196 
NATORE 
[DECEMBER 31, 1903 
The physiographical part is the better, but the limit- 
ations which Prof. Gregory applies to geography have 
hampered his treatment of the rest of the book. The 
land forms (a better term than earth forms) are 
accurately described, but although in his lecture he 
vigorously insists on ‘‘ the fact of facts in geography 
is the circulation of water by its evaporation from the 
sea, its movement through the air, as invisible aqueous 
vapour, its concentration in clouds, and its fall as 
rain,’’ he practically ignores climate in his descrip- 
tions of the different countries. He loses more than 
half the educational value through this neglect. 
Climate and configuration are equally indispensable 
fundamental factors in geography. 
We agree with him when he protests against the 
idea that anthropology, zoology, botany, astronomy 
and geology are but branches of geography. This is 
not the geographer’s point of view. The misconcep- 
tion is due to the confusion of the old South Kensing- 
ton physiography—a useful introduction to elementary 
science, mainly physical, especially in its cosmical 
and terrestrial aspects—with geography. This physio- 
graphy, as Prof. Gregory points out in his preface, 
gave a valuable training to many a teacher of geo- 
graphy, and helped to expel deep-rooted fallacies and 
misleading expressions which were (and to some ex- 
tent still are) to be found in many geographical text- 
books. We fear that Prof. Gregory believes that geo- 
graphy consists of two parts, a physiographical part 
which is scientific, and a topographical part which is 
purely descriptive. 
We have no wish to undervalue the descriptive aspect 
of geography, but this does not involve a rejection of 
geography as a branch of science. Prof. Gregory, and 
those who think as he does, have not yet shaken off 
the effects of their own schoolboy experiences. They 
have not seen the world as composed of a number of 
very complex associations of rock, water, air, plant, 
and animal, including man, which may be classified 
generically and specifically as readily as the organisms 
which they contain. The aim of the geographer, like 
that of the botanist or zoologist, is not confined to 
observing and describing phenomena, but includes 
comparison, classification and interpretation. It is a 
science, a science of forms which have not hitherto 
been generally recognised as such, and the activities 
within and around them. The educational value of 
geography is as much in its scientific discipline as in 
its appeal to the imagination and sympathy. Prof 
Gregory’s books fall short of the ideal in so far 
as he excludes scientific geography from his de- 
scriptive pages. 
higher groupings of phenomena connected by a specific 
topography. We venture to think that the first part 
of the twentieth century will be as noted for the re- 
cognition and study of these macro-organisms as the | 
latter part of the nineteenth century was for the re- 
cognition and study of micro-organisms, and we 
believe that the beneficial effect on the body politic 
will be as great in the one case as it has been in the 
ease of the individual in the other. 
A. J. HERBERTSON. 
No. 1783, VOL. 69] 
He has not yet recognised these | 
LIQUID FUEL. 
Liquid Fuel and its Combustion. By W. H. Booth. 
Pp. xx+411. (Westminster: Archibald Constable 
and Co., Ltd.,.1903.) Price 24s. net: 
N view of the great interest taken at the present 
time in the subject of liquid fuel and the part it 
is likely to play in the future, Mr. Booth’s book comes 
as a welcome record of the work done in the past, and 
would have been enormously enhanced in value had 
the references to the original papers been fully quoted. 
The first part of the work deals with the general 
properties and advantages of liquid fuel, and a good 
deal of this portion of the book might with advantage 
be omitted in a future edition, as, for instance, the 
chapter on water, its properties and purification, which 
are certainly out of place in a book devoted to a special 
subject and not likely to be used as a manual for 
boiler practice. 
Mr. Booth’s ideas on the subject of combustion are 
open to criticism, as he is evidently a strong believer 
in the preferential combustion of the hydrogen in 
hydrocarbons being the cause of the liberation of carbon 
in the form of smoke and soot when there is insuffi- 
cient air for complete combustion in the boiler furnace, 
but a consideration of the actions taking place in a 
water gas generator may shake his belief in this, as, 
if at such temperatures any preferential action exists, 
the fact that steam passed through red-hot carbon 
yields carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen 
would certainly point to carbon and not hydrogen as 
the element most favoured by the attentions of the 
oxygen at the temperature of the furnace. 
On p. 105 the author breaks into amusing 
diatribes against the man of science, and comes to the 
conclusion that ‘‘ when the most important industrial 
operations are absolutely neglected by our supposed 
teachers and leaders of scientific practice, it devolves 
upon those to whom science is less familiar, but more 
attractive, to step into the breach.’’ This sentence 
probably explains a good deal of the vagueness to be 
found in the author’s speculations on liquid and 
gaseous carbon and solid hydrogen in the portion of 
the work devoted to calorific value and combustion. 
In the second part of the book practical engineer- 
ing questions are dealt with, such as oil storage, the 
| atomising of oil for combustion, and the work which 
has been done with liquid fuel, both on the Continent 
and in America, and here the author is thoroughly at 
home. 
The engineering side of the question is admirably 
handled, and the collection of data which is given will 
render this part of the work of exceptional value to 
those dealing with this important subject. } 
The chapters on compressed air, flue gas analysis, 
and calorimeters will be welcome to many practical 
men, and the appendix is of special value as contain- 
ing a report of the United States Naval Bureau on 
tests of liquid fuel for naval purposes. 
There is no question that the time has now been 
reached when the methods of burning liquid fuel are 
