[OO 



NATURE 



[December 5, 1895 



ing some well-known economical value for the people." 

 The fauna chapter is remarkable chiefly for its full list of 

 the birds of Kashmir — a region very rich in birds— and 

 Tiere the author is able to introduce a number of original 

 observations. 



In the remainder of the book he writes as an authority 

 of the first rank, and conveys a mass of new and admir- 

 ably digested information. His contact with the people 

 was evidently of a sympathetic character. The Kashmiri 

 is usually not beloved by the European. His effeminate 

 ■dress is against him, to start with. His moral and 

 physical cowardice seem superlative. He appears to be 

 fundamentally a liar and a cheat. Such, indeed, are too 

 often the characteristics of the boatmen class with whom 

 the traveller comes most in contact. But the Kashmiri 

 shikari is of a finer sort, and many of them are well be- 

 held by their employers. Mr. Lawrence explains that the 

 truly typical Kashmiri peasant is really more of the latter 

 type. He has vices, patent enough ; but they are rather 

 to be ascribed to the misgovernment, of which he has been 

 victim for centuries, than to any original sin. The people 

 are conscious of their degradation, and explain that it is 

 the result of a curse from heaven, against which it is idle 

 to protest. That curse Mr. Lawrence has done much to 

 remove. In his quiet methodical fashion he has gone 

 through the country with open eyes and healing hands. 

 It is to be assumed that he went there to do a piece of 

 work, and did it to the best of his ability, with no flaming 

 ideals and high-sounding intentions. As a result, he has 

 accomplished an amelioration in the lot of some hundreds 

 of thousands of his fellow-creatures, great enough to 

 warrant a less efficient founder of a new religion being 

 raised to a pinnacle of eternal sanctity. 



It is impossible within the limits of a brief review to 

 give any idea of the volume and extent of work involved 

 in the Settlement, and now actually accomplished. I was 

 myself witness of some of its smaller fragments and 

 effects. Still less can any idea be given of the value of 

 the author's contributions to anthropology contained in 

 this volume. He has entered into the life of the village 

 and the cottage, and returned with note-books full of 

 accurate and first-hand information. The greatest of his 

 literary successes lies in the fact that he makes plain what 

 a rich mine still remains to be worked. Here is folk-lore 

 to be written down that would keep several men busy for 

 years. Here is an important language to be studied. 

 Here are customs of high antiquity yet remaining to be 

 recorded and classified. It is to be hoped that Mr. 

 Lawrence's book, besides bnnging to him the high 

 honour that is his due, and embodying a mass of most 

 valuable facts and observations, will have a yet higher 

 efficiency, in that it will get others to work along the lines, 

 here laid down, to results yet more important and com- 

 plete. W. Martin Conway 



METALLURGICAL PROCESSES. 



Metallurgy. An Elemeiiiary Text-book. By E. L, 



Rhead. (London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895.) 



'HP HE author's aim has been to present, within narrow 



-L limits, a clear and concise account of metallurgical 



processes, and he has done his work conscientiously, for 



much information has been included in the 271 pages of 



NO. 1362, VOL. 53] 



the volume, which also claims to be a " small handy book 

 of reference." This claim can, however, hardly be sus- 

 tained, though the publication of the work is amply 

 justified, mainly for the following reason. It is difficult 

 to make the ordinary student of chemistry understand 

 that metallurgical processes differ essentially from those 

 he is taught in a chemical laboratory, for as regards 

 " wet " processes the reactions which occur in large 

 volumes of dilute liquids, held in tanks, are often more 

 complicated than the chemical changes which may be 

 studied with the aid of test-tubes or beakers. In dry 

 processes also the student has to deal with problems 

 which involve a knowledge of the influence exerted by 

 mass and high temperatures, and his laboratory ex- 

 perience is often at fault. The sooner, therefore, that 

 students are taught the need for special instruction in 

 metallurgy the better, and a little volume like this one 

 under review is to be welcomed, more especially as the 

 author is careful to point out " that the equations given 

 for reactions occurring at elevated temperatures only 

 partially express the truth." He says that " details are 

 only given when necessary for the sake of clearness "; and 

 this reveals the weak point of his scheme. It is impossible 

 to give details as to the extraction of individual metals 

 from their ores in a book of this size, and it would have 

 been better to have limited the range of the little volume 

 to a consideration of the principles on which metallurgy 

 is based. 



There are several things which present themselves, 

 even to a rapid glance through the pages, as needing 

 change or modification. For instance, it is stated in the 

 introduction that " a gold structure of the same strength 

 as an iron one would be nearly nine times as heavy"; an 

 illustration which is ij^ot very apt, as mere weight is 

 not the only thing which prevents gold being used 

 for constructive purposes. Standard gold would make a 

 very fair gun, but it would be a costly form of armament. 

 On p. 3, it is stated that " all metals, with the excep- 

 tion of chromium, have been reduced to a fluid condition 

 by heat"; but chromium is no exception, as it is not difficult 

 to fuse even the carbon free metal in the electric arc. 

 Moissan has, in fact, shown that titanium is the least 

 fusible metal known, though he succeeded in melting it. 

 There is another use of the words "cold-short" than the 

 one given on p. 4, for " cold-shorts " ; and the student 

 should be warned of this, as it is a point upon which an 

 examiner would expect rigid accuracy. Turning through 

 the pages, on p. 224 it is stated that during the roasting 

 of certain silver ores the gold " is chlorinated, and thus 

 dissolved out." This is practically not the case, though the 

 mistake is not an unnatural one. The brief description, 

 given on pp.231-232, of hydrauHc mining is very defective ; 

 the head is said to be " sometimes 200 feet," it really some- 

 times is as much as 500 feet. Somewhat ancient prac- 

 tice is described in relation to the stamp battery for 

 crushing quartz. In describing the cyanide process for 

 extracting gold, the author thinks that it would " displace 

 the chlorination process if a cheaper method of making 

 cyanide can be found"; but the progress of the very im- 

 portant Mc Arthur- Forrest process has not, really, been 

 in the least impeded by the cost of the cyanide. The 

 reviewer has, however, been over-captious. He has per- 

 sistently advocated teaching the methods of conducting 



