246 



NA TURE 



[January 12, 1905 



Salisb. , which found favour in the eyes of the editors of 

 the " London Catalogue " (ninth edition). Viola 

 calcaria, Bab., appears as var. $ of F. hirta, Linn., 

 though the author admits an inclination to regard it 

 as a starved or stunted form rather than a variet}'. No 

 mention is made of V. calcaria, Gregory, which has 

 been cultivated, and appears to be a good species. 



V. canina, Linn., is given as synonymous with 

 r. flavicornis, Sm., non Forster, while V. ericelortim, 

 Schrader, appears as a hybrid canina x lactea. .\11 

 botanists will not find themselves in agreement with 

 Mr. Townsend upon this point, for V. ericetoriitn is 

 sometimes abundant where V. lactea is extremely 

 scarce. Perhaps it may be hoped that cultivation will 

 settle the question, especially if it be found that hybrid 

 violas obey Mendel's law of segregation. 



The list of Rubi brings the number up to eighty-five, 

 making the county, with one exception, the richest 

 in brambles of any in the British Isles. Some useful 

 notes on the genus Erythraea are given, and the variety 

 sphacroccphala, Towns., of E. capitata, Willd., is 

 beautifully figured ; the author now considers that the 

 plant does not merit a varietal name. 



Among the Monocotyledons, the Rev. E. F. Linton's 

 Orchis ericetorum is fully described. It appears to be 

 a well marked plant, and the fact that it grows only 

 on heaths while the chalk plant is typical O. maculata 

 cannot be said to militate against its claim to specific 

 rank in view of the parallel case of distribution of the 

 two plants included under the name Valeriana 

 officinalis, Linn. But here again there may be great 

 virtue in cultivation. It is satisfactory to find the 

 truth told about Ruscus aculeatiis. The plant with 

 staminate flowers has narrower cladodes than the 

 pistillate plant, and there is no evidence for a narrow- 

 leaved and a broad-leaved variety. 



In an appendix appear notes on several plants, 

 amongst which are Stellaria umbrosa, Opiz, and 

 -5. media, Linn, (both of which are fully diagnosed), 

 Primus spinosa, Linn., P. jruticans, Weihe, P. 

 insititia, Linn., and P. domestica, Linn. An account 

 of Murbeck's arrangement of the gentians is given, 

 and all the forms of Euphrasia and Salicornia noted 

 in the county are described. So much matter of 

 general interest is brought together that no field 

 botanist, be he a native of the district or a vi-orker in 

 any other part of the country, can afford to neglect 

 this volume. 



SANITARY ENGINEERING. 



Small Destructors for Institutional and Trade Waste. 

 By W. Francis Goodrich. Pp. 127. (London : 

 Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 45. 

 net. 



MR. GOODRICH'S book on "Refuse Disposal 

 and Power Production," which dealt with the 

 problems arising in the disposal of civic waste, was 

 recently reviewed in these columns (May 12, 1904, vol. 

 Ixx. p. 25) ; in the present volume the same author 

 treats of the equally important subject of the disposal of 

 institutional and trade refuse, that is, with the design 

 NO. 1S37, VOL. 71] 



and working of small destructors. The aim has been 

 to make clear the fact that high temperature working 

 is as vital in the small as in the large destructor. 



In an introductory chapter Mr. Goodrich lays down 

 the principles which must be observed in the design 

 of small destructors, and he points out that it is 

 possible to operate at a low working cost such de- 

 structors when built on modern lines. The weak points 

 in the design of the earlier forms were preciselv those 

 which were found in the early forms of large municipal 

 destructors, nameh', low temperature system of work- 

 ing, slow combustion, and inadequate and unsatis- 

 factory methods of feeding the refuse into the cells ; 

 these difficulties, however, have all been overcome, and 

 at the present day small destructors for use in institu- 

 tions such as isolation hospitals, hotels, &c. , can be 

 obtained as satisfactory in every respect as the large 

 ones now so commonly employed. On account of the 

 unpleasant substances which have to be dealt with in 

 many of these institutional destructors, they are often 

 neglected, and proper supervision over them is not 

 maintained ; this leads to the refuse being improperly 

 fed into the destructor ; in a good modern type there 

 is no risk of this misuse, as it is impossible to feed 

 the destructor in any other way than that originally 

 provided by the designer. 



.\ number of typical destructors suitable for such 

 institutions are described and illustrated, the drawings 

 being fairly complete. In thinly populated districts 

 it is often advisable to have a portable destructor, and 

 two very successful ones of this type, namely, a 

 Horsfall and a Meldrum, are described. Such port- 

 able destructors would be invaluable during campaigns 

 and in our home training-camps. How dangerous 

 the waste from a large camp may become to health 

 was vividly shown during the inquiry by the Royal 

 Commission into the war in South Africa. Man)' of 

 the medical witnesses expressed the opinion that 

 hundreds of lives might have been saved had the 

 necessary steps been taken to destroy camp refuse 

 properly and to supervise thoroughly the sanitary con- 

 dition of camps. In .\merica, which, strangely 

 enough, has lagged behind in the adoption of muni- 

 cipal destructors, there has been a considerable de- 

 velopment in the utilisation of the smaller forms, both 

 for hospitals and for hotels. The latter portion of the 

 book treats of the disposal of trade refuse, and the 

 author points out how valuable from the point of view 

 of generation of power this trade refuse often is. Such 

 trade refuse can only be burnt in boilers specially de- 

 signed for fuel of low calorific power, and where the 

 boilers are properly designed there is no difficulty in 

 utilising it. A number of different types of furnaces 

 and boilers suitable for use with trade waste are de- 

 scribed and illustrated in these chapters. 



The last few pages of the book are devoted to a 

 discussion as to the advantages of disposing of car- 

 cases of diseased and condemned beasts by means of 

 suitably designed destructors. The book will be 

 found, like Mr. Goodrich's other books upon this im- 

 portant branch of sanitary engineering, extremely 

 valuable by all who are engaged in dealing with the 

 disposal of solid refuse. T. H. B. 



