December 21, 1893] 



NA rURE 



171 



charity and benevolence, into which we find it impossible 

 to follow him. 

 I There are many amusing descriptions and playful pas- 

 \ sages scattered through the book, such as the friendship 

 I of the donkey and the dirty drake svho disliked cold water; 

 j and the droppings of the reindeer, which the author spread 

 I round his Iceland poppies because he thought it might 

 amuse them ; and it is also very pleasant reading on 

 account of its evident sincerity and absence of affecta- 

 tion, of which the following is a fair example. 



The author describes the snails in his garden : '' the 



common 'tabbies,'" he says, "have already begun 



to hibernate, but the bushes are covered with a 



small flat kind." A less conscientious and more 



pretentious writer would inevitably have made a shot 



at their generic and specific names, and given us the 



words " Helix aspersa " and "Helix nemoralis" in 



brackets ; but Mr. Leslie very wisely makes no preten- 



I sions to be considered a naturalist, though he knows more 



of the aspect of organic life than many an authority on 



[Comparative anatomy ; his knowledge is that of Gotz von 



I Berlichingen, who " knew every pass, pathway, and ford 



I about the place, before he knew the name of village, 



; castle, or river," and he seems thoroughly to sympathise 



with the sentiments of Shakespeare's " Biron ": — 



These earthly godfathers of heav'n's lights 



That give a name to every fixed star. 

 Have no more profit of their shining nights 



Than those that walk and wot not what they are. 



The accuracy of Mr. Leslie's observation is shown by the 

 illustrations which he has scattered through the volume ; 

 some of these are extremely beautiful, such as the 

 "Bird's-eye View of a Swallow," "The Fruit of Rosa 

 Rugosa," and " Flight of Starlings and Rooks," as is also 

 the frontispiece, representing his house at Wallingford. 

 This book we can confidently recommend for its tonic 

 properties. To the great world of men and women given 

 over to satiety and boredom it cannot but be salutary^ 

 by pointing out what a world of enjoyment, what a peace- 

 ful and engrossing occupation for leisure, lies open to all 

 of us, outside our own doors, and the only price we have 

 to pay for it is to take the trouble to use our eyes. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



A Text-book of Heat. The Tutorial Physics, vol. ii 

 (Univ. Corr. Coll. Tutorial Series.) By R. Wallace 

 Stewart. (London : W. B. Clive, 1893.) 



Not long ago we had occasion to say a few words 

 about the books which have appeared from the pen 

 of this author, and we then stated our belief in him 

 as a writer whose clearness of explanation and concise- 

 ness of language would render him popular among 

 students of physics. In the volume now before us, 

 which is devoted simply to the one branch of this large 

 subject of physics — heat — we may again apply the same 

 remarks to the treatment of the subject, the author 

 stating with all clearness and necessary accuracy the 

 various laws, and showing their practical application by 

 means of appropriate examples. In the descriptions 

 of the experiments, as, for instance, in those for deter- 

 mining the absolute expansion of mercury, the object of 

 I the experiment in question, the end to be obtained, and 

 the different means of attaining it, are especially emphas- 

 ised, and the diagrams aid the reader in grasping a clear 



NO. 1260, VOL. 49] 



idea of the arrangement of the apparatus employed. At 

 the end of each chapter, under the heading " calcula- 

 tions," are brought together all the formulated expres- 

 sions of the laws deduced in the one preceding — a very 

 useful arrangement for a short revision of the subject. 

 The concluding chapter deals with the application of 

 graphic methods to the results of experiment, and this 

 part of the subject is one of great importance, although 

 generally omitted in text-books. The work, as will have 

 been noticed from the heading, is published in the Tutorial 

 Series, and is a most useful addition to it. 



The Industries of Anivials. By Frederic Houssay. 



(London: Walter Scott, Ltd., 1893.) 

 This — the twenty-third volume of the Contemporary 

 Science Series — is an English edition of a good book. • It 

 is not merely a translation, but a revised and enlarged 

 edition, to which numerous bibliographical references 

 have been added. By this addition the work has gained 

 considerably in value ; for such references are not only 

 useful to the student who desires to increase his know- 

 ledge of any matter broached in the book, but they also 

 furnish a means of estimating the weight of the many 

 stories of animal intelligence and instinct contained in it. 

 The first chapters of the book deal with those industries 

 of animals of which the object is the search for prey. 

 These industries are necessarily connected with protec- 

 tive effects providmg for the immediate safety of the 

 individual. A number of examples are then given, to 

 show that " social species unite for the common security 

 the forces and effects which they can derive from their 

 own organs." The art among animals of collecting pro- 

 visions, of domesticating and exploiting flocks, and of 

 reducing their fellows to slavery, is well described, and, 

 finally, the series of modifications which the dwelling 

 undergoes is investigated. 



Except in one or two places, the translation reads 

 very well. Forty-four figures illustrate the text, most of 

 them adapted from that great repository of facts in natural 

 history — Brehm's Thierlebcn. Altogether the book is 

 very pleasant reading, and it contains a large amount of 

 matter of interest to all students of animal skill and 

 intelligence. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the ivriters of, rejected 

 ?nanuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous co7nmunications.'\ 



" Flame." 



In Nature for November 23, p. 86, under this title, there 

 appears an account of a lecture delivered by Prof. Smithells to 

 the British Association on September 15, in which he brings 

 before the Association those fascinating experiments with which 

 his name has lately become identified. The apparatus by means 

 of which Prof. Smithells draws the "inner cone" of a flame 

 away from the "outer cone," and which he describes as an 

 appliance for dissecting the flame, or the cone- separating appara- 

 tus, is now quite familiar to most. By meins of it a regulated 

 stream of air is admitted along with the burning gas, until a 

 portion of the llame recedes down the tube, and is arrested in its 

 downward movement at the top of an inner tube, where the 

 issuing gases are moving upwards at a slightly greater rate. 



In all cases Prof. Smithells calls this descending flame the 

 inner cone, and regards the remnant of the flame that remains at 

 the top as the outer cone. It would appear to follow, therefore, 

 that il, fiy means of the "cone-separator," a flame can be io 

 dissected, it must have originally consisted of two cones. 



Prof. Smithell describes the flames of hydrogen and of car 

 bon monoxide as being of the simplest construction ; it beini; 

 out of the question that any complications can aiise in the com- 

 bustion of hydrogen to water, and of carbon monoxide to 



