December, 1911. 



KNOWLEDGE. 



477 



Clusters -\xd Nebul.^e. 



M 38 



M I 



M 42 



M 37 



.\I 41 



Dec. 



35° 49'N- 

 21 57 N. 



5 ^7S. 

 32 32 N. 



24 21 N. 

 4 56 N. 



20 38 S. 



Cruciform cluster. 



The Crab Nebula; l' N.W. of 



S" Tauri. 

 Great Nebula in Orion. 

 Even in smaller instruments 



extremely beautiful (Webb). 

 Very rich field. 



Fine cluster, visible to naked eye. 

 \'isible to naked eye, 4° S. of 



Sirius. 



Editori.\l Note. 



In accordance with the wishes of many of our readers Mr. 

 Shackleton has, for the last few months, kindh- made his 

 notes on " The Face of the Sky " deal with the first week or 

 so of the month following the date of issue of the Magazine, 

 so that any delay iu the receipt of the latter might not affect 

 the usefulness of the column. 



With this number, on account of the increasing pressure of 

 other duties. Mr. Shackleton has given up the work which he 

 has so well carried on for many years, and Dr. Crommelin, 

 who has been so good as to undertake the duty, will prepare 

 his notes a month ahead, so that " The Face of the Sky for 

 January "' is printed here. Our readers abroad will thus be in 

 the same position as those at home. 



NOTICES. 



TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE BY MEANS OF BOOKS. 

 — The undersigned is preparing a paper upon " Books as a 

 Source of Disease," to be read before the next " International 

 Congress of H\-,giene." and in order to obtain data, respect- 

 fully requests the readers of this note to send him an account 

 of any cases the source of which have been traced to books 

 or papers, or where the evidence seemed to make books or 

 papers the offender. He would also further request informa- 

 tion where illness or even death has been caused bv the 

 poisons used in book-making. 



All the information possible is wanted to present as com- 

 plete a paper as possible. As in the case of insects which we 

 now know to be " carriers of disease." it is first necessar)' to 

 collect scattered evidence in order to show that there is real 

 danger in books ; and this will compel better care to be taken 

 of libraries and books, and improve the health of mankind. — 

 \Vm. R. Reinick, 1709, Wallace Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 



BOTANY IN THE " ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITAN- 

 NICA." — .^ careful perusal of the botanical articles in the 

 eleventh edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica" shows that 

 the revision of this section of the great work has been entrusted 

 to rehable and experienced hands. The result is that, with a 

 certain amount of addition in some directions and wholesale 

 excision in others, this collection of articles would form an 

 exceedin.gly good basis for a modern text book of Botany — 

 certainly a much better one than any English work so far 

 produced. Here and there the antiquity of the illustration 

 blocks reminds one irresistibly of the fount whence the authors 



of " Wisdom While You Wait " drew so largely in writing 

 their amusing skit, and it seems a pity that important articles 

 on those departments of Botany in which so much recent 

 literature is available have not been illustrated more 

 adequately by new figures from that literature. 



Most of the articles dealing with the great divisions of the 

 \egetable kingdom — e.g. Algae, Fungi, Bryophyta. Pterido- 

 phyta, Gymnosperms — are models of hicidity, though in some 

 cases interesting points have been omitted owing to the 

 doubtless unavoidably small limits of space allotted to the 

 compilers. In some cases this limitation has not permitted 

 of the inclusion of speculative or controversial matter or of 

 discussions regarding the relationships of the various groups. 

 We get the facts, but very little of the " salt of morpho- 

 logical ideas," to use an expressive phrase of the late Sir 

 Michael Foster's. However, there is in most cases a well- 

 selected bibliography at the end of each of the longer articles, 

 whence the reader may find guidance to the literature of the 

 subject dealt with. 



It is difficult to imagine what general principles, if any. 

 underlie the selection of the biographies given in the list of 

 botanical articles. Some of the naturalists whose Hves are 

 summarised can hardly be said to bulk largely in the history 

 of Botany or to have advanced the science to such an extent 

 as did many workers whose names are missing from the list. 

 Among the omissions, one may mention such names as those 

 of the two Gartners (K. F. and J.), Hedwig. Ingenhouss. the 

 Schimpers. Spruce and Unger. 



