154 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[July, 1905. 



graph of the moon's surface in the volume before us certainly 

 suggests, as a cause of the shallow craters, the falling-in of 

 bodies, as much as the belching-out of lava or bombs. The 

 reproduction in another part of the book of fossil rain-mark- 

 ings bears a remarkable resemblance, on a small scale, to 

 what have been long regarded as lunar craters, except that the 

 small central cones are nearly always absent in the former. 

 This may, however, be due merely to the great fluidity of 

 water, and because the rain-drops were quickly absorbed in 

 the sedimentarj- deposit forming, and since the falling body 

 was more fluid than the receiving body. Let the falling body 

 be the more solid of the two, then the more fluid will give rise 

 to a central cone, on the disappearance within of the falling 

 body, and the permanence or otherwise of the cone will 

 depend on the degree to which the receiving body has 

 approached solidity. The subject is fascinating. The moon 

 may have been the recipient of a bombardment, rather than 

 the bombarding clement itself. 



In the 76 pages devoted to the work of snow and ice we 

 have this most difficult subject dealt with in an admirable 

 manner. The illustrations are superb, and show, in many 

 cases very clearly, the remarkable stratified formation of 

 exposed sections of glaciers. .Eolian denudation receives 

 due recognition in the chapter dealing with the atmosphere 

 as a geological agent, and the migration of dunes are admir- 

 ably illustrated. There is nothing but praise to be said for 

 the work, and we hope that it may make its way into every 

 important library, and into the hands of many who may feei 

 repelled by the strange. E. A. M. 



Electro Chemistry.— Practical Methodsof Electro-Chemistry, 

 by F.MolKvo Perkin (Longmans, Green and Co.); price6s.net. 

 — Sir William Ramsay has recently spoken of the enormous 

 revolution in our chemical industries, only as yet dimly per- 

 ceived, which awaits the application of electro-chemistry to 

 their development ; and since what is to-day done in the 

 laboratory will to-morrow have to be done in the manufactory, 

 the greatest importance attaches to the establishment of a 

 sound method in the teachingof electro-chemistry to students. 

 That end is brought perceptibly nearer by Dr. F. Mollwo 

 Perkin's sound laboratory guide to these electro-chemical 

 methods, which in recent years have undergone such rapid 

 development and have attained such extreme importance. 

 The volume is above all things practical ; it is what it pro- 

 fesses to be, a real guide and instructor to the student. The 

 ground having been cleared by definitions of electrical 

 magnitudes and units, and by descriptions of measuring in- 

 struments and electrolytic apparatus, the instruction pro- 

 ceeds by graduated steps to the actual methods of electro- 

 chemical analysis. The conditions of the quantitative electro 

 deposition of the metals; a section on quantitative oxidation 

 and reduction of the electrodes; the separation of metals from 

 mixed solutions of their salts ; and finally preparative electro- 

 chemistry — both of inorganic and of organic compounds — are 

 the chief divisions of the book and of its instructional chapters. 

 It is supplemented by a table of five-figure logarithms, with 

 instructions for their use ; and it bears from title to imprint 

 the evidence of the carefully considered work of a scientist 

 who is as well able to impart knowledge as to accumulate and 

 digest it. 



The Rational Almanac (M. B. Cotsworth, Holgate, York; 

 price 5s. net). This is an odd-shaped book of over 470 pages, 

 crammed full of writing, diagrams, and illustrations, and it 

 takes some little time to find out exactly what it is all about. 

 One naturally turns to the "Summation" at the end, where 

 one might expect to find some simple and succinct explanation, 

 but this alone extends over 100 pages, and seems to be a 

 history of the world from early times. A large part of the 

 book is devoted to explanations of the probable astronomical 

 purposes of the Pyramids and many druidical and other erec- 

 tions, and their practical use in connection with the calendar. 

 But we need not refer further to them, interesting though they 

 be. The real object of the book is to suggest a reform in our 

 calendar, and one in favour of which much can be urged. It 

 is to divide the year into 13 months of 2H days each. This 

 would be very convenient, as the days of the week would run 

 concurrently with the days of the month. It is suggested, to 

 complete the year, that Christmas Day should be extra, and 

 not count either as a weekday or day of the month. The 

 author lays stress on what we should consider another matter, I 



that is " the inconvenience which results from drifting Easters," 

 &c. These moveable feasts can be, and we think ought to be, 

 done away with (for business purposes) without otherwise 

 altering our present well-established calendar. 



Studies in General Physiology, by Jacques Loeb. (Chicago. 

 London: Fisher L'nwin; price £1 iis. 6d. net; 782 pp.) — 

 These two volumes will be welcomed by all students of Com- 

 parative Physiolog)', who have hitherto boon obliged to seek 

 for Professor Loeb's papers in the various American and Ger- 

 man periodicals in which they have appeared. " Control of 

 the Phenomena of Life" is the dominant note of his work, 

 which deals witli the mechanical determination of (a) animal 

 motion (heliotropism, geotropism, &c.) ; (6) animal organs (re- 

 generation, heteromorphosis, &c.) ; (r) life itself (fertilisation, 

 artificial production of normal embryos from unfertilised ova, 

 &c.) The arrangement of the book is a little tiresome, the 

 papers being reproduced in order of publication, not grouped 

 together by subject. On the other hand, the vital interest of 

 Loeb's work consists in the development of one point out of 

 another, and we can follow his train of thought from first to 

 last in these studies. The general reader would do well to 

 tuni in the first instance to p. 497 of Part II., where he will 

 find an admirable lo-minutes' lecture on " The Physiological 

 Problems of To-day " (delivered 1897). In this the importance 

 of comparative physiology, which " alone enables us to dis- 

 criminate between the general properties of living matter and 

 the fuuctions of specific organs, such as the blood, the nerves, 

 the sense-organs, chlorophyll. Sec." is insisted on. Professor 

 Loeb pleads for the extension of that field of comp.arative 

 physiology which he terms physical morphology, or " the con- 

 nection between the chemical changes and the process of 

 organisation in living matter," and to this fascinating subject 

 many of his studies are devoted. Of late he has turned from 

 the structural phenomena common to plants and animals to 

 the constitution of living matter itself, as interpreted by 

 physical chemistry (stereo-chemistry, or the geometrical con- 

 figuration of the molecule, osmotic pressure, &c.) ; and the re- 

 mainder of the book is devoted to the brilliant series of experi- 

 ments upon the dissociation of electrolytes — physiological 

 action of positive or negative ions, rate of their diffusion 

 through the living tissues, and so on — by which Proftsi-or Loeb 

 has, perhaps more than any other physiologist, established the 

 fundamental importance of ionic dissociation in physiology and 

 pharmacology. 



Animals I Have Known.— In this companion volume to his 

 " Birds I Have Known," (pp. 304, 40 illustrations ; T, 

 Fisher L'nwin; price 5s.), Mr. A. H. Beavan states that 

 it has been his object simply to record his experiences of 

 animals {i.e., mammals) in various lands, without refer- 

 ence to scientific theories as to their origin and distri- 

 bution. Had he adhered strictly to this resolution all 

 might have been well, and we should not have been informed 

 that the Australian platypus is the only mammal that lays 

 eggs, and that the South American vampire abrades the skin 

 of its victims with its canine teeth. If an author will enter 

 upon technicalities, he should take means to ascertain that they 

 arc correctly stated. A large portion of the book is devoted 

 to the manunals (wild and domesticated) of our own country ; 

 but Mr. Beavan has had the good fortune lo visit Australia 

 and South America, and has much to tell us (which is for the 

 most p.irt well worth reading) concerning the very remarkable 

 njammalian faunas of those two countries. Of <special interest 

 are his observations with regard to the tail of the Tasmanian 

 wolf, which, he says, is essentially part of the creature's body, 

 and cannot therefore be " wagged." The numerous illustra- 

 tions are for the most part excellent. If only the author had 

 asked a scientific naturalist to revise the proof sheets, we 

 should have had nothing but praise for his little volume. 



The Inventor's Guide to Patent Law and the New Practice. — By 



James Roberts, M.A., LL.I'., Harrister-atlaw (John Murray), 

 price 2s. Od. net, too pp. The inventor who is about to take 

 out a patent, whether already experienced in such matters, or 

 a novice, will always be glad to consult a small book which 

 gives clear instructions as to the iiwdiis operamli ol obtaining 

 the patent, and of the legal procedence, especially now that 

 several important changes have been m.ade. This book 

 admirably fulfils the requirement, and, being by a barrister and 

 author oi a larger work on the same subject, may be looked 



