76 
NATURE 
| NovVEMBER 22, 1906 
and quite correctly, that the formule given are very 
few, and that ‘‘it is their application to photography 
that has formed his topic.’? The student, therefore, 
will not always find here the practical instructions 
that he needs; sometimes, in fact, quite otherwise. If, 
for example, he wishes to varnish a negative, and 
turns to the page indicated in the index, he reads 
that ‘‘the modern dry-plate worker finds the result 
of the first operation is to send a stream of varnish 
up his arm, of the second to make a pool of it on 
the floor, and of the third to cement a number of 
dust particles to the surface of the negative, and, 
possibly, to set the whole of the varnish alight.” 
As the author considers that there is no reason why 
an amateur photographer should varnish his nega- 
tives, he does not help him to do it. 
It is essentially a personal treatise. Those subjects 
that commend themselves to the author he discourses 
on at length, and sometimes in much detail; others he 
merely refers to, and in most cases he expresses his 
own opinions in very decisive terms. There are some 
opinions with which we do not agree, but the volume 
is easy reading, and if at any time we begin to get 
annoyed with the expression of views that we are 
inclined to condemn, a page or two forward is sure 
to bring us face to face with a charming picture that 
cannot but please, though it has no connection what- 
ever with the text, except that it is a photograph. 
Photography pure and simple is dealt with in nine- 
teen chapters, then follow chapters on “‘ Dodging and 
* Faking,’’’ landscape, architectural work, and por- 
traiture, ‘* Pictorial Photography,’’ ‘‘ Exhibitions and 
Societies,” and a few pages on photomechanical 
work. 
We notice only a few errors, and as most of 
them are not obvious slips it may be worth while 
pointing them out. Sodium hypochlorite is included 
among “‘hypo-eliminators’’ of ‘‘ very doubtful effi- 
cacy.’’ As it is supposed readily to oxidise the thio- 
sulphate to sulphate, experimental evidence should be 
adduced before its efficacy is doubted. The statement 
at p. 157 that a “focal-plane shutter allows the 
whole of the light which passes through the lens, to 
fall on any part of the plate which it uncovers ”’ cer- 
tainly needs amending. A few lines lower, a roller 
blind shutter with an opening that is equal in length 
to twice the diameter of the lens, and travelling at a 
uniform rate, is stated to leave ‘the lens fully open 
for exactly half the time during which it is uncovered 
at all.” For this result the length of the opening 
should be three times the lens diameter. The author 
must have been misinformed as to the ‘ Linked 
Ring,” for he states that it came into existence by 
reason of a “‘ personal squabble ”? in the Royal Photo- 
graphic Society. As he goes on to say that “ signs 
are not wanting that the ‘ Linked Ring’ in its pre- 
sent form has outlived its utility,” his attitude appears 
to be far from friendly towards this Society, but it 
might have been better if he had refrained from 
giving his opinion in this place. To those who know 
enough about photography to appreciate it, and there 
must be a very large number of persons so qualified, 
the volume will prove both entertaining and instruc- 
tive. 
NO. 1934, VOL. 75] 
| 
POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 
(1) Nature’s Story of the Year. By C. A. Witchell. 
Pp. xii+276. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906.) 
Price 
2s. 
(2) Creatures of the Night. By A. W. Rees. Pp. 
xix+ 448. (London: John Murray, 1905.) Price 
6s. net. 
(3) The Life Story of a Fox. By J. C. Tregarthen. 
Pp. viii+224. (London: Adam and Charles Black, 
1906.) Price 6s. 
(4) The Romance of Animal ‘Arts and Crafts. By Dr. 
H. Coupin and John Lea. Pp. 356. (London: 
Seeley and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price 5s. 
(5) Our School Out of Doors. By the Hon. M. 
Cordelia Leigh. Pp. xii+141. (London: T. Fisher 
Unwin.) Price 2s. 
(1) R. WITCHELL is great as an observer. 
He has studied the ways of sticklebacks. 
With still more patience and insight he has watched 
the courtship of willow-wrens and of skylarks. He 
has much to say about the habits of swifts that is 
worth reading. He is at his best when he is writing 
about birds, though such an affectionate observer 
has, of course, the defect of his virtue. He sympa- 
thises so keenly with his favourites that he reads into 
their lives a good deal which may or may not be 
there. They are to him beings full of almost human 
thoughts and passions. But whether we go along 
with him in his inferences or not, he makes it plain 
that there is a great deal in nature that most of us 
fail to notice. We must regret that he feels so much 
contempt for comparative anatomy and classification, 
things of some importance, though Mr. Witchell is 
not alive to it. But chiefly we must regret that our 
author sometimes aims without success at a very 
high-flown style of writing. On p. 76 is a notable 
example. In the first chapter he is a philosopher 
rather than an observer, and for this rvéle he is not 
so well qualified. But if his readers go on with the 
book they will find themselves rewarded. 
(2) Mr. Rees’s “Creatures of the Night’ is a very 
readable book. It is written in good style. Though 
not so exciting as some books of animal biography, it 
has an air of genuineness and reality. Lutra is a 
real she-otter, Brock is a real badger, and we get 
interested in Brighteyes the water-vole. There is, of 
course, a tendency to make the heroes of these animal 
stories too human, but that is inevitable in. literature 
of the kind. 
(3) Mr. Tregarthen’s is a book of the same class, 
but with this difference, that the hero, who tells his 
own story, is frankly and undisguisedly human. He 
knows, for instance, that the light in the surf on the 
rocks is due to phosphorescence, an astonishing piece 
of knowledge for a fox. But the story is so well 
told, is so interesting, and even exciting, that one 
does not stumble over unrealities of this kind. They 
seem merely to add piquancy. In essentials the story 
is true to life, and it is admirably told. 
(4) ‘‘The Romance of Animal Arts and + Crafts ’’ 
describes the various styles of architecture adopted 
by different classes of animal from the beaver down 
| to the caddis-worm. Rat-kangaroos, badgers, trap- 
