November i, 1894J 



NATURE 



Baroda was Sir Robert Phayre, not Sir Arthur, the well- 

 known Chief Commissioner of liurma, and the risk to 

 life was due to an important fact which the distinguished 

 surgeon, whose name is appended to the quotation, must 

 have forgotten, the admixture of arsenic with the dia- 

 mond dust. The latter is simply a mechanical irritant 

 like quartz sand, or powdered glass, and to term any of 

 these a powerful mechanical poison is to use a stronger 

 term than is quite accurate. 



The devotion of a large space to therapeutics is not 

 the only instance in which the bulk of the work is in- 

 creased by the discussion at length of matters that have 

 but slight connection with the main subjects of the dic- 

 tionary, as specified by the author. Perhaps the utili- 

 sation of several pages under Triticum sativum (wheat) 

 in the discussion of the depreciation of silver, may be 

 thought essential, but it is not clear why, under 

 Papaver soinni/eruin, long extracts should be quoted 

 from various dispatches to illustrate the attitude of the 

 Government of India on the Chinese opium question, nor 

 what bearing on the economic products of India tne seven 

 pages can have, under I'tlis vini/era, that are taken up 

 with the history of the vine and of wine. Amongst the 

 longer articles, 63 pages are given to tea (in addition to 

 19 on Camtllia thcifera), 77 to tobacco, 87 to indigo, 88 

 to opium, 12310 sheep, goats, wool and woollen manu- 

 factures, 152 to rice, 174. to cotton, 238 to silk and silk 

 manufactures, and 380 to the sugar-cane and sugar. 

 Almost every one of these articles would require a 

 separate notice for adequate discussion. For many pur- 

 poses a condensed account of the history, production, 

 manufacture, and trade in each case would be more 

 generally useful as well as more interesting ; but, on the 

 other hand, it is extremely difficult for the author of a 

 work like the present to select only those data that are 

 useful, and no editor can be expected to possess the 

 special knowledge of every separate subject that will 

 enable him to do justice to it, and to avoid mistakes. 



In the preface to the first volume it is stated that 

 economic products which belong to the animal and 

 mineral kingdoms have been but very imperfectly 

 touched upon. This plan, however, appears to have 

 been modilied subsequently, since silk and wool, as 

 already noticed, form the subjects of two of the longest 

 articles. The accounts of minerals have, for the most 

 part, been written by officers of the Geological Survey, 

 or copied from the Survey publications. It is question- 

 able, however, if any geologist can have written the 

 following passage under the heading of iron : " Clay 

 ironstone exists in large deposits in many coal-measures, 

 and in this situation is known as black band." It is, of 

 course, only one variety that is known by this name. 



No parts of the dictionary, however, stand more in 

 need of scientific revision than those relating to verte- 

 brate animals. A few instances will show this. A short 

 article on " Pheasants, Jungle-fowl, Partridges, &c.," 

 commences thus : " The pheasant families of birds, 

 PhasianidiC, Megapodida, and Gallinie (sic) comprise the 

 pea-fowl, pheasant, jungle-fowl, and spur-fowl, while 

 the partridge family, Tetraonidiv, includes the partridge, 

 snow-cock, and certain forms of quail." A list follows in 

 which the genera Pavo, Ari^iisianus, and Polyplectron 

 only are included in the family PhasianidcE, all other 

 NO. 1305, VOL. 51] 



pheasants, amongst them the typical genus Phasianus, 

 are placed with Megapodiits nicobariensis in the family 

 Megapodidce, and the so-called family Gallina (which 

 is really a sub-family of Phasianida) contains Callus and 

 Galloperdix. These mistakes are apparently copied 

 from Murray's "Avifauna of British India." In the 

 article " Oxen," the wild and tame yaks are rightly classed 

 as one species, but the tame buffalo is separated, under 

 the name of Btibatus bos, from the wild race, or B. ami. 

 No reason is assigned for a distinction that is quite 

 opposed to the views of all modern writers on mam- 

 malia, nor is any authority given for the name adopted, 

 which is simply the old Linnasan name Bos biibalus 

 reversed. 



The omission of any notice of ng;ipi [in its proper 

 place has already been mentioned. This curious 

 compound of partially decomposed fish with salt is a 

 most important article of food in Burma, where it may 

 , be said to replace butter and cheese amongst a people, 

 who, like the Chinese, hold milk and all substances 

 I obtained from it in abhorrence. The manufacture of 

 ngapi is on a very large scale, and the trade in the 

 I article is e.xtensive, yet apparently the only notice of the 

 ; mode of preparation that occurs in the dictionary 

 1 (" Fish," vol. iii. p. 367) is apparently erroneous, and cer- 

 tainly does not apply to one of the ordinary processes. 

 Three or four different kinds of ngapi are mentioned in 

 the Burma Gazetteer, and their manufacture described ; 

 all the processes are radically distinct from that briefly 

 quoted in the dictionary, whilst no information is given 

 in the latter as to the trade in the article or its value, 

 except what may be inferred from the fact that the 

 revenue from Burmese Fisheries in 18S3 was twelve to 

 thirteen lakhs of rupees. 



In the article on sheep and goats, and in some others, 

 the authorities for scientific names are quoted on the 

 botanical, not on the zoological system, and it is rather 

 strange to find the nilgai caWtd Bosclap/tus tragocamelus, 

 W. Sclater (instead of Pallas), and the Tibetan gazelle, 

 Gazella picticaudata, Brooke (instead of Hodgson). The 

 mutton of the dumba, or fat-tailed sheep, is said to be 

 very coarse, whereas it is the best mutton in Asia. 

 The common Indian story, repeated in the dictionary, 

 under " Camel's milk," that the sweetmeat halwa, brought 

 from the Persian Gulf, is composed of camel's milk and 

 honey (vol. ii. p. 64), is a mistake. Errors like the two 

 last (others might be quoted) are liable to occur in a 

 work like the present, but the number of mistakes of 

 various kinds in the articles on animals and animal 

 products appears to be rather large. It is not easy to 

 understand why, in an important Government work 

 like the present, the aid of competent zoologists 

 could not be obtained to revise the proofs. 



A serious mistake may be pointed out in an article on 

 the yeast plant, described under the somewhat pedantic 

 heading of Ccrevisicc fermentum. Yeast, it is said, " lives 

 and increases in the fermenting liquor, but appears to 

 abstract nothing from it." This mistake may however 

 have been noticed, for in a later article, on " Malt liquors," 

 a correct account of the growth and nutrition of yeast is 

 ([uoted. 



One presumably Indian economic product, paper, can 

 scarcely be said to be favourably represented by the 



