Februaby 1, 1897.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



47 



recognized that the localities frequented by many marine 

 species are very definite and extremely limited in extent, 

 and that both the nature of the sea-bottom and the 

 creatures which live there exhibit as much variety as we 

 are accustomed to find on land. The Marine Biological 

 Association, with the assistance of a grant made for the 

 purpose by the Eoyal Society, has recently been engaged 

 in an attempt to place our knowledge of this subject upon 

 a sounder basis by investigating in detail some of the 

 grounds in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, including 

 important fishing grounds, with reference to the nature of 

 the sea-bottom at each locality, and the whole assemblage 

 of animals found there. Detailed charts are being 

 prepared to exhibit the variations which take place from 

 point to point. No attempt has previously been made to 

 study fishing grounds with such thoroughness, having 

 regard not only to the fishes, but the whole collection of 

 animal life which forms the basis of the food upon which 

 the fishes exist. The investigation, which has involved a 

 large amount of dredging and trawling, as well as the 

 identification of the numerous species captured, has been 

 carried out by Mr. E. J. Allen, the Director of the 

 Plymouth Laboratory. 



►-♦H 



From time to time, during the past few years, reports 

 of the carrying of diseases by oysters have been published ; 

 but people have become so used to being scared that they 

 mostly regard this indictment of the oyster as another 

 bacteriological bogie. But the truth will come out, es- 

 pecially when the medical ofiicer of the Local Government 

 Board entices it ; and we are afraid that the revelations 

 recently made as to the condition of most of the places 

 where oysters are cultivated and stored in England and 

 Wales, will not add to the pleasure with which the luscious 

 mollusc is consumed. Very few of the fattening beds, or 

 of the ponds where oysters are stored pending their des- 

 patch to market, were found free from chance of sewage 

 pollution. Southend, Cleethorpes, and the Medina in the 

 Isle of Wight, are singled out for special condemnation. 

 The oyster layings in the Penryn River, Cornwall, in 

 Brightlingsea Creek, Essex, in the South Channel, oii' 

 Southwick, near Shoreham, and to a minor degree those 

 in the Menai Straits, also come under suspicion. Particu- 

 larly ofl'ensive and dangerous storing places were found at 

 Southend, Grimsby, Poole, Warsash, and Emsworth, near 

 Havant. With so much depressing evidence, it is pleasant 

 to read that the beds and the methods of storage on the 

 Crouch, Roach , and Black water (with one exception ) , Helford 

 River in Cornwall, and at Newtown Estuary in the Isle of 

 Wight, leave little to be desired. If something is not 

 done to bring other beds and storing grounds to the same 

 sanitary condition, oyster breeders will certainly see the 

 decline of their industry, especially as there is positive 

 evidence that oysters are capable of transmitting the 

 infections of such serious maladies as typhoid fever and 

 cholera. ^ 



NotitfS of Booits. 



New Ground in Norwaii. By E. J. Croodman. (Newnes.) 

 10s. 6d. This account of a trip through the districts of Tele- 

 marken and Saetersdalen, in Southern Norway, forms an 

 interesting book for reading as well as an excellent guide 

 to the districts referred to. Mr. Goodman has considerable 

 powers of description, both of scenery and of incident, but 

 we think that in many instances too much detail has been 

 given, which makes the book a httle wearisome in places. 

 Telemarken we know from personal experience to be a 

 grand, but little visited, district, and Mr. Goodman's praise 

 is none too high, either of the country or the inhabitants. 



The author dispels the bad reputation which has hitherto 

 been given to Saetersdalen, and his vivid description of its 

 beauties will, no doubt, cause many people to visit this fine 

 district. The book is illustrated with fifty-six photographs 

 by Mr. Paul Linge, who accompanied the author. These 

 are of much excellence, both in composition and execution, 

 and many of them form very beautiful pictures. 



Eiu-lid's EUnwnts of Geometnj. By H. M. Taylor, M.A. 

 (Cambridge University Press.) 53. It is marvellous to 

 think that Euclid's elements of geometry, which the boys 

 in our schools labour over to-day, were taught by the 

 author at Alexandria three centuries before the commence- 

 ment of our era. Numerous editions of the elements have 

 been published, but few are more than reprints of previous 

 ones. In this edition, however, originality is prominent. 

 Some of the definitions are omitted, several are added, and 

 a few are altered. The postulates and axioms familiar to 

 those who have used such an edition of Euclid's elements 

 as Todhunter's have been considerably modified. The 

 result is that, instead of the twelve axioms and three postu- 

 lates, Mr. Taylor gives seven axioms and nine postulates. 

 The method of superposition is freely used in the proposi- 

 tions; and the word " respectively" is employed instead of 

 " each to each." Impossible figures used in trdiu-tio ad 

 nhsurdum proofs have been avoided ; and the classification 

 of the propositions into theorems and problems has not 

 been followed. There are many other differences between 

 Mr. Taylor's text and the text of most modern editions, 

 but the majority of them will meet with approval. Not 

 more than once in a generation is a geometrical work of 

 such striking originality published. 



^Vater Supidy, comideivd principally from a Sanitari/ 

 Standpoint. By Prof. Wm. P. Mason. (New York : Wiley. 

 London : Chapman i^- Hall.) Illustrated. 21s. net. In the 

 United States the subject of water supply seems to have 

 been much more a ground for bui-ning controversy than it 

 has been in England. A country like ours, long denuded 

 of primeval forests, where swamps have been drained and 

 rivers are reduced within ordinary limits, has rarely such 

 difficulties to contend with as are occasioned by heat and 

 luxuriant vegetation, alternating with thicknesses of ice 

 that almost baffle the engineers of the States. The work 

 before us, dealing ably with local problems, has a very 

 great American interest. On the subject of peaty waters, 

 the author concludes that although in many instances 

 they may be drunk without injury by those habituated, 

 diarrhwa, and especially malaria, have, in a large number 

 of cases, been conclusively traced to their use, but that 

 these evils are obviated by efficient filtration. 



A number of striking examples are quoted in which the 

 Continental custom of washing linen in the public water- 

 courses has led to violent outbreaks of cholera. Two 

 epidemics of typhoid are described, one on the upper 

 Hudson and one on the Susquehanna, both clearly traced 

 to the sewage-polluted water of those rivers. A plan of 

 the Chicago sewage outfalls and water intakes, with the 

 distribution of typhoid in the different wards, enforces the 

 same lesson. The Massachusetts statistics give the typhoid 

 death rate, before the introduction of public supply, as 7'94 

 per 10,000 ; after its introduction as 3-83. 



On page 192, in speaking of the gases evolved in putre- 

 faction, an extraordinary statement is given on the 

 authority of Dr. Leeds, that the polluted stream at 

 Philadelphia having become frozen, " the flame produced 

 by igniting the gas issuing from a penknife-puncture of 

 the white hollows in the ice was usually six inches high, 

 but was once fully a yard high." An account is given of the 

 foul sources from which ice is commonly collected, and it 

 is held that safety lies only in artificial ice prepared from 



