March 29, 1900] 



NATURE 



513 



neutralisation of their injurious products increases, no 

 doubt some of the now malarial swamps will be con- 

 verted into thriving colonies ; and so is it with physi- 

 ology, when by further experiment our knowledge of the 

 modus operandi of the change from the physiological 

 to the pathological is more complete, many facts now 

 apparently barren will bear fruit a hundred-fold. 



Those who apparently with such unctuous satisfaction 

 point to the inability of even modern therapeutics to 

 cope successfully with certain deadly diseases, are 

 surely supplying an argument for more experimentation, 

 and not for less. If medicine has not derived the full 

 benefit possible from physiological discovery, it will do 

 so later on. But what is regarded by the anti-vivisectors 

 as a benefit ? One of them asks quite recently, and 

 apparently quite seriously, what benefit has accrued to 

 medicine from a knowledge of cerebral localisation. 



Mr. Paget deals with many points in detail which 

 have formed the text of many of the more or less 

 scurrilous essays of both varieties of antivivisectionists ; 

 he succeeds in showing that their case is only skin deep, 

 and that when care and some erudition are applied to 

 tlie elucidation of the individual instance, the facts 

 appear in quite another light. 



The last part of Mr. Paget's work is devoted to the 

 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act itself. He argues, 

 with some reason, that however efficacious the .Act might 

 have been in 1876, since then a new science, bacteriology, 

 has practically arisen. This science for the elucidation of 

 its problems requires a special kind of technique, simple 

 enough, but for which the Act is ill adapted. .At the 

 conclusion of this chapter some interesting accounts are 

 given of questions in the House of Commons concerning 

 the working of the Act, and some interesting letters 

 reproduced, emanating from antivivisectors, and threaten- 

 ing her Majesty's ministers with political destruction if 

 they failed to use their influence against experiments on 

 animals. The President of the Board of Agriculture 

 seems especially to have incurred their wrath. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Cyclopedia of Classified Dates. By Charles E. Little. 



Pp. vii -I- 1454. (New York and London : Funk and 



Wagnalls Co., 1900.) 

 It may be doubted whether this bulky volume is of 

 sufficient value to justify the immense amount of labour 

 that must have been spent in its compilation. There are 

 no less than 95,000 entries of important (and unimportant) 

 historical events, classified geographically, chronologically, 

 and according to their nature, so that the where, when and 

 what of any event can be discovered. The volume is in- 

 tended to be a universal history, a biographical dictionary, 

 a geographical gazetteer and many other books com- 

 bined ; in short, an omniscient and international Domesday 

 Book. The only parts with which we have any concern are 

 the divisions of science and nature included among several 

 other groups of events recorded for each of the seventy- 

 nine geographical divisions, which are arranged in alpha- 

 betical order. Many of the entries appear vague and trivial, 

 and some are misleading, if not actually incorrect. As 

 instances of information which comes under one or other 

 of these criticisms, the following may be cited : — 1089, a 

 widespread earthquake is felt ; 1737, Dr. James Bradley 

 discovers the variation {sic) of the earth's axis ; 1783, 

 Walker produces ice in summer by means of chemical 



NO 1587, VOL. 61] 



mixtures ; 1783, Herschel proves the binding {sic) rotary 

 motion of the stars ; 1787, quicksilver is frozen without 

 the aid of snow or ice ; 1827, the spectrum analysis is 

 worked out by Herschel; 1848, William Lassell dis- 

 covers the eight {sic) satellites of Saturn ; 1852, Sir 

 William Thompson {sic) discovers the dissipation of 

 energy ; 1861, Mr. Thompson, of Weymouth, photo- 

 graphs the bottom of the sea ; 1867, nitrous oxide gas 

 (laughing gas) is introduced ; 1881, telephotography is 

 invented by Shelford Bid well ; 1890, the bones of a 

 hippopotamus are found imbedded in clay ; and there 

 are many others. 



But the sins of commission are as nothing in com- 

 parison with these of omission. The only events recorded 

 under science and nature in 1894 are the meeting of the 

 British Association, and the departure of the Jackson- 

 Harmsworth polar expedition ; in 1893, a" earthquake 

 and a flood ; in 1892, two earthquakes ; and in 1891, the 

 meeting of the international congress of hygiene and 

 demography. 



Judging from these facts, no serious attempt has been 

 made to trace the progress of science in any of its 

 branches in latter years. From our point of view, there- 

 fore, the book is of little value. In a charitable spirit we 

 trust its merits in other sections help to make up its 

 deficiencies in those referring to scientific matters. 



Justus von Liebig und Christian Friedrich Schonbein. 



Briefwechsel, 1853-1868. By Georg W. A. Kahlbaum 



und Eduard Thon. Pp. xxi -H 278. (Leipzig : Johann 



Ambrosius Barth, 1900.) 

 The correspondence of Faraday and Schonbein, which 

 was noticed in a former issue (Feb. 8), finds a com- 

 panion volume in the work before us, which comprises 

 133 letters covering a period of fifteen years. Of these 

 letters, eighty-four are from the pen of Schonbein. The 

 same care as regards editing and annotation which was 

 observable in the previous volume is a conspicuous 

 feature of the present work. 



The subjects dealt with by Schonbein are chiefly those 

 which are referred to in his letters to Faraday, more 

 especially ozone and the work arising from his investiga- 

 tions of that substance. Some of the letters are more or 

 less personal and political, and will be found very inter- 

 esting reading. Liebig's letters also are replete with 

 topics of interest in the history of chemistry, and will 

 repay detailed consideration. 



Among the subjects dealt with are fermentation, food 

 preservation, meat extract, and agricultural chemistry. 

 It must be remembered that the views concerning fer- 

 mentation, and the bearing of chemistry upon agriculture, 

 were at that period in the polemical stage, and this 

 imbues Liebig's statements with special interest. Both 

 writers also from time to time soar from the common- 

 place recital of facts and discoveries into the higher 

 regions of speculation and philosophy. Liebig's views 

 on the place of Bacon in philosophy and science are 

 referred to by Schonbein with approval (p. 166). Schdn- 

 bein's views on theory as a stimulus to new discovery 

 (p. 216) will also commend themselves to the majority of 

 readers. 



It will be gathered from this brief notice that the 

 volume under consideration is as valuable a contribution 

 to the history of science as its predecessor. R. M. 



Cina e Giappone. By E. von Hesse Wartegg. Trans- 

 lated into Italian by Captain Manfredo Camperio. 

 Pp. 536; illustrated by 168 woodblocks, 72 plates, 

 facsimiles of manuscripts, and one map. (Milan: 

 Ulrico Hoepli, 1900.) 

 The opening up of China to foreign commerce has 

 naturally created a demand for books dealing with the 

 country and its inhabitants considered from every aspect ; 

 their religion, their treatment of missionaries, their laws 



