May 7, 1914] 
NATURE 
250 
pages, and are followed by a systematic list of 
the plants collected; among these may be noted 
Poga oleosa (Rhizophoracee), hitherto only 
known from the Gaboon, which is an interesting 
discovery, as its seeds are rich in oil. Lists of 
the ferns, mosses, fungi, and lichens which were 
collected by Mr. and Mrs. Talbot complete the 
enumeration. 
(7) The supplement to Jost’s “Plant Physio- 
logy ” consists of a translation of the alterations 
of the second edition of the German original, and 
to be appreciated must be studied hand in hand 
with the translation of the book. Without the 
original translation the supplement is, of course, 
valueless, and even with the book it is a singu- 
larly tiresome way of presenting new information 
or of correcting errors. It would, we should 
have thought, been of more value to produce in 
course of time a complete new edition of Jost’s 
lectures, since it will be impossible to continue to 
bring out further supplements embodying the 
changes in the newer German editions as they 
are published. 
(8) The publication of the little book entitled 
“Plant Life” is the outcome of a desire of those 
who heard these lectures at an adult school to 
have them in permanent form. They have been 
published, therefore, with many of the original 
illustrations, and form a clear, simple, and useful 
account of plant life for an audience such as that 
to whom they were given. No doubt much of 
their value and charm lay in their delivery, and 
we cannot think that any very useful purpose 
has been served by the publication of these lec- 
tures beyond that of honouring the memory of 
one who was, no doubt, as good a teacher as he 
must have been an ardent friend. 
OUR BOOKSHELF. 
The Physician in English History. By Dr. 
Norman Moore. (Linacre Lecture, 1913, St. 
John’s College, Cambridge.) Pp. 57. (Cam- 
bridge: University Press, 1913.) Price 2s. 6d. 
net. 
Tue charm of Dr. Norman Moore’s historical 
writing rests, as such virtue must rest, on many 
qualities; on his wide and curious learning sitting 
lightly upon his pen, his humanity living in his 
biographical gift, and enriched by his retentive 
memory, and his appreciation of the past, always 
informed by his mastery of modern clinical medi- 
eine. As his subject for the last Linacre Lecture 
Dr. Moore chose “The Physician in English 
History”; that is to say, not a string of all the 
physicians of English history, but, like the sheep 
in the painting of the Primrose family, so many 
as the confines of his hour would admit. The 
chosen physicians were either distinguished in 
NO. 2323, VOL. 93] 
themselves or came into note at momentous or 
picturesque occasions, Thus the lecturer gave to 
his audience not a procession of English physi- 
clans, a great story which would indeed be wel- 
come at his hands, but a small gallery of medical 
pictures set in a historical background. With 
the propriety of a lecturer in his university of 
Cambridge, he opened his discourse with Bede’s 
unusually interpretable narrative of the disease 
and death of Ethelreda of Ely. The skill of 
Cynifrid, who, apart from the arid cram of 
Isidore, was probably a _ fairly competent 
“Wundaerzt,” failed to save her life. Probably 
Cynifrid was called in too late, after long courses 
of monastic quackery. 
Next we are taken to the death-bed of William 
the Conqueror, whose mortal malady is illumined 
by the lecturer’s parallel instances from twen- 
tieth-century St. Bartholomew’s. 
The pages given to Linacre himself are by no 
means a perfunctory tribute to the founder, but 
a happy blend of the physician as a man of letters 
moving in pleasant groups amid his brilliant con- 
temporaries of the Renaissance, Erasmus, for 
example, Tonstall, and More. By a deft selec- 
tion of materials from a well-stored memory, Dr. 
Moore thus carries us century by century to the 
middle of the eighteenth, giving us by the way 
bright glimpses of Wadham in the mid-seven- 
teenth; then to the horizon of Swift and Pope 
with the flash of that tantalising meteor Arbuth- 
not, and bringing us at length to the great lexico- 
grapher and Dr. Brocklesby. A dainty entertain- 
ment. May the author in his spare hours give 
us many more of such. 
Text-book on Railroad Surveying. By G. W. 
Pickels and C. C. Wiley. Pp. ix+263. (New 
York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: 
Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1914.) Price 10s. 6d. 
net. 
Tuts book gives a fair representation of American 
practice in railroad surveying. The subject-matter 
includes brief directions for carrying out the pre- 
liminary reconnaissance in various types of country, 
and the location of the best route. Fuller explana- 
tions follow of the setting out of circular and 
spiral transition curves; this section includes 
turn-outs, connections, and crossings. Earthwork 
problems are also treated. Methods are explained 
of shifting the location of curves in the field from 
that shown on the plan in order to secure better 
conditions of cutting or filling. The text occupies 
125 pages, and the remaining 138 pages are taken 
up with tables giving curve functions, logarithms 
of numbers, trigonometrical functions of angles 
and earthwork. Detailed mathematical solutions 
are omitted, and an elementary knowledge of 
surveying is assumed. Judging from the terse 
nature of the contents, the title ‘‘ Pocket-book of 
Railroad Surveying ’ would probably. be more 
appropriate, and would convey to engineers the 
fact that the book will be found to be a useful 
| companion in his field operations. 
