December 29, 1904] 



NA TURE 



199 



The storms which visit the Philippine Archipelago 

 varv greatly in frequency according to season, the 

 months with the greatest number being July, August, 

 and September, whilst the months with the least 

 frequency are January, February, and March. Much 

 good work is done in the classification of cyclones, and 

 diagrams are given showing the paths of eleven 

 different types. Considerable attention is paid to the 

 precursory signs of cyclones, and naturally much im- 

 portance in this direction is attached to the form and 

 movement of clouds. 



The whole treatise is suggestive of further scientific 

 inquiry, and Father Algue has done much by this work 

 to advance our knowledge of the law of storms. 



C. H. 



The Animals nf New Zealand: an Account oj the 

 Colony's Air-breathing ]'ertebrates. By F. W. 

 Hutton and J. Drummond. Pp. xiv + 381; illus- 

 trated. (Christchurch and London : Whitcombe and 

 Tombs, Ltd., 1904.) 

 Some months ago, when noticing Captain Mutton's 

 valuable " Index " of the New Zealand fauna, we had 

 occasion to refer to the impending issue of the present 

 volume; now that it is before us, we are happy to be 

 able to state that it fully realises our expectations, 

 and forms a most valuable history of the air-breath- 

 ing vertebrates of the colony, written in a pleasant style 

 which cannot fail to make it acceptable to a large circle 

 of readers. At starting, the authors refer to their in- 

 debtedness to the late Mr. T. H. Potts, who did such 

 good work in describing a fast vanishing fauna before 

 it was too late. The melancholy story of the waning 

 cif this curious and interesting fauna forms, indeed, 

 the key-note of the introduction of the volume. From 

 the time that Captain Cook, in 1773, turned down pigs 

 in Queen Charlotte's Sound, the native fauna has had 

 to contend with competitors from Europe of a stronger 

 and more aggressive type, the natural result being 

 that many forms, like the tuatera lizard, have already 

 disappeared from the mainland, although in some 

 instances surviving in the adjacent islets, and many 

 more are destined to go ere long. Among the latter 

 (if, indeed, it be not already extinct) is the short-tailed 

 bat, the sole representative of the genus Mystacops, 

 its rarity, or extermination, being attributed to the 

 destruction of insect life caused by the introduction of 

 European birds. 



From a purely commercial standpoint the authors do 

 not, however, by any means condemn the introduction 

 of many of the foreign species, having even a good 

 word to say for the much abused sparrow. " Without 

 the sparrow, or some other bird equally common," they 

 write, " residents in the colony would be over-run with 

 the insects again, and life would be insupportable." 

 The phrase concerning insects, it may be explained, 

 refers to the " plagues " of V'arious species which 

 occurred when European food-crops were first intro- 

 duced into the colony. On the other hand, the intro- 

 duction of certain species, such as the greenfinch and, 

 above all, the rabbit, is most strongly condemned. The 

 acclimatisation of several kinds of deer is considered 

 to be of considerable advantage to the general pro- 

 sperity of the islands, as it leads to the visits of 

 European sportsmen. 



.\mong the species which have suffered most severely 

 from foreign competition may be mentioned the two 

 b.us, the kiwis, the weka rail, and the tuatera. The 

 moas appear to have been completely and the 

 Xotornis all but exterminated by the iSIaories before 

 the European advent. 



Liinitations of space alone prevent further commend- 

 ation of a very excellent, interesting, and beautifully 

 illustrated work. 



NO. 1835, VOL. 71] 



Zellenmechanik und Zellenleben. By Prof. Dr. 



Rhumbler. Pp. 43. (Leipzig: J. A. Barth, 1904.) 



Price I mark. 

 This little work represents a sketch of the author's 

 views on the causes and means of manifestation 

 of cellular activity. The point of view adopted is a 

 materialistic one. It is considered that the whole 

 subject should be dealt with from the physical or the 

 physico-chemical aspect, even when this fails to present 

 a complete solution of all the difficulties that may arise. 

 It is becoming more and more recognised that many 

 of the acts which used to be regarded as specially the 

 outcome of vital activity find their parallel in inorganic 

 nature. An amoeba when ingesting a filament of 

 oscillatoria much longer than itself is able com- 

 pletely to enclose it because the algal thread becomes 

 coiled up within the protoplasmic body of the proto- 

 zoan. But an exactly similar state of things is pro- 

 duced if a drop of chloroform is placed in water and 

 a filament of shellac be then presented to it. The fila- 

 ment is drawn into the chloroform, and coiled up much 

 as the alga in the amoeba ; and if a short glass thread 

 be coated with shellac, it is also " ingested," but as 

 the lac becomes dissolved the glass thread is 

 gradually extruded. The whole question here resolves 

 itself into one of surface tension, and perhaps the pro- 

 cesses of ingestion and excretion may ultimately prove 

 to be essentially similar in nature. 



Again, the remarkable uniformity in the details of 

 nuclear divisions (karyokinesis), from whatever source 

 the cells may originate, strongly suggests that a com- 

 prehensive physical explanation of the process will one 

 day be forthcoming. 



But although the physical aspects of cellular activity 

 will certainly become more clear and definite, this is 

 only the first step on to the threshold of the temple in 

 which the secret of life is guarded. Behind the proxi- 

 mate physical phenomena lies a vast complex of chang- 

 ing chemical conditions, and it will be long before we 

 are likely to be able exhaustively to analyse them. The 

 more successfully we do so, however, the more nearly 

 shall we be able to grapple with the physical problems 

 of movement and the like. Rhumbler regards changes 

 of surface tension, and the reactions that affect it, as 

 constituting one of the most profitable of the many 

 possible lines of cytological investigation. 



Studies in Astronomy. By J. Ellard Gore, F.R..\.S., 

 M.R.I. A. Pp. xi-l-3j6. (London: Chatto and 

 Windus, 1904.) Price 6s. 

 In this book the reader is presented with a series of 

 disconnected essays on a variety of astronomical sub- 

 jects, many of which include interesting and suggestive 

 results of calculations made by the author. The sub- 

 jects range from " giant telescopes " to the " construc- 

 tion of the visible universe," but Jupiter is the only 

 planet to which any detailed reference is made, and 

 the sun is only dealt with from the point of view of 

 its stellar magnitude and its motion in space. The 

 chapter on " Messier 's nebulte," bringing together all 

 the recent information with regard to these objects, 

 will be of considerable value to those who possess 

 telescopes, and the notes comprising " recent advances 

 in stellar astronomy " give a useful summary of the 

 state of our knowledge of the subjects dealt with at 

 the beginning of the present year. 



Most of the papers have already appeared as 

 magazine articles, and, notwithstanding the revision 

 which has been made for the present purpose, there is 

 necessarily a considerable amount of repetition. Apart 

 from this, however, the book provides a very accept- 

 able course of not too difficult reading for those who 

 have a general elementary acquaintance with the 

 subject. 



