July 19, 1894] 



NATURE 



267 



on the pronunciation (which is rightly said to be of great 

 importance) are frequently bewildering. It may be well 

 to point out two typical instances, for the bettering of the 

 book in a future issue. 



" Broad-ford in Skye retains the full sound of the Norse 

 breidr fjordr, broad firth " (p. 84). This is precisely the 

 thing which it does not do. Broad is not Norse, but 

 Southern English ; and ford suggests the word ford 

 rather than firth. 



" Vollr, a field, generally becomes wall in composition, 

 as Dingwall in Ross-shire " (p. Sg). Here "becomes" 

 really means " is represented by " ; for, as a fact, the 

 form a/<i// shows a far older stem, in which the 7i/ has 

 not yet become v, and the a has not yet been treated with 

 the «-umlaut. In other words, it would be far more 

 correct to say, conversely, that the old stem luaU has 

 -become vbllr in the nominative case of the modern 

 Icelandic word. 



One thing, at any rate, must go. And that is, the 

 extraordinary definition of jtmlaut on p. 39. " The law 

 of uiii/auljAi the German philologers call it, whereby the 

 vowel-sound in one syllable is altered by the vowel-sound 

 in a syllable following (all fairly well so far, but mark the 

 sequel), as husband 2.VlA nostril stand for house- band 3.nA 

 nosc-thriliy Certainly, no German philologer ever said 

 anything of the kind. The u in husband and the o in 

 nostril are not examples of umlaut at all, for they do not 

 depend in the least upon the vowels a or / in the second 

 syllable. They simply exhibit examples of vowel-short- 

 ening before a collection of consonants, which is a 

 different thing altogether. This is indeed a sentence to 

 induce doubt in the author's methods. 



Nevertheless, the book has its place and use. The 

 collection of examples is a thing to be thankful for ; and 

 we heartily commend the author for attempting it. 

 But, oh ! that he had produced his authorities in 

 every possible case, and had told us where the guesses 

 come in ! 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Systematic Survey of the Organic Colouring Matters. 

 By Drs. G. Schultz and P. Julius. Translated and 

 edited, with extensive additions, by Arthur G. Green. 

 (London : Macmillan and Co,, 1S94.) 



The German edition of this standard work of reference 

 has already been reviewed in these columns (vol. xlvi. p. 

 313). The translator and editor has done good servic-i 

 in rendering the work more available to English tech- 

 nologists by adding a preliminary section on the raw 

 materials used in the industry, as well as by giving 

 prominence in the tables to English patents. In these 

 particulars the present edition differs from the German, 

 and its value from the English point of view is thereby 

 greatly enhanced. The work is also brought up to date, 

 as all the later discoveries are tabulated. The total 

 number of colouring matters now recorded is 454, as 

 against 392 in the last German edition (1S91). Even 

 while Mr. Green was preparing the translation new 

 products were being introduced, and no less than twenty- 

 two new compounds have had to be added in an 

 appendix. Another valuable addition to the English 

 edition is the synoptical table for the qualitative analysis 

 of artificial colouring matters, which was published by the 

 translator last year in the Journal of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry, and which is reprinted at the end of 

 the volume. 



NO. 1290, VOL. 50] 



One reflection which occurs in looking through the 

 tables is the very unfair action of our patent laws upon 

 English manufacturers. Most of the new discoveries 

 are patented by German, French, or Swiss firms in this 

 country, but the patentees do not make the products 

 here — their patents simply blockade the industry in 

 Britain, without giving our manufacturers any benefit. 

 On the other hand, it is well known how stringent is the 

 attitude, especially of the German Patent Office, in 

 granting patents to foreign inventors. But this is a side 

 issue, suggested only by the large number of references 

 to English patents in the tables before us. Of these 

 tables and of the work as a whole we have only to say 

 that it will be welcomed by manufacturers and students 

 as the latest and most complete synopsis of the organic 

 colouring matters that has hitherto been drawn up. 



R. M. 



A Handbook to the Marsupialia and Monotremata, 

 By Richard Lydekker, B.A., F.G.S. (London : W. H. 

 Allen and Co., 1894.) 

 Mr. Lvdekker's capacity for book-making seems to be 

 unlimited. Zoological science is indebted to him for the 

 diffusion of accurate knowledge on the fowl of the air, 

 and "every living thing that creepeth upon the earth " and 

 moves in the sea, from the days when the icthyosaurus 

 disported itself in the Jurassic ocean to the present 

 enlightened age. He is not, however, a brilliant writer, 

 and all his works possess a sameness of diction, the dead 

 level of which becomes oppressive after a time. The 

 volume under review is a "popular monograph," in 

 which the Marsupials and Monotremes are taken in 

 order and have their characters, distribution, and habits 

 detailed in a more or less attractive manner. These 

 interesting mammals are dealt with one after another, 

 and their characteristics are described in a way that 

 strongly reminds us of the verbal expositions of the 

 guide of a menagerie. The thirty-eight excellently 

 coloured plates, with which the book is embellished, help 

 to render the analogy more realistic. This monotony, 

 however, is probably unavoidable in a work having the 

 scope of Mr. Lydekker's handbook, and, in fairness to 

 him, we must say that he has struck a good compromise 

 between zoological treatises bristling w-ith technical 

 details, and works designed for the profoundly ignorant. 

 It is almost unnecessary to say that the book is 

 thoroughly up-to-date as regards recently discovered 

 species, one of the most interesting of these being the 

 remarkable Marsupial Mole described by Dr. Stirling a 

 few years ago. With the exception of the matter re- 

 lating to a few species, the book is founded upon Mr. 

 Oldfield Thomas's " Catalogue of the Marsupialia and 

 Monotremata in the Collection of the British Museum " 

 (18SS), with the addition of some notes on fossil species 

 of these Orders. Mr. Lydekker has made an admirable 

 and handy abridgment of this '' indispensable compen- 

 dium," and his work, though stodgy in places, will well 

 serve the purpose of a popular book of reference on 

 Australian mammals. 



Climbing in the British Isles — England. By W. P. Has- 

 kett Smith, M.A. Pp. 162. (London : Longmans, 

 Green, and Co., 1S94.) 



MouNT.MNEERiNG is a passion. Men who have climbed, 

 rarely, if ever, get rid of the unrestful instinct to scale 

 unconquered peaks and wriggle through unexplored 

 " chimneys." This love of climbing has been growing 

 in England for some years past, and Mr. Haskett Smith's 

 book will certainly assist in extending it still more. The 

 book is the first of a series describing the climbs available 

 in the British Isles, two complementary volumes, dealing 

 respectively with Wales and Scotland, being in prepara- 

 tion. It is not, of course, suggested that hill-climbing 

 in these islands is the same as mountaineering in the 



