6oo 



NA TURE 



[October 20, 1904 



who have used this system of notation in other branches 

 of their education may find it an assistance. In con- 

 clusion, the book may be recommended to anybody 

 who practises navigation and wishes to keep up to 

 date. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 



Birds in their Seasons. By J. A. Owen. Pp. vi + 

 145; plates. (London: G. Routledge and Sons, 

 Ltd., 1904.) Price 2s. 6d. net. 

 Complete originality in mode of treatment, perfec- 

 tion in literary style, absolute fidelity to nature in 

 the illustrations, coupled with immaculate accuracy 

 in regard to nomenclature and other technical 

 matters, would appear to be the only possible justifi- 

 cations for adding a new one to the long list of 

 popular works on British birds. If it be asked 

 whether the volume before us fulfils these conditions, 

 there will be no great difficulty in framing a reply. 

 In the first place, the mode of treatment is by no 

 means original ; while the following sentence from 

 p. 53, " When talking to Lady Farren, of Beal- 

 ings House, Suffolk, she told me that her family 

 had had remarkable intimacies with wild birds," 

 can scarcely be regarded either as a sample of 

 elegance in diction or of accuracy in grammar. As 

 specimens of what illustrations, so far as regards 

 colour, ought not to be, we may cite the figure of the 

 bee-eater in the plate facing p. i6, and that of 

 the kingfisher on the one opposite p. 32. As 

 instances of technical inaccuracy, tor which there is 

 no excuse, we may quote the following (among other) 

 misspellings of scientific names, viz., (p. 20) 

 Matacilla for Motacilla, (p. 29) Miisicapa for Miisci- 

 capa, (p. 54) Cocothraustes for Coccothraiistes, 

 (p. 104) Dafilia for Dafila, and (p. 129) Acanthus for 

 Acanthis, the latter error being the more inexcusable 

 from the fact that the name is correctly spelt on an 

 earlier page. If further reference to inaccuracies be 

 required, we may contrast the statement on p. 140, 

 to the effect that in the inde.x the various species are 

 assigned to their respective orders and families, with 

 the index itself, where in many cases the sub- 

 family, in place of the family, is given. 



If cheapness and (to the uninitiated) attractive 

 illustrations were the sole qualifications for a good 

 bird-book, the present volume might perhaps be 

 worthy of commendation ; as it is, naturalists at any 

 rate still consider accuracy a sine qud non in works 

 of this nature, while the British public will, we 

 venture to think, demand something strikingly 

 original before it accords extensive patronage to a 

 new history of British Birds. R. L. 



The Cultivation of Man. By C. A. Witchell. 



Pp. xv+168. (London: W. Stewart, 1904.) 



Price 3.S. 6d. 

 The author of this book is very much in earnest. He 

 condemns modern civilisation in strong terms for its 

 manv vices, especially for its worship of money and 

 the mammonite marriages that result from it, and 

 urges that men should apply to their own species 

 the methods of the breeder of cattle. He recom- 

 mends poh'gamy, apparently in all seriousness, and 

 not as a mere counsel of perfection. It would, of 

 course, destroy the family, but to this Mr. Witchell 

 has no objection. He would have the child that is 

 born " with every sign of some inherent disease of 

 a serious character painlessly destroyed." Certainly 

 he speaks out fearlessly, and that is no small merit. 

 But it is to be regretted that he did not study his 



NO. 1825, VOL. 70] 



subject more before writing. " Natural selection," 

 he says, " is sometimes operative, chiefly among the 

 poor." Considering that in England nearly fifty per 

 cent, of the population die before the average age of 

 marriage, this is a wonderful understatement. If we 

 bear the facts in mind, we can hardly agree with 

 Mr. Witchell that the business man is " the surviv- 

 ing type," i.e. apparently the type that is to survive 

 to the exclusion of others. Business men are not a 

 separate species. There is a continual upward move- 

 ment of able men from the great underlying social 

 stratum, and from this stratum directly or indirectly 

 our successful men, as we call them, have emerged. 

 In the underlying couclie sociale there is but little 

 accumulation of capital and comparatively little 

 marrying for money. As to style, Mr. Witchell uses 

 his terms vaguely. W^e hear of the cultivation of 

 the 3'Oung (i.e. by education), and of cultivation by 

 marriage (i.e. by selection). But in spite of its 

 defects the book is, much of it, interesting. It dwells 

 upon things which seem to be entirely unknown 

 to Royal Commissions on degeneracy, and to the 

 many people who write letters to the papers and 

 articles in the magazines on the subject. 



Richard Meyer's Jahrhuch der Chemie for 1903. Pp. 



xii + 600. (Brunswick : Vieweg und Sohn, '1904.) 



Price 15 marks. 

 The year-book for 1902 has already been reviewed 

 in these pages, and what was then stated applies with 

 little modification to the new volume. Meyer's year- 

 book presents an excellent, though necessarily brief, 

 resume of the year's researches in pure and applied 

 chemistry. Possibly in other hands a slightly different 

 selection might be made, and the weight of emphasis 

 otherwise distributed, but in the rather wide range of 

 subjects which have to be dealt with the question of 

 choice must naturally vary with the taste of the 

 individual reviewer. 



Although, as was previously remarked, the small 

 proportion of contributions of English authors does not 

 accurately represent the relative strength of English 

 chemistry either in quantity or quality, it is only too 

 true that our output in chernical research and chemical 

 literature is below what it should be. That this is due 

 to lack of interest or poverty of ideas no one could 

 admit, but it is to be attributed to the want of proper 

 facilities in the way of public encouragement and State 

 assistance. 



Meyer's year-book has now reached its thirteenth 

 year, "and it's success, which is assured, must be placed 

 to the credit of its excellent staff of reviewers. 



Perhaps its one shortcoming, if one may so express 

 it, is that it is so long in coming, and many of the 

 researches which are catalogued have assumed a new 

 phase before the year-book appears. J. B. C. 



Astronomischer Jahresbericht. By Walter F. Wisli- 



cenus. Vol. v. Containing the Literature of the 



Year 1903. Pp. xxxiv + 660. (Berlin: George 



Reimer, 1904.) Price 20 marks. 

 It was thought that the publication of the volumes on 

 astronomy, a part of the " International Catalogue of 

 Scientific'Literature," might affect and possibly put an 

 end to this most useful and valuable German publi- 

 cation, but the appearance of this, the fifth yearly issue, 

 renders such an idea untenable. The volume before 

 us is full of vitality and vigour, and the compiler and 

 his co-workers are to be congratulated both on the 

 high standard they maintain throughout such a 

 laisorious task and' on the great value of the publi- 

 cation to all astronomical workers. To have not only 

 references, but brief summaries of the contents of all, 

 or practically all, astronomical literature published 



