324 



NATURE 



[February 6, 1896 



instinct, that the permanent homes of locusts are situate 

 in sterile land, and it would have been well to remove 

 the common misconception that the winged swarms are 

 the chief enemies of the agriculturist ; it is against the 

 march of the larvae, here graphically described in the 

 words of an eye-witness, that he has specially to guard. 



There are a few inaccuracies and examples of loose 

 expression, of which one or two may be mentioned. The 

 author states that " the anterior portion of the intestine 

 is the smaller, and is frequently spoken of as the colon," 

 ■whereas elsewhere he alludes specifically to the ileum, 

 which is often distinguishable. Certain glands in connec- 

 ition with the uterus are twice called the " serific," once 

 the " sebific " glands ; which term is meant is not clear. 

 He adapts the term "instar" from Fischer to denote the 

 form of an insect during a " stadium," that is, between 

 consecutive ecdyses, but elsewhere he speaks not quite 

 <:onsistently of different instars as connoting a change of 

 form, as well as of stadium. The reference to Chatin's 

 views on the morphology of the mandible, would lead one 

 to suppose that Chatin had found articulated mandibles 

 in Evibia. This is not the case ; Chatin merely com- 

 pared the parts of the mandibulate mass with the joints 

 of the maxilla, and did so for many mandibulate insects 

 and not Embia alone. 



The standard which this work sets, if followed 

 throughout the series, will leave the " Cambridge Natural 

 History" without a rival. The book is one to be read 

 not merely by entomologists, whose work it will certainly 

 influence, but by general zoologists. The attention 

 paid to insects in zoological teaching is quite dispro- 

 portionate to the place they occupy in the animal 

 kingdom ; but hitherto zoologists have had no guide to 

 what is best worth knowing on the subject. 



The volume presents all the beauty and finish which 

 mark its precursor in the series. The illustrations, 

 •original or from original papers, are admirable ; some 

 •of these we are permitted to reproduce. Fig. 120 has 

 been drawn in an inverted position and is not quite clear, 

 and a much better figure of Cylindrodes than the one 

 ^Mven, accompanies Gray's original account of the genus. 

 W. F. H. Blandford. 



MEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF RONTGEN'S 

 DISCOVERY. 



THE new photography has received the official recog- 

 nition which is usually given to scientific discovery in 

 'Germany. Prof Rontgen has been honoured by the 

 Emperor, and the Prussian Minister of War has caused 

 ■experiments to be made in order to discover whether the 

 method can be applied successfully to army surgery. A 

 series of photographs of bone injuries have shown so 

 clearly the nature of the wounds and the position of 

 imbedded projectiles that it has been determined to carry 

 on the experiments on a larger scale. 



Medical science seems likely to benefit much by the 

 application of Prof Rontgen's discovery. The British 

 Medical Journal thinks, as an aid to diagnosis of obscure 

 fractures and internal lesions generally, the new photo- 

 graphy will be of great value. From our contemporary 

 we note that already a beginning has been made in this 

 ■direction, and Prof. Mosetig, of Vienna, has taken photo- 

 graphs which showed with the greatest clearness and 

 precision the injuries caused by a revolver-shot in the 

 left hand of a man, and the position of the small projec- 

 tile. In another case t'he same observer detected the 

 position and nature of a malformation in the left foot of 

 a girl with entire success. Prof Lannelongue, of Paris, 

 has also been successful in photographing some of his 

 •cases in his ward at the Trousseau Hospital, and, assisted 

 by MM. Oudin and Barthelemy, has submitted to the 

 Academy of Sciences several negatives of human limbs. 

 One of them represented a diseased thigh-bone. The 



NO. 1 37 1, VOL. 53] 



destroyed central portions had been penetrated by the 

 light, forming white blotches on the plate. Another 

 photograph was that of a tuberculous affection of the 

 bone in a child's hand. The disease had been diagnosed, 

 but photography brought complete confirmation to the 

 diagnosis. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Lancet, referring to 

 the practical use being made of the discovery, says in 

 one case a finger which had sustained a compound frac- 

 ture, and from which a sequestrum had been removed, 

 was photographed by the new process, and the regenera- 

 tion of the bone was thereby made visible. In another 

 case the position of a piece of glass embedded in the 

 tissues was ascertained by the same method. Similar 

 reports come from other Universities, as, for instance, 

 from Berne, where Prof Kocher has photographed a 

 needle in a woman's hand ; it had made its way under 

 the skin some time ago, and had not been found by any 

 other means. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE NEW 

 PHOTOGRAPHY. 



lyr UMEROUS pictures are now being taken by means ot 

 -l-^ the new method. The accompanying illustration, 

 which we owe to the kindness of Prof Nernst, and the 

 original of which was made by him in the Physical-chemical 

 Laboratory at Gottingen, represents a human hand as 



photographed by means of the Rontgen rays. It will be 

 seen that the flesh is very nearly transparent for these 

 rays, while the bones, the gold ring, the piece of wire, 

 and the glass tube are practically opaque. The ring 

 and wire, which were naturally in contact with the flesh 

 of the fingers, appear in the illustration as if suspended 

 in the air WiLLlAM J. S. LOCKYER. 



