroughly, and with the aid of so many com- 

 petent scholars, that for popular use it can hardly fail to 

 maintain the ground it has already won. Much promin- 

 ence is given to "the definitions and illustrations of 

 scientific, technological, and zoological terms," and in 

 the preface to the English edition it is stated that no 

 pains have been spared to make this part of the book " as 

 perfect as possible in both text and illustration." The 



NO. II 2 7, VOL. 44] 



definitions in particular branches of science have been 

 revised by such men as Prof. H. A. Newton and Prof. 

 E. S. Dana— names which are a sufficient guarantee for 

 the way in which the task has been accomplished. In the 

 department of etymology. Prof. E. S. Sheldon, of Harvard 

 University, has carefully dealt with the results presented 

 in the last edition, bringing them into accord with the 

 philological ideas of the present day. The pictorial 

 illustrations are numerous, and well adapted to the pur- 

 poses for which they are inserted. 



Elementary Chemistry; for Beginners. By W. Jerome 



Harrison, F.G.S. (London: Blackie and Son, 1890.) 

 This volume bf 144 pages consists of an expansion of 

 the author's notes of lessons prepared for teaching 

 children from nine to thirteen years 6f age according to 

 the outHnes given in the education code.. The informa- 

 tion is conveyed in familiar language, and each chapter 

 closes with a series of questions which are well calculated 

 to test the child's progress. It is a pity to issue any book 

 that deals with scientific matters without a contents table 

 and an index, and we fear that the absence of these in 

 the present case will lead to inconvenience. And we 

 would suggest that the quantities selected for the examples 

 might approximate more closely to those most generally 

 employed. The hydrogen from the use of a ton of zinc, the 

 preparation of 1000 lbs. of carbon dioxide, eighteen quarts 

 of oxygen mixed with an equal volume of hydrogen and 

 exploded, ten gallons of hydrogen mixed with half its 

 volume of chlorine and exposed to sunlight, indicate ex- 

 periments on an extravagant if not an appalling scale. 

 These, however, are matters of detail. The notes of so 

 successful a teacher as Mr. Jerome Harrison cannot fail 

 to be valuable to others who are engaged in a like work 

 as well as to the students themselves. 



Examination of Water for Sanitary and Technical Pur- 

 poses. By Henry Leffmann, M.D., Ph.D., and William 

 Beam, M. A. Second Edition. (London : Kegan Paul, 

 Trench, Triibner and Co., Ltd., 1891.) 

 The fact that a second edition has been called for only 

 two years after the issue of the first, shows that this 

 excellent hand-book has been very generally appreciated. 

 The authors have revised the work and made many addi- 

 tions to it chiefly of processes that have recently grown 

 in importance. Among the principal of these additions, we 

 observe that the three pages on " Living Organisms in 

 Water " of the first edition are now expanded into a chapter 

 of thirteen pages entitled, " Biological Examinations," A 

 table of culture phenomena of some of the more import- 

 ant microbes is given. But concerning this inatter the 

 authors state that " until pathogenic microbes are more 

 clearly indicated and described, the methods will be of 

 little use in dealing with the problem of the determina- 

 tion of the sanitary and technical value of water sup- 

 plies." 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Ntilher can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of '^a.tv'r.ts.. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. ] 



The University of London. 

 I DO not wish to criticize in the least Prof. Lankester's 

 valuable statement in your last issue, with which I entirely agree ; 

 but I desire to point out that unless some energetic action is 

 taken very soon we are likely to be farther than ever from the 

 ideal which he has in view — namely, the establishment of a strong 

 professorial University in London. The only scheme at present in 

 the field is that put forward by the Councils of University and 

 King's Colleges in the proposed charter for an Albert University. 



