6io 



NATURE 



[April 26, 1900 



genesis. " The law of the formation of new types is a 

 fragmentation of the tissue of more primitive organisms, 

 and the arrangement of these new formations in new 

 groups." " Neither selection nor adaptation can explain 

 the specific peculiarities (particularites) of the structure 

 of organisms, which are due to new spontaneous 

 productions." 



Thus the reader is insidiously led from harmless ad- 

 missions as to the structure of protoplasm to grave 

 heresies in regard to the efficacy of natural selection ; 

 but if he is convinced, we confess our inability to under- 

 stand how the trick is done. We think that the sound 

 part of the book may be summed up in a sentence of 

 E.B. Wilson's : " Broadly viewed, therefore, the life of the 

 multicellular organism is to be conceived as a whole ; 

 and the apparent composite character, which it may 

 exhibit, is owing to a secondary distribution of its 

 energies among local centres of action." J. A. T. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Notions de Mindralogie . Par A. F. Renard et F. Stober. 

 P^- fascicule. Pp. iv -t- 189 ; 398 figures. (Ghent : 

 Ad. Hoste, 1900.) 



A TEXT-BOOK of mmeralogy, written by the Abb^ 

 Renard, with the co-operation of his assistant, F. Stober, 

 who has published important mineralogical papers, excites 

 high expectations ; and, in spite of its modest title, this 

 work is really a text-book. The present volume contains 

 only the introductory portion, dealing with the geo- 

 metrical, physical and chemical properties of minerals. 

 A second part is promised, which will contain the de- 

 scription of various species and a notice of those found in 

 Belgium. 



The excellent historical survey with which the book 

 opens is modelled upon Fletcher's well-known " Intro- 

 duction to the Study of Minerals " ; it is only brought 

 down to the year 1833. In the following section (geo- 

 metrical crystallography) some of the principal types of 

 crystals, and their planes of symmetry, are indicated by 

 projections of the " elementary spaces " (the systematic 

 triangles of Maskelyne) similar to those used by Liebisch 

 in his "Grundriss der Krystallographie" ; axes of sym- 

 metry are not employed, but the familiar conception of 

 hemihedrism is retained ; and the facts are stated in a 

 manner which involves no special mathematical know- 

 ledge. Indices are used throughout. The subject of 

 twinning is briefly treated, and only by reference to twin 

 planes. In the optical section use is made of the wave- 

 surface and the ellipsoid of optical elasticity. 



Since out of 189 pages eighty-eight are devoted to the 

 geometry, and fifty-seven to the physics, of crystals, the 

 chemical section is very brief, but considerable attention 

 is, as might be expected, devoted to microchemical 

 analysis, and also to crystal etching. 



The reader will not expect to find much that is novel ; 

 neither will this book give him an insight into modern 

 theoretical aspects of the subject ; but he will find, what 

 is more important, a very lucid statement of the essential 

 facts, and a clear description of the practical methods in 

 use by mineralogists ; to illustrate this, special attention 

 may be called to the paragraph on the angle of minimum 

 deviation on p. 116, and to the interpretation of inter- 

 ference figures by the diagrams on pp. 138-9. 



It must not be imagined from what has been said that 

 the book ignores new advances in the science ; there is, 

 for example, a paragraph on the use of X-rays. 



The figures are adequate, but not very well printed. 



NO. I 591, VOL. 61 J 



When the second part appears, we shall expect to find I 

 that it completes a very readable and useful student's- | 



handbook. 



H. A. M. 



Muret-Sander's Encyclopaedic English-German and Ger- 

 man-English Dictionary. Pp. xlviij -f- 1733. (London: 

 H. Grevel and Co., 1900.) 



Before buying a dictionary of words of a foreign 

 language the purchaser has to make up his or her mind 

 as to what kind of a dictionary is required. There are^ 

 for instance, dictionaries which can easily be placed in 

 the waistcoat pocket : these necessarily contain a very 

 restricted number of words. From this they gradually 

 increase in size, weight, and quantity of information 

 given, until they assume such proportions that they are 

 best kept in one place and referred to there, as their 

 bulk renders them somewhat inconvenient to move. 



The volume before us, which is described as an 

 abridged edition, may be said to be verging on the larger 

 size of dictionaries, as its dimensions are 11x8x3 inches,, 

 and it contains nearly 1800 pages. 



The plan and arrangement of the work are uniform 

 with the well-known French-German dictionary of Sachs- 

 Villatte, and the pronunciation adopted is based on the 

 phonetic system employed in the method of Toussaint- 

 Langenscheidt. 



The volume should find special favour with students of 

 science, for, although it is in no sense technical, there is 

 a sufficient sprinkling of scientific terms throughout its 

 pages which should render it most useful to this large 

 class of readers. To find out the extent of the insertior^ 

 of technical terms, we have chosen at random some 

 chemical terms such as ozone, hydroxide, vanadium,, 

 fractionation, nitrate, and find that all except one are in- 

 cluded. Repeating the same for physical terms, we find 

 ampere, watt, electrolysis (absent, but electrolyse inserted),, 

 galvanism, achromatic, all but one mentioned. 



Some readers may dislike the use of the German type 

 when German words are printed, since most of the 

 German scientific publications are now printed in Roman 

 type ; any one, on the other hand, familiar with the 

 German language, will probably prefer the usual German 

 letters. In addition to being clearly printed, the volume 

 is strongly bound, and is issued at the moderate price of 

 fourteen shillings. 



Die Elemente der Entwickelungslehre des Menschen und 

 der Wirbelthiere. By O. Hertwig. Pp. vi + 406 ; 

 332 figures. (Jena : Gustav Fischer, 1900.) 

 This work is a condensation of the sixth edition of 

 Hertwig's well-known " Lehrbuch," brought out in a form 

 more suited to the needs of beginners and students, 

 especially of medicine. It is intended "to serve as an 

 introduction to the field of embryological science, and ta 

 put forward only its leading facts in a shorter form." 

 Hence the discussion of controversial problems is 

 omitted, as well as historical reviews or references to 

 literature, for which the more advanced student must 

 consult the larger work. Each chapter concludes with a 

 "repetitorium," by which is meant a numbered series of 

 categorical statements, summing up briefly the results 

 obtained in the foregoing chapter. There are numerous 

 illustrations, the pick of those in the " Lehrbuch." The 

 book is doubtless one which will be very useful to the 

 German student, but unless it is translated, it may be 

 doubted if it will have a very large sale in this country^ 

 since the English student of the class for which it is- 

 intended is not able, as a rule, to read easily books in a 

 foreign tongue, while those who take their science 

 enough in earnest to acquire this faculty, will probably 

 purchase the larger work. For the teacher, however,, 

 the book offers a brief and convenient summary, very 

 handy for reference. E. A. M. 



