June 9, 1892 



NA TURE 



25 



Ball has made all these the text for a clear account of 

 our present knowledge of higher space. The two last 

 chapters rapidly survey "Time and its Measurement" 

 and " The Constitution of Matter." 



Our analysis shows how great an extent of ground is 

 covered by the " Mathematical Recreations," and when 

 we add that the account is fully pervaded by the attractive 

 charm Mr. Ball knows so well how to infuse into what 

 many persons would look upon as a dry subject, we have 

 said all we can to commend it to our readers. The book 

 is most carefully printed (only three or four typographical 

 errors have met our eye, and the figures on pp. 32 and 33 

 the student will recognize must be drawn incorrectly). 



SOILS AND MANURES. 

 Soils and Manures. By John M. H. Munro, D.Sc. 

 (Lond.) (London : Cassell, 1892.) 



THE preface to this book informs us that " it is 

 written for the use of young people in schools and 

 colleges, and those numerous other readers who take an 

 intelligent interest in the how and why of familiar facts 

 and operations, yet have no special training in the 

 language and methods of science." 



We must admit that Dr. Munro has succeeded in his 

 endeavour to write a book so simple that it may be put 

 into the hands of a beginner with confidence that he will 

 find few difficulties unexplained, and so trustworthy that 

 the more advanced student may find it helpful and 

 suggestive. 



We are having a flood of small agricultural books just 

 now, consequent upon the great movement for technical 

 education in England, but we believe that this book will 

 reach two classes of readers which the majority of other 

 text-books do not seem to have affected. These two 

 classes of readers are farmers and teachers in elementary 

 schools. Too many of these books are written with the 

 idea of preparing students for examination, and they may 

 serve their purpose, but are not very likely to help for- 

 ward the cause of technical education in agriculture to 

 any considerable extent. 



Such education has lately been much talked about, and 

 written about also, and men of authority and experience 

 have even gone so far as to say that the recent attempts 

 to promote it have mostly been failures. But if the 

 means employed have proved inadequate or unsuitable, 

 it does not follow that technical education in agriculture 

 is unnecessary, or that suitable means and methods of 

 promoting it cannot be found. 



To attempt to teach the principles of agriculture to 

 men who have no knowledge of either elementary 

 chemistry or botany can scarcely be expected to be 

 generally successful, nor do we hear good accounts of 

 lectures given to farmers by men whose agricultural ex- 

 perience has been mainly limited to the class-room and 

 the laboratory, and who are apt to confound agricultural 

 chemistry with agriculture itself. Yet there are very many 

 earnest workers on the County Councils, who have the 

 cause of agricultural education too much at heart to let a 

 few failures and disappointments dishearten them, and, 

 before very long, we feel sure that they will have more 

 reason for congratulation than at present. 

 NO. 1 1 80, VOL. 46] 



Meanwhile, we can welcome this book of Dr. Munro's 

 and wish it the success it deserves, for not only does the 

 author avoid errors himself but he corrects a few which 

 some other writers of elementary text-books on agri- 

 culture have fallen into. Thus, on pp. 20 and 132, he 

 removes the impression which many beginners get (from 

 some " cram-books " we have seen) that silica in a soluble 

 form is very essential as a plant-food, especially to cereals- 

 Only those who are familiar with answers to examination 

 papers in agriculture have any idea how frequently this 

 mistake is made. 



The first part of the book, comprising five chapters, 

 will give the reader a very good account of soils, their 

 formation and properties ; also of plant-food in the soil, 

 how it is increased, and how rendered available for the 

 use of plants. Included in this first part are two chapters 

 on " Improving the Land " and " Tillage Operations," 

 from the pen of Prof. Wrightson. These fit in well with 

 the rest of the work. 



The second part deals with the subject of manures 

 pretty exhaustively, the author giving many illustrations 

 from the Rothamsted experiments. The last chapter, 

 on "Special Manures," gives instructions for valuing 

 artificial manures from the chemical analysis, and we feel 

 sure that the matter dealt with in this chapter will be 

 specially useful, and do at least a little to help the farmer 

 from being defrauded by some few unscrupulous manu- 

 facturers, still, unhappily, existent amongst us. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Catalogue of the Specimens illustrating the Osteology of 

 Vertebraied Animals, Recent and Extinct, contained in 

 the Museutn of the Royal College of Surgeons of Eng- 

 land. Part III., Class Aves. By R. Bowdler Sharpe, 

 LL.D. (London : Printed for the College and sold by 

 Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, 

 1891.) 

 The first point of interest in looking into this Catalogue 

 was to ascertain which of the innumerable schemes of 

 bird classification had been adopted by the author ; we 

 have so many of them nowadays. Sometimes they 

 come upon us two at a time ; and to make confusion 

 worse, aged schemes of classification, which one hoped had 

 long ago sunk into a dishonoured grave, are sprung upon 

 us in a fresh edition. The plan followed by Dr. Sharpe 

 is that of Mr. Seebohm, " elaborated in his ' Birds of the 

 Japanese Empire,' " with a few modifications. Under each 

 order is the diagnosis ; and there are a few references 

 to the anatomical literature of the subject, which is an 

 addition to the value of the work. These are not very 

 full, but perhaps it is hardly necessary that they should 

 be. A feature of this catalogue is the introduction of 

 illustrations ; there are a good many of these — 48 in all. 

 They are for the most part figures of the skull, but the 

 syringes of a few birds and the deep plantar tendons of 

 more are also illustrated ; two figures illustrate pterylosis, 

 and two more the under surface of the foot. The illustra- 

 tions in every case are good. The Catalogue is not encum- 

 bered with huge lists of synonyms : there is only the most 

 recently accepted name given, together with a few of 

 the most important synonyms. The collection of bones 

 consists of 2380 specimens, representing altogether a 

 little over one thousand species. Some of the fossil forms 

 are of course represented by casts only ; but a number of 

 important extinct species,notablyamongtheDinornithidae, 

 are well represented by the actual remains, in many 

 instances the types of the species in question. We may 



