640 



NA TURE 



[October 31, 189; 



excellent drawings and photographs, they give a clear idea 

 of the vigorous manner in which the work is carried on. 

 Additional authority is given to them by the fact that 

 they contain contributions by Mr. L. 1. Seymour, Mr. C. 

 Butters, and other leading engineering experts. The 

 volume concludes with valuable information regarding 

 material and supplies, labour, working costs, mine 

 accounts, mining laws and regulations, production and 

 dividends. A good index, eighty illustrations, fourteen 

 photographic plates, and seven folding maps and plans, 

 complete a volume of which the authors may justly be 

 proud. With the exception of a geological map, which 

 would have been a useful addition, the only omission 

 appears to be a bibliography of the ex-isting literature 

 relating to the subject. The authors appear to be 

 unacquainted with the geological work of Mr. C. J. 

 Alford (London, 1891), and with the engineering de- 

 scriptions of Mr. T. Reunert (London, 1893). Indeed they 

 regard the published information relating to the nature 

 of the ore deposits and to the extraction of the gold as 

 meagre and inadequate. Yet Mr. W. Gibson in 1892 

 published a list of sixty-seven works on South .African 

 geology, sixteen of which bear directly upon the geolog)' 

 of the Transvaal. Mr. Schmcisser in 1894 gave the 

 titles of fifty such works, and Dr. K. Futterer in 1895 

 gave 156 titles. With the rapid development of the 

 mining industr)', literary productions become antiquated 

 with remarkable rapidity. When the writer of this 

 review visited the Witwatersrand in 1892, there were 1907 

 stamps running. Now, according to Dr. Hatch and Mr. 

 Chalmers, there are 2642 (June 1895). Since 1892 work 

 has been pushed on more vigorously than ever before, 

 and from the sixty mines near the outcrop of the main 

 bed 5,ooo,cx)o tons of ore have been extracted in 

 1893 and 1894. Numerous deep boreholes have been 

 put down to the dip of the bed, and several shafts have 

 been sunk, encountering the auriferous conglomerates at 

 depths of 600 to 1000 feet. Five years hence there will be 

 8000 stamps running. The present average stamping 

 capacity is over four tons per stamp per day, and it is 

 probable that, owing to technical improvements, the 

 average will be five tons. With a total extraction of 

 10 dwts. of gold per ton, the output should be 6,500,000 

 ounces. The ore reserves are estimated at 170,000,000 

 tons, equal at 45s. per ton to ;^38 2,000,000. It seems 

 unlikely that the average cost of mining and treating this 

 ore will exceed the present cost of 30s. per ton. The 

 authors think, therefore, that they may safely forecast a 

 production from the Witwatersrand within the next half- 

 century of ^£700,000,000, of which /200,ooo,ooo will be 

 '"•r.r.i BKNNi/rr H. Bkoki-.h. 



STARCH. 

 Vntcrsuchun^cn iiber die Stdrkekorncr. I{y Dr. .A. 

 Meyer. (Jena : Fischer, 1895.) 



THOSE who are best acquainted with the laboured 

 details of Nacgeli's classical investigations into 

 the nature and growth of starch-grains, and the contro- 

 versy which followed regarding his astounding hypothesis, 

 which so long dominated certain of our tcxt-lxjoks under 

 the name of the " intussusception theory," will best be 

 prepared for another huge workof inquiry into the physical 

 NO. 1357, VOL. 52] 



and chemical nature, growth and solution, and significance 

 to the plant generally of those curious structures. The 

 full appreciation of the magnitude and value of Meyer's 

 task will depend on the readers acquaintance with the 

 bearing of numerous discoveries which have been made 

 since Naegeli's day, and turned to criticism and the linal 

 overthrow of his hypothesis ; and among these stand 

 prominently, on the biological side, Schimper's demon- 

 stration of the significance of the various plastids to the 

 stratification of the starch-grain, Sachs' brilliant work on 

 the roh of the starch-grain in assimilation, and Strass- 

 burgers severe criticisms in his researches on the structure 

 and growth of the cell-wall ; and, on the physical and 

 chemical side, Emil Fischer's work on the synthesis of 

 carbohydrates, and the splendid work of our own countr)-- 

 man Horace Brown — the latter, indeed, as much physio- 

 logical as chemical in its methods and results. 



Meyer's book, which contains over 300 large pages of 

 closely-printed German in the dryest of styles, which 

 would be hard to forgi\e if the matter were not so good 

 and the spirit so enthusiastic, covers the whole range of 

 the enormous domain now centred around this formerly so 

 insignificant a stmcture, the starch-grain ; and it is embel- 

 lished with nine tables and ninety-nine illustrations, good, 

 bad, and indifferent, for the quality of the figures varies 

 much, suggesting periods of different powers or methods 

 of delineation during the fifteen years or so the author 

 has been occujiicd with this monumental monograph. 



For it is monumental, in the sense that it has evidently 

 been gradually built up as a big structure, bit by bit, 

 with morsels of hard evidence dug with great labour 

 from the difficult quarry of facts, only to lie worked with 

 the best powers of the microscope, and the best methods 

 which modern technique puts at the disposal of the 

 investigator. 



The work may be regarded as divided into five parts. 

 The chemistry, physics, and biological properties of the 

 starch-grain as an object of research, form the subject- 

 matter of three of these parts ; the fourth is occupied with 

 some extremely ingenious and careful comparative studies 

 of the changes undergone by the grain in the different 

 organs of various selected plants, at stated seasons, and 

 under experimentally varied conditions ; while the fifth 

 part may be taken as the critical survey of the investiga- 

 tions and views of others scattered through the body of 

 the work, and the copious literature collected at the end. 



It is, of course, impossible to traverse a work like this 

 in a review, and the following short summary must 

 suffice for a glimpse at Meyer's views and results, some 

 of which he has already published in short papers from 

 time to time. 



He regards the typical starch-grain as consisting of two 

 substances, one of which, a-Amylosi\ can be obtained 

 separately in the crystalline form, whereas the other — 

 ^■Ainylosc~c:mx\a\. be isolated in crystals. Tlie re- 

 lations of these two constituents to each other, and to 

 other carbohydr.ites found in modified starch-grains, are 

 considered in detail ; they occur in the grain itself as 

 acicular crystals {trichitcs) arranged more or less radially, 

 and the starch-grain is in effect nothing but a complex, 

 mixed sphere-crystal composed of radiating branch- 

 systems of these trichitcs, in different proportions, and 

 more crowded in the denser layers than in the softer ones. 



