December 21, 1899] 



NA TURE 



175 



times are mixed with it or substituted for it, as well as 

 from other substitutions that have been occasionally 

 noticed. The last two are characteristic of the natural 

 order Gentiancje, and are also useful in identifying the 

 •drug. 



That the book is not without errors and omissions we 

 are not prepared to say. What book, especially in its 

 •first edition, can ever be so regarded ? Thus, for instance, 

 under the head of capsicum fruits, Mr. Greenish, though 

 mentioning that the plant is cultivated in Eastern Africa, 

 does not mention Zanzibar in particular as one of the 

 commercial kinds known in the British markets, nor 

 •does he even allude to Japan as a source of these 

 pungent fruits, though of late large quantities have been 

 imported thence to this country. But with a book so 

 carefully worked out and so thoroughly well got up, it 

 is ungracious to find faults, many of which have no 

 doubt already been observed by its author and noted for 

 correction in a new edition, which will probably not be 

 Jong before it is called for, as the book is one that must 

 be in the hands of the continuously increasing number of 

 pharmaceutical students. 



We had almost forgotten to say that the numerous 

 illustrations add much to the value of the book. They 

 have been carefully selected, and the source from which 

 they are taken is acknowledged beneath each figure. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Descriptive' General Chemistry. By S. E. Tilman. 



Second Edition. Pp. x + 429. (London: Chapman 



and Hall, Ltd. New York : John Wiley and Sons, 



1899-) 

 The author of this volume is professor of chemistry, 

 mineralogy and geology in the United States Military 

 .A.cademy, and the book embodies an attempt to present 

 chemical science in a form and compass adapted to 

 special circumstances. Whilst in the opinion of the 

 author " the chemical knowledge most requisite to the 

 average professional soldier differs but little from that 

 ■essential to other educated men . . . the experie'nce and 

 judgment of the Academic^ Board and of their military 

 superiors " has limited the course to about two months. 

 From this statement, as well as from the concentration 

 of three sciences in one professor, it would appear that 

 the dogged resistance to the encroachment of science on 

 the art of war which distinguishes the Anglo-Saxon in 

 this country, is well maintained in America. It is 

 evident, also, that the task of the author is no light one. 

 He has discharged it by presenting a tolerably full and 

 very lucid account of the chief principles of chemistry, 

 followed by a considerable amount of descriptive matter, 

 illustrated, and we may say illuminated, where possible, 

 by reference to things of military interest. The outcome 

 is a very readable volume, containing information which, 

 if it could be conveyed under reasonable conditions, 

 would be of great value to the future soldier. But it 

 need hardly be said that a mass of scientific information, 

 however skilfully selected and well written or well 

 spoken, will give in no important measure a scientific 

 habit of mind, or an animate knowledge of science. On 

 the whole, however, Prof. Tilman has probably done the 

 best possible under the circumstances. 



Among matters of special interest in the book are the 

 accounts of American metallurgical processes. The 

 descriptions of important chemical industries are also 

 clear and concise. The weakest point to be noticed in 

 the book is the treatment of fuel calorimetry. There is 

 NO. 1573, VOL. 61] 



no description of a calorinjeter or a pyrometer, and the 

 old misleading formute for the calculation of " calorific 

 power "and "calorific intensity" are introduced. The 

 exhaustive experiments of the late Scheurer-Kestner, 

 which showed the uselessness of such formulae, do not 

 seem to have become as well known as they should be. 



A. S. 



Zoolos;ia. By Prof. Achille Griffini. Pp. xvi + 384. 



(Milan : Ulrico Hoepli, 1900.) 

 This book is divided into an introductory part (26 pp.), 

 dealing with the history and scope of zoology, and the 

 broader principles of morphology and physiology of 

 animal forms, followed by a main part (337 pp.), in which 

 the great groups of animals are successively dealt with 

 in a roughly descending order, the whole ending with an 

 "epilogue" (16 pp.), embodying an ambitious classifica- 

 tory table, and certain philosophic deductions which, in 

 deference to the scruples of his countrymen, the 

 author is willing to let pass unread ! It is in places 

 very thin and antiquated, and its illustrations are on 

 the whole the most interesting feature, since they alone 

 proclaim it a text-book mainly begotten of the text- 

 books, with little fresh thought or aim at originality. 

 There are five hundred and five figures in all, many 

 representing animals in a state of nature, at times with 

 theatrical sensationalism, others delineating the facts of 

 anatomy and minute structure, still others schematic. 

 Taken collectively, they are an omnium gatherum of an 

 inferior order. Page after page bears the time-worn 

 figures which we find in nearly every text-book under the 

 sun, here reproduced without acknowledgment and in 

 some cases in a disguised form ; and when originality is 

 attempted the result is in places ludicrous ; as, for 

 example, in the physiological scheme on p. 81, and the 

 figure of the Molluscan nervous system on p. 329. A 

 set of figures is repeatedly introduced in supposed 

 representation of the eggs and larvae of the frog \Rana) 

 — the egg-mass is that oi Pelodytes, the larvae area com- 

 bination of the old, old figures of Rosel von Rosenhof 

 (which, for that matter, still do duty in current works in 

 our own tongue), of Eckerand others with which we have 

 long been familiar. On p. 224 there is a figure of a pre- 

 sumed Ascidia, which, as Huxley would have said, 

 " illustrates, but does not adorn " the text, since it is that 

 of a Ciona, curiously enough copied (but with reversal) 

 from Huxley's " Manual of the Invertebrata," in which it 

 is erroneously named Phallusia mentula. The figure of 

 a horse (p. 12 1) simply insults that graceful beast. The 

 author in a lengthy preface deplores, with just cause, the 

 existing methods of teaching natural science in the 

 Italian schools, for which his book is especially designed 

 in accordance with the requirements of the State ; and 

 in support of his plea for improvement he cites forcible 

 passages from addresses on the subject by Profs. 

 Emery, Camerano (his teacher) and others. Proceeding 

 to the question of nomenclature, he excuses himself the 

 adoption of its modern rules on the grounds of his 

 having been on a former occasion reproached for writing 

 Molge instead of Triton. For this, something may perhaps 

 be said from his point of view, but there is no excuse for 

 the elevation of the racial names of mankind to specific 

 rank {Ex. Homo arcticus, H. cafer, et sic de caeteris). 

 Both figures and Latin names of some of the humbler 

 creatures — transcribed from books which are old and 

 out of date — are antiquated, and we deem further com- 

 ment unnecessary, except to remark that the treatment of 

 many great groups is so meagre that it is well-nigh 

 useless. G. B. H. 



The British Journal Photographic Almanac for 1900. 



Edited by Thomas Bedding. Pp. 15 16. (London: 



Henry Greenwood and Co., 1899.) 

 Regularly every year we receive this most useful 

 annual, and as regularly we have to record its growth. 



