September 15, 1892 J 



NATURE 



461 



The portions of the volume dealing with the fauna and 



flora, both of land and sea, are well done, and ought to 

 prove of the utmost utility and service to naturalists. 

 Dr. Packard has done the work of an explorer in a most 

 masterly manner, not only setting before us the geo- 

 graphical skeleton of Labrador, but doing much, so far as 

 his opportunities went —and no man's have gone farther — 

 to clothe the bones with an array of many of the necessary 

 facts for the building up of a complete account of the 

 territory. To those who come after him may be left the 

 task of filling in many details ; the greater part of the 

 work has already been accomplished, and the record is 

 before us in these pages. 



There is an excellent index, but the maps and illustra- 

 tions are far from clear, and require much more distinct- 

 ness than has been given them. A word of the highest 

 praise must be accorded to the bibliography, which must 

 have given the author a vast amount of trouble before it 

 assumed its present admirable shape. 



THE SANITARY INSTITUTE AND ITS 

 TRANSACTIONS IN REVIEW. 

 The Transactions of the Sanitary Instittite, 1891. Vol. 

 XII. (London, 1892.) 



THE Transactions of the Sanitary Institute cannot fail 

 to interest a considerable section of the community 

 now that the general principles of sanitation have become 

 so generally appreciated, and fresh sanitary matter is so 

 eagerly devoured— and generally assimilated— by the 

 enlightened section of the public. 



It may not be generally known that the Institute only 

 dates its birth from the year 1876, and this fact will be 

 the more difficult to grasp when one notes in the well- 

 bound volume of which we write, the present scope of its 

 transactions. 



The headquarters of the Institute are in Margarec 

 Street, W., in a building known as the Parkes' Museum, 

 so-called to commemorate the celebrated Hygienist of 

 that name. The whole purpose of this museum is to 

 serve as a means of practical demonstration for the diffu- 

 sion of knowledge in sanitary science, and at the present 

 day it undoubtedly forms the best collection in Great 

 Britain of all the various apparatus and material which 

 can be claimed to have any connection with the public 

 health. The value of such an institution does not need 

 insistence upon here ; but the remarks of the chairman. 

 Sir Douglas Galton, in his recent address, may be aptly 

 reproduced. " The evils," he says, " of our congested 

 population meet us at every turn. If our progenitors 

 had been properly educated in sanitary matters, our towns 

 would not have been allowed to contain unhealthy locali- 

 ties ; houses would not have been permitted to be built on 

 damp unhealthy sites ; buildings would not have been 

 constructed so as to impede the circulation of air and in- 

 cidence of light. Our town populations would not have 

 been allowed to grow up herded together like the beasts 

 of the field, without moral training or self-restraint ; and 

 our country population would not have been allowed to 

 destroy the healthy conditions which surround them, by 

 vitiating the pure air, and by contaminating the springs 

 of pure water. The Sanitary Institute is thus the direct 

 outgrowth of the public need for sanitary education ! " 

 NO. I 194, VOL. 46] 



An excellent descriptive catalogue of the contents of 

 the museum has recently b;ei co npiled, and those only 

 among the 11,500 persons who have visited the building 

 during the year ending March, 1892, who were acquainted 

 with the museum so recently as eighteen months ago, 

 can appreciate at its true worth the value of this addi- 

 tion, and can adequately testify to the improvement in 

 the arrangement and grouping of the various sanitary 

 appliances which has also been effected. This catalogue 

 is bound up with the last volume of *' Transactions," 

 which, in addition, includes a lengthy list of Fellows, 

 Members, and Associates of the Institute ; a list of the 

 contributions to the very valuable library during 1891 ; 

 a very full report of valuable and able papers of hygienic 

 interest, which have been read by Dr. Louis Parkes, Mr, 

 Grantham, Prof. Wynter Blyth, and Sir Douglas 

 Galton. The volume also contains a copy of the Annual 

 Report of the Council, and a glimpse of this gives one a 

 capital insight into the scope and work of the Institute. 



In the lecture-room, in addition to papers such as 

 those referred to above, a systematic course of lectures 

 for sanitary officers is given throughout the year by a 

 staff of exceptionally capable lecturers, including as it 

 does such gentlemen as Sir Douglas Galton, Prof. 

 Corfield, Dr. Louis Parkes, Mr. Shirley Murphy, Prof. 

 Wynter Blyth, Prof. H. Robinson, &c. That the worth 

 of these lectures is appreciated is sufficiently exemplified 

 by the fact that 161 students attended them during the 

 year ; nor are they lacking attractions similar to that 

 which insured the constant attendance of young Mr. 

 Parker at the village choir-meetings, for they are regularly 

 patronized by one or two female devotees of the Goddess 

 Hygeia. There are, however, lectures provided entirely 

 for ladies by Dr. A. T. Schofield, who treated the follow- 

 ing subjects in his last course : — 



" The Domestic Treatment of Disease." 



" Microbes." 



." Physical Culture." 



" The Care of Old Age." 

 These have been well attended, and the Duchess of 

 Albany recently presented the prizes gained by those 

 who emerged successfully from a competitive class 

 examination upon these subjects. The Institute holds 

 e.xaminations twice yearly for inspectors of nuisances and 

 local surveyors. At these examinations 361 candidates 

 presented themselves during the year, and 246 received 

 "certificates of competency." Both lectures and exami- 

 nations are now being provided in several large pro- 

 vincial towns, at a great saving of expense and trouble to 

 aspirants for the "certificate of competency," and with 

 the apparent effect of considerably stimulating local 

 interest in sanitary matters. Finally, the annual Health 

 Congress held under the auspices of the Institute is 

 always an instructive and interesting feature in its pro- 

 ceedings, and is largely attended and much appreciated. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Cooky s Cyclopcedia of Practical Receipts. By W. 



North, M.A. Camb., F.C.S. Seventh Edition, revised 



and greatly enlarged. (London : J. and A. Churchill, 



1892.) 



This work is intended as a general book of reference for 



manufacturers, tradesmen, amateurs, and heads of families, 



