July 3, 1890] 



NA TURE 



221 



general considerations with respect to the disease, certain 

 special symptoms are passed in review, particular atten- 

 tion being devoted to their relation to season. Then 

 follows an exhaustive discussion of scarlatinal albuminuria. 

 Perhaps the most striking fact brought out in the book is 

 the contrast presented in regard to this symptom between 

 the patients admitted during October and November, and 

 those admitted during December and January. While 

 albumen was discovered previous to " getting up for the 

 first time " in only rather more than 50 per cent, of the 

 latter group of cases, it was found in every such case 

 investigated in the two earlier months. This universal 

 occurrence of albuminuria in the first three weeks of the 

 disease, during the height of the epidemic, is eminently 

 noteworthy ; as Dr. Gresswell says, it could not have been 

 " a mere casual incident of pyrexial origin," nor could he 

 account for it by differences of sex, age, stage of illness 

 on admission, or treatment. All observers of the scarla- 

 tina of the latter half of 1887 seem to have been impressed 

 with the unusually frequent occurrence of albumen in the 

 urine. Dr. Sweeting referred it to overcrowding ; Dr. 

 Gresswell inclines to consider it as accounted for by the 

 change in the character of the disease during the progress 

 of the epidemic. 



Although the chapter on " postural albuminuria " is of 

 considerable interest, much of its subject-matter is not 

 immediately connected with the natural history of scarla- 

 tina, while an important question like secondary sore 

 throat is very briefly dealt with. Two cases of " reversio 

 eruptionis " are quoted, but in one, as Dr. Gresswell 

 admits, there is but scant evidence that the child had 

 scarlatina on admission. 



Attention is particularly devoted throughout to the 

 variations in the phenomena of the disease in their rela- 

 tion to season, and the concluding section of the work 

 contains some interesting suggestions with regard to this 

 topic. The author upholds the view that variations in 

 the life-history of the micro-organism of scarlatina lie at 

 the root of the matter, but surely he goes rather far afield 

 when he alludes to the possibility of the " interfertilization 

 of different kinds of microbes." 



The hope may be entertained that Dr. Gresswell will 

 not lack imitators in selecting this particular branch of 

 study as the subject of dissertation for the M.D. degree. 

 There is abundant scope for research at the Asylums 

 Board hospitals, and if the work be as full of interest as 

 it is in the example before us, it cannot fail to redound to 

 the credit of the worker. 



Le Sflleil; les Etoiles. By Gabriel Dallet. (Paris : 



Firmin-Didot et Cie., 1890.) 

 The chapters on the constellations, in this work, are 

 of a very comprehensive character. That devoted to a 

 description of instruments of observation contains a fair 

 amount of useful information, whilst tables of parallaxes 

 and proper motions, double and variable stars, and other 

 interesting objects visible in our hemisphere, compiled 

 from the British Association Catalogue, Connaissance des 

 Temps, and L'Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, are 

 plentifully and properly distributed throughout, and 

 render the work what it purports to be, an " Astronomic 

 Pratique." The author is, however, evidently not at 

 home when writing on spectroscopy, and is considerably 

 behind the recent developments in that branch of 

 astronomy. As an example of this deficiency we would 

 cite his assertion that the spectrum of the Orion nebula 

 consists of three bright lines, as discovered by Dr. 

 Huggins in 1864, although recent observations have 

 increased the number visible to nine, and the photo- 

 graphic spectrum shows many times this amount. 



The author seems also to have very vague ideas 

 as to the origin of the universe. He says: — "Notre 

 soleil et ses plant;tes ont du se trouver au centre 

 d'une nebuleuse, mais la mati^re cosmique qui la 



NO. 1079, VOL. 42] 



formait comprenait une varidt^ considerable d'dMments 

 chimiques qui ne se pr^sentent pas dans n^buleuses pro- 

 prement dites " ; a conclusion which leads him to write : — 

 "Nous pouvons dire avec M. Huggins que les n^bu- 

 leuses k spectre gazeux sont des syst^mes ayant une 

 structure et une organisation k part, et qui sont d'un ordre 

 different de celui dont notre soleil, avec ses plan^tes, 

 faisait partie dans la ndbuleuse primitive " ; although 

 in justice to Dr. Huggins it should be said that he 

 has now rejected the conviction that "the nebulae 

 which give a gaseous spectrum are systems possessing a 

 structure, and a purpose in relation to the universe, alto- 

 gether distinct and of another order from the great group 

 of cosmical bodies to which our sun and the fixed stars 

 belong." 



Little spectroscopy other than this is included in the 

 work, observations of sun-spots and prominences being 

 mainly considered from a pictorial point of view. There 

 is no doubt, however, that the twelve maps of the heavens 

 will be of service to amateur astronomers, and that the 

 ninety-three illustrations are in general well chosen. We 

 should be glad, therefore, to see the slight inaccuracies 

 that. we have indicated eliminated in a future edition. 



Father Perry, F.R.S. By Aloysius L. Cortie, S.J. 



(London : The Catholic Truth Society, 1890.) 

 The author of this little book was a friend of the late 

 Father Perry, and is, therefore, most capable of writing a 

 sketch of his life and work, and few lives could afford 

 more of the material which makes such a sketch 

 interesting. 



The programme of work undertaken by the deceased 

 astronomer ten years ago at Stonyhurst College Observa- 

 tory was comprehensive. It included the daily drawing 

 of the sun when possible, the measurement of the depth 

 of the chromosphere, the heights of prominences, and 

 observations of sun-spot spectra, and this programme 

 was faithfully adhered to up to the time of his death. 

 The method of obtaining the drawings of sun-spots 

 which have appeared in the Memoirs of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society is described, and the reproduction 

 of two of the largest spots shows how much can be 

 effected by means of the pencil. These drawings are of 

 great importance, and supplement solar photographs. 

 The main object in making them was to throw light upon 

 the theories of the mode of formation of spots, and to 

 find, if possible, the clue to the connection between 

 terrestrial magnetism and solar activity. This discussion 

 however, was cut short by death. 



A copy of the photograph of the solar corona, from the 

 observation of which Father Perry was carried to his 

 death-bed, testifies more than volumes of words to the 

 character of the man whose life is before us, and the 

 long list of published papers and the expeditions in 

 which he took part speak of his industry. A few of 

 his notes on faculae and veiled spots are appended, and 

 render this volume of 112 pages something more than a 

 biography. 



Prodomus Faunce Medtterranece sive Descriptio Ani- 



maliuDi maris Mediterraneiincolarum quam comparatct 



silva rerum quatenus innotuit adjectis locis et noviini- 



bus vulgaribus eorumque auctoribus in commodum 



Zoologorum congessit Julius Victor Carus. Vol. L 



Pars '11. , Vol. II., Pars I. (Stuttgart: E. Schweizer- 



bart'sche Verlagshandlung.) 



Some five years ago we welcomed the appearance of the 



first part of Prof. J. Victor Carus's "Prodomus Faunae 



Mediterraneae " (Nature, vol. xxxi. p. 201) ; since then, 



two additional parts have been published. The second 



completes vol. i., and contains the Arthropods ; it was 



published early in 1885. The third part, the first of 



vol. ii., was published late in last year, and contains the 



Brachiostomata and Mollusca. 



