74 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[April, 1904. 



and the cure is supposed to be miraculous; whereas I suppose 

 that it is really due to the great capillary attractive force they 

 possess, which extracts a certain amount of blood, and with it 

 the poison. After being thoroughly washed out and dried 

 they are ready for another occasion. Yours truly, 



James Searle. 

 [Some experiments recently made in the Government Bac- 

 teriological Laboratory of Natal ha\e shown that the 

 mysterious curative properties ascribed to snake stones 

 are quite illusory. — Editor.] 



The Ancestry of the Elephants. 



Sir, — In the very interesting article on the above subject 

 by Dr. Smith Woodward in the February number, I notice 

 that he calls the fig. No. 6 on p. 13— (Head of Tetrabelodon 

 angustidcus restored) — a fanciful sketch. As a matter of fact, 

 there has been introduced into it a series of circular wrinkles 

 evidently copied from those on the proboscis of the African 

 elephant figured just above it. But it is clear that, as this 

 proboscis was not pendent, no such wrinkles would appear. 

 Moreover, it would seem more probable that its form would 

 not be circular, but rather shaped to fit the elongated chin. 



In that case the mouth would act as a long pair of leathery 

 tweezers, very suitable (with the help of the incurved tusks) 

 for gathering in large mouthfuls of long, quick-growing marsh 

 vegetation. The sharp incisors would enable this to be 

 quickly cut off, and the ponderous animal could without delay 

 move his weight on to firmer ground to masticate the food at 

 leisure. 



As the species moved further north to harder ground and 

 tougher vegetation, a more prehensile grip would be useful 

 rather than a speedy way of gathering food together, whereas 

 the incurved tusk and elongated mandible would not only be 

 useless but highly inconvenient. Thus as the proboscis 

 became longer and rounder, the lengthened chin disappeared 

 entirely ; and the mammoth with its highly developed molars 

 was able to subsist even on the hard and tough vegetation 

 within the Arctic Circle. 



Herbert Drake. 



Verwood, Dorset, February 26, 19(^4. 



REVIEW OF BOOKS. 



Animal Studies, by David Starr Jordan, Vernon Lyman 

 Kellog, and Harold Heath. (New York and London : 

 Appleton and Co., 1903.) This admirable little treatise is one 

 of the " Twentieth Century Text Books," and bears a very 

 close resemblance to the volume on " Animal Life " — also of 

 this series by the same authors — reviewed in the columns of 

 "Knowledge" in igoi. It differs indeed, mainly, in the 

 addition of several chapters on Classification ; and on the 

 economic value and past history of animals. As an elemen- 

 tary text book of Zoology it must take high rank among works 

 of its kind, and will doubtless find a ready sale in this 

 country. Here and there, however, great opportunities have 

 been missed, and more or less serious mistakes are made. 

 Thus, in the chapter on the Classification of Birds, the auks 

 and pufiins are placed with the grebes and divers, the authors 

 having been apparently led astray, like the older systematists, by 

 the curious structural resemblance which these birds present 

 in common. As a matter of fact, however, the resemblance 

 to the grebes and divers which the auks, puffins, and guille- 

 mots present are entirely adaptive. Their nearest relatives 

 are, without question, the plovers and gulls. So, too, with 

 the gulls and terns, these have nothing whatever to do with the 

 petrels and albatrosses with which they are associated in this 

 book. The resemblances which they severally present are 

 again adaptive. It is equally misleading to place the owls 

 with the accipiters. Turning to the mammals, we may remark 

 that, as with the birds, the classification adopted is antiquated. 

 Nevertheless, in spite of the defects to which we have drawn 

 attention, the work is one which we can heartily commend. 



Pictures of Bird Life, by R. B. Lodge (Bousfield;, illustrated j 



27s. 6d. net. — Mr. R. B. Lodge has produced a most delightful 

 book. The illustrations, which are very numerous, are all re- 

 produced from his own photographs of birds and their nests 

 taken from life. We see many such photographs nowadays, 

 but none better than those reproduced in this book. There 

 are eight full-paged plates reproduced by the three-colour 

 process from photographs coloured by hand. We must con- 

 fess that we would sooner have had these photographs with- 

 out the colouring, which, in most cases, is not altogether true 

 to Nature. The letterpress is interesting, and often very in- 

 forming. Mr. Lodge has made the most of his opportunities, 

 and tells us how and where he obtained his photographs. He 

 has photographed birds in the Dutch marshes, Spanish inaris- 

 mas, and Danish marshes and forests, and in many places in 

 England besides. He gives many valuable hints to those who 

 would take up bird-photography, and describes several in- 

 genious devices and tricks which he has himself used with 

 success. The most notable of these is his automatic electric 

 photo-trap, whereby he traps the bird's portrait by hiding the 

 camera and inducing the bird by bait or otherwise to touch a 

 piece of silk, and thus set an electric battery at work to release 

 the shutter of the camera. Many of Mr. Lodge's observations 

 on the habits of the birds which he has watched so long and 

 so closely while trying to secure their portraits are most valu- 

 able. He may not have discovered much that was unknown, 

 but his remarks are the result of direct and careful observa- 

 tion, and this can never be without great value. There are 

 several repetitions in the book which might have been avoided 

 by more careful editing. The sentence, " The Hooded Crow 

 I do not remember seeing so far south" (Enfield) (p. 124), 

 might be put in a less ambiguous form. The bird is, of course, 

 to be seen commonly further south than London. Mr. Lodge 

 will find that the vibratory noise made by woodpeckers is 

 heard not only in the spring (p. 138). But these are only 

 small points, and are only mentioned in view of a possible 

 second edition of this excellent book. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



The Grant and Validity of British Patents for Inventions, by 



James Roberts. .M..-\., LL.H. (John Murray, one vol. ; price 

 25s.). This work has been written for and from the point of 

 view of the inventor. It is intended to enable him to confine his 

 claims to what can be supported and to avoid errors in his 

 specification. The first part consists of the principles and 

 rules affecting the grant and validity of British patents, and 

 the practice respecting the atnendaient of specifications both 

 before the Comptroller-General and the Law Officers of the 

 Crown; the second part of abstracts of cases, illustrating 

 the application of these priuciples; and the third part, the 

 statutes and rules. The scope and tenour of the book are such 

 as to make it useful to practising lawyers as well as to inventors. 



Mathematical Crystallography, by Harold Hilton, M.A. 

 (Oxford : The Clarendon Press). Mr. Hilton's expressed 

 purpose is to collect in this volume those results of the 

 mathematical theory of crystallography which arc not provided 

 in the modern text books on that subject in the English 

 language. He includes a valuable summary of the geometrical 

 theory of crystal structure which the labour of Bravais Jordan. 

 Schneke, Fedorow. Schoenflics. and Barlow have now com- 

 pleted. It is a student's book ; an advanced, but an extremely 

 valuable one. 



Zoology, Descriptive and Practical. (Two Vols. D. C. 

 Heath; price 4s. 6d. and 2S.) — The general plan of the 

 volumes is to introduce each of the larger groups of animals 

 by a careful study of a typical representative. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



The Naturalist's Directory (L. Upcott Gill) :— Introduction to 

 the Study of I'hvsical Chemistry, by Sir William Ramsay— a 

 wholly admirable allocution to stude'nts. (Longmans, Green.) 



Martins Up-to-DateTables of Weights and Measures. (T.Fisher 

 Unwin.) 



