7 6 



NA TURE 



[November 27, 1902 



conclusions arrived at by the experts engaged in the 

 inquiry. The author says : — 



" The epidemic is remarkable, not only for its severity, 

 but from the fact that six gentlemen, all eminent for their 

 skill in bacteriology, failed to discover a single typhoid 

 bacillus." 



The failure to isolate the typhoid bacillus was in no 

 way remarkable ; it is a matter of real difficulty to dis- 

 cover its presence in a typhoid stool. At Maidstone, the 

 pollution of the implicated water with microbes of 

 excremental origin was abundantly proved, and no 

 bacteriologist of repute would consider that failure to 

 isolate B. typhosus from an implicated water afforded 

 any proof whatever that this microbe was in reality 

 absent. 



Chapters viii., ix. and x., dealing respectively with 

 immunity, practical considerations and agriculture, con- 

 tain many thoughtful passages. But the author, in the 

 pursuit of his main thesis, which may briefly be described 

 as a plea for the methodical deposition of faeces on 

 well-tilled humus, advocates measures which, as regards 

 water supply, are open to some objection. But few will 

 find fault with expressions of opinion such as the fol- 

 lowing : — 



"Apart from the question of food- supply, it is, I 

 believe, absolutely necessary to encourage agriculture in 

 order that our race may be maintained in vigour." 



"Anything which discourages or increases the diffi- 

 culties of agriculturists can hardly be in the interests of 

 the public health." 



Chapter xi., on the maintenance of the fertility of the 

 soil, is of considerable interest. The author quotes Sir 

 William Crookes's famous address to the British Associa- 

 tion (1898), a fragment of which may here be cited : — 



" In the United Kingdom we are content to hurry 

 down our drains and watercourses into the sea fixed 

 nitrogen to the amount of no less than 16,000,000/. per 

 annum." 



True ; but in how many million pounds of adventitious 

 material is this store of potential wealth concealed ? 

 Moreover, it may be good economy to allow to run to 

 waste a potentially valuable substance if its retention 

 (assuming questions of practicability and commercial 

 . gain) involves serious risk of danger to human beings. 



In chapter xii., Dr. Poore interests the reader with an 

 instructive account of sanitation in Holland. 



Practical sanitarians would do well to read chapter 

 xiii., describing the experiments conducted under the 

 auspices of the city of Manchester as regards the dis- 

 posal of refuse on Carrington Moss. The case may be 

 an exceptional one, but the figures given by Dr. Poore 

 are most instructive. 



Dr. Poore's conclusions are given in chapter xiv., 

 which contains also an interesting account of the author's 

 experiments at Andover, in which the ordure and refuse 

 of about 100 persons have been applied for fourteen 

 years to rather more than one acre of land with con- 

 spicuous success as regards the amount of produce ex- 

 tracted from the soil. The author, by implication if not 

 by direct statement, appears to consider that what is, 

 under the superintendence of a master spirit, possible 

 and practicable in the country must of necessity apply 

 NO. 1726, VOL. 67] 



also to the complex conditions attending the disposal of 

 excremental matters in the neighbourhood of large towns. 

 The remark that 



"the nineteenth century closed with the spectacle of a 

 Royal Commission still discussing the best way of 

 destroying the potentialities of life and prosperity " 



might well have been omitted ; and it is to be regretted 

 that the writer throughout his book so often seems to 

 view a grave and serious problem through the wrong end 

 of the telescope. But opinions such as the following will 

 excite the sympathy of many readers : — 



"At present he who advocates any attempt to entice 

 a fair proportion of the people 'back to the land' is 

 regarded as a Utopian dreamer. I feel convinced that 

 the only chance of getting a living from agriculture lies 

 in the due enrichment of the soil." 



Chapters xv. to xviii. deal with an address to the 

 Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society on enteric fever, 

 and in chapters xix. to xxii. various papers on sanitary 

 matters by the author are considered. They contain 

 much useful and original information, and will repay 

 careful perusal. 



In conclusion, it may be said that the book is a note- 

 worthy one. It is the work of a distinguished physician, 

 an original thinker, and a lucid and polished writer. It 

 is not free from defects, some dogmatic statements 

 and one-sided opinions ; and the author's sanitary teach- 

 ings do not always seem to the writer of this review to 

 be of a wholly sound character. But a colourless repro- 

 duction of orthodox doctrines and the opinions of other 

 men makes dull reading ; and no one who studies the 

 book will regret having done so, nor will he fail to find 

 in its pages many new and original thoughts, and fresh 

 ways of interpreting old facts. That the book will add 

 to the high reputation already enjoyed by Dr. Poore is 

 certain. A. C. HOUSTON. 



STEEL-WORKS ANALYSIS. 

 The Analysis of Steel- Works Materials. By Harry 

 Brearley and Fred Ibbotson. With Illustrations. Pp. 

 xv + 501. Price 14.J. net. (London, New York and 

 Bombay : Longmans, Green and Co., 1902.) 

 A NALYSIS in the laboratories attached to works 

 ■^^ necessarily differs widely from the analysis of 

 schools or that of research. To compare them is to 

 compare the work of professionals with that of amateurs. 

 The works chemist is already familiar with the methods 

 he has to use, as well as with the general principles on 

 which they are based, before he begins his daily round of 

 endless determinations. Consequently, the best book for 

 him will, in general, be shorn of philosophic considera- 

 tions^! lengthy descriptions of ordinary manipulations, and 

 of accounts of obsolete processes, though they may be of 

 great educational value and historical interest. He needs 

 a terse, accurate description of processes that he can use, 

 with references to the difficulties that may be encountered 

 and to the limitations that cannot be avoided. He must 

 be able to find out quickly all that he wants to know, and 

 he must not be misled. It is difficult to imagine a book 

 which would be equally suitable for schools and works, 

 but most treatises on analysis are compromises. The 

 book now under review, which, by the way, is the second 



