3«Ji 



NA TURE 



[January 31, 1895 



and never had any real facility in writing English. The 

 editor is, therefore, to be congratulated on the very satis- 

 factory manner in which he has performed the difficult 

 task of preparing this book for the press. Great care has 

 evidently been taken in reading the proof-sheets, as we 

 have only noticed one or two unimportant misprints. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



British Birds: being Coloured Illustrations of all the 

 Species of P-isserine Birds resident in the British Isles, 

 ■with some Notes in reference to their Plumage. By 

 Claude W. Wyatt. 410. Pp. iv. 25. London : 

 William Wesley and Son, 1S94.' 



The author is .1 well-known ornithologist, who has made 

 two expeditions, of which the results have been pub- 

 lished one to the Peninsula of Sinai, and the other to 

 the Magdalena Valley in Colombia — and these proved 

 that he was not only a good collector, but also a 

 keen field-naturalist. He then travelled extensively, and 

 visited many parts of the globe, observing the habits of 

 birds, .tnd making sketches of every kind of scenery. 

 The latter became a great feature in the plates of the 

 •' Monograph of the .Swallows (Hirundinida;)," which he 

 brought out in conjunction with Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, 

 who contributed the letterpress of the work, while Mr. 

 Wyatt drew all the plates. 



The present volume is the first of two which the author 

 proposes to publish, the one before us dealing merely 

 with the resident Passeres of the British Islands, while 

 the second is to contain figures of all the migratory 

 Passeres, the Picarian birds, the birds of prey, and the 

 pigeons ; but the game birds, waders, and swimming birds 

 will be, presumably, treated of at a future period. Fifty 

 species are illustrated by Mr. Wyatt in his first volume, 

 and occupy twenty-five plates. As with his pictures of 

 the swallows, the author makes a great feature of his 

 accessories, and some of the landscapes are very pretty, 

 and are evidently drawn from nature. The attitudes of 

 the birds are life like, and some of them are exception- 

 ally good, the crowi alone striking us as failing in 

 massiveness of bill. The letterpress is of the simplest. 

 and would have been all the better for more complete 

 references to standard works, as many of those given are 

 incorrectly quoted. It is, however, more as an artist 

 than as a writer that Mr. Wyatt shines, and he is to be 

 congratulated on having produced a very handsome 

 volume, with beautifully coloured pictures of some of our 

 most familiar favourites. As regards quality of paper, 

 printing, colouring, and binding, there is nothing left to 

 be desired. 



Standard Methods in Physics and Electricity Criticised, 

 and a Test for hleclric Meters Proposed. By H. A. 

 Naber. (Published by the Author, 1894) 



From the title and table of contents of this woik, one 

 would expect to find a treatise on experimental physics. 

 This expectation is, however, rulely dispelled when one 

 commences to examine the letterpress. After a very 

 brief description of the form of gas voltameter which 

 the author has devised (see N.m ukk, July 12, 1S94), more 

 than a hundred pages are devoted to what presumably 

 the author considers an exhaustive examination of the 

 different uses to which this voltameter may be put. The 

 fact that his voltameter has a considerable resistance, 

 causes the author considerable trouble, but he consoles 

 himself with the reflection th.n a Cardew or other volt- 

 meter generally has a resistance of from 100 to <)00 ohms. 

 The difficulties encountered in measuring a qu intity of 



NO. 13 '8. VOL 51] 



electricity by copper or silver deposition are dwelt upon, 

 and a new objection is raised, namely, that since the 

 deposits have to be weighed, variations in gravity will 

 affect the results ! At another part of the book the 

 ordinary balance is considered devoid of sufficient 

 accuracy, since the arms have generally different lengths, 

 and Nicholson's hydrometer is recommended as a sub- 

 stitute when great accuracy is desired. In a chapter on 

 sound, the author strongly recommends bicycle-wheels as 

 a motive power. Apparently the cycle-wheels are to set 

 themselves in motion, since the idea of driving any piece 

 of machinery "by hand'' is derided, and the great 

 waste which takes place when water and other 

 motors are used, is dwelt upon as a reason for their 

 abandonment. One has met with the library steps which 

 can be converted into half a dozen other articles of 

 furniture ; but these old friends sink into complete 

 insignificance when compared with this gas voltameter 

 and the numerous uses claimed for it, such as blowing 

 soap-bubbles full of oxygen and hydrogen, which on 

 being exploded can be used as fog-horns : supplying 

 oxygen to aeronauts, or to explorers in coal-pits after an 

 explosion ; and preparing chlorine. It can also, we are 

 told, be used as a barometer, pyknometer, ice calori- 

 meter, dylatometer, thermostat, hygrometer, anemometer, 

 level, or for exhausting incandescent damp bulbs. The 

 above are a few of the uses claimed, and are extracted 

 from what the author describes as not an " exhaustive 

 list " ! W. W. 



Electrical Engineering, for Electric Light Artisans and 

 Students. By W. Slingo and A. Brooker. Pp. 740, 

 New and revised edition. (London : Longmans, 

 tireen, and Co , 1895.) 



An admirable work, covering the whole field of electric 

 lighting. Though designed to include those branches of 

 the subject prescribed in the syllabus issued by the City 

 and Guilds Technical Institute, its scope is such as " to 

 make it embrace the requirements, not only of those 

 actually employed in the electric lighting industry, but 

 also of those who, while having little or no electrical 

 knowledge, have under their supervision various kinds 

 of electrical machinery.' The book is not merely a 

 descriptive catalogue of electrical machinery, like some 

 thai we know, but a clearly-written, and amply-illustrated, 

 volume which has proved of great service to engineers 

 during the past five years, and, in its revised form, is 

 sure to hold its own in the future. 



Lens-Work for Amateurs. By Henry (Jrford. Pp.231. 

 (London: Whittaker and Co., 1895.) 



A LKNS is defined in this volume as " a portion of a 

 refracting medium . . . bounded by two spherical sur- 

 faces which have a common axis." In the following 

 paragraph, lenses with one of their surfaces plane, are 

 described ; wherefore wc would ask Mr. Orford, why he 

 did not include these in his definition .' This, however, 

 is but a detail, .^s a whole, the book is a trustworthy 

 guide to the manufacture of lenses, suitable alike for the 

 amateur and the ^ung workman. It is profusely, 

 though rather coarsely, illustrated by diagrams, and the 

 instructions are simple and practical. 



Manual of Practical Morbid Aualomy. By H. D. 



Kolleston, M.A.,M.D., F.R.C.P., and A. A. Kanthack, 



M.D., F.R.C.P. Pp. 240. (Cambridge: University 



Press, 1894.) 



A PRACTICAl. handbook for the post-mortetn room, 



showing how to carry out a systematic examination of a 



body, and indicating what morbid changes should be 



looked for. 



