Marcu 4, 1897 | 
NATURE 
413° 
OUR BOOK SHELF. 
The Story of the Weather. By George F. Chambers, 
F.R.A.S. Pp. 4 +232. (London: George Newnes, 
Ltd., 1897.) 
In a few words of preface, the author pretty distinctly 
indicates the object with which this little book is written. 
The construction, which we put upon a short imaginary 
conversation there given, is, that the object is as much to 
sell a book as to teach meteorology. But in the author’s 
own words, the object is “to present in a handy form, | 
and in an unconventional style of language, a certain 
number of elementary facts, ideas, and suggestions, | 
which ordinary people, laying no claim to scientific | 
attainments generally, are usually glad to know.” If the 
author has gauged the aim of ordinary people correctly, 
it would seem that they are “glad to know” a quantity 
of miscellaneous information that some people are glad 
to forget. This remark applies more particularly to a 
stock of old world weather signs, which are introduced, | 
not as curiosities of weather lore, but are gravely given 
as a trustworthy means of foretelling the coming weather. 
Apparently with satisfaction, and as a justification for 
mentioning the habits of animals as affording true weather 
indications, the author quotes Mr. Inwards to the effect, 
that these creatures seem to have been fitted with what 
is to us an unknown sense, informing them of minute 
changes in the weather. We suppose it is this additional 
sense which instructs a mole, when a severe winter is 
approaching, to be more industrious in storing up worms 
and food than at other times. The moon is not allowed 
to have any effect on the weather, or to be useful as a 
weather indicator, perhaps with the exception of the 
Easter full moon, which, on the authority of Lord Grim- 
thorpe, has some connection with cold weather. The 
stars, however, do fulfil a useful purpose in indicating 
the character of approaching weather, and the few rules 
given are, it is to be presumed, among those which 
ordinary mortals are “glad to know.” 
We believe that the book would be greatly improved 
by the omission of all these so-called weather facts and 
predictions. 
able. It gives, generally, a description of meteorological 
instruments, a brief history of the plan and method 
followed in making storm and weather predictions, and 
just such a sketch of elementary meteorology as one 
would expect to find within a moderate compass. 
Applied Bacteriology - an Introductory Handbook for the 
use of Students, Medical Officers of Flealth, Analysts, 
and others. By YT. H. Permain and C. G. Moore, 
M.A. (University Series.) Pp. xiii + 360, and plates. 
(London: Bailliére, Tindall, and Cox, 1897.) 
“THIS work,” so the authors write in their preface, 
“jis intended to be an introductory handbook for the 
use of students, medical men, and others who require a 
practical acquaintance with bacteriology without having at 
command the necessary time for a comprehensive study 
of the mass of work which it comprises.” After a careful 
perusal we must confess that the teacher, who is both | 
theoretically and practically acquainted with the bacteri- 
ology of disease and hygiene, would hesitate to recom- 
mend this work to students and medical men, however 
useful it may prove to those described as the “others.” 
The introduction, which treats of bacteria in general, 
is fairly sound, so far as it goes; but it is somewhat 
superficial, and adapted rather to the requirements 
of the Extension Student or County Council Lecturer 
than to those of the serious inquirer. Chapters it. 
and il. deal with the apparatus and methods used in 
bacteriological work, and just as well might have been 
omitted, because, as we have pointed out on previous 
occasions, the ¢echnzgie can be learnt only in the labora- 
NO. 1427, VOL. 55 | 
The earlier part of the book is unobjection- | 
| tory, and “those who have little or no previous know— 
ledge of the subject,” that is those for whom, according 
| to the authors, this work has been written, could not pos- 
sibly acquire a knowledge of methods from the meagre 
and not always lucid instructions given. The etiology 
of infective lesions and the problems of immunity are 
| discussed in a manner which shows an almost total 
disregard of the principles underlying preventive medi- 
cine, undoubtedly the most important branch of applied 
bacteriology. Until we come to the chapter on fer- 
| mentation it is always the same unsatisfactory reading : 
superficial and often careless reasoning, incorrect 
statements, dogmatic deductions which are irritating 
in the extreme to those acquainted with medicine. 
One of the worst chapters is that on the typhoid 
bacillus; it is misleading and full of errors of judg- 
ment and of fact ; the chapter on cholera is not much 
better, and, in fact, little can be said in praise of any 
section dealing with disease. Names are also frequently 
misquoted : thus we read of Griiber instead of Gruber, 
Corbett instead of Cobbett, and Prof. Marshall Ward is 
accused of having swallowed pure cultures of Koch’s 
comma bacillus. The chapters on fermentation and on 
the examination of water and filters are the least faulty,. 
but they also treat their respective subjects in a super- 
ficial and more or less off-hand manner. The bacterial 
chemistry, if considered at all, should be discussed fully 
and critically, and such an error as “deriving the 
| ptomaines from the base pyridine” is almost unpardon- 
able. The source of the coloured plates at the end of 
the book, which are all taken from the Atlas recently 
published by Lehmann and Neumann, is not acknow- 
ledged. The work cannot be recommended to students 
and medical men, because the authors have not fully 
appreciated the serious importance of their subject, and 
although their own reading, judged by the references sup- 
plied, appears to be considerable, they are not sufficiently 
familiar with medicine, physiology, and pathology to 
_advise those who possess some knowledge of these 
subjects. A. A. KANTHACK. 
Ostwald’s Klasstker der exakten Wissenschaften, Nos. 
80-85. (Leipzig : Wilhelm Engelmann, 1896.) 
No more serviceable or comprehensive series of reprints 
of scientific classics could be desired than the one to 
| which the six volumes before us have just been added. 
No. 80 contains Helmholtz’s paper, published in 1860, on 
| the “ Theorie der Luftswingungen in Réhren mit offenen 
| Enden.” The mathematical theory of the vibrations of 
| the air in organ-pipes, or tubes with open ends, is well 
developed in this paper, and Prof. A. Wangerin, the 
editor of the volume, adds to it nearly fifty pages of 
notes on difficult points. No, 81—“ Experimental-Un- 
tersuchungen iiber Electricitaét”—is a translation into 
German, of Faraday’s paper on his.electrical researches, 
from the PAzlosophical Transactions for 1832. It is 
edited by Dr. A. J. von Oettingen, who adds also a short 
biographical notice of Faraday. The same editor is 
responsible for the two succeeding volumes, Nos. 82 and 
83, which contain Steiner's masterly contributions to. 
geometry, under the title of “Systematische Entwick- 
| lung der Abhangigkeit geometrischer Gestalten von 
einander.” In this work, Steiner reviewed the proposi- 
| tions of other geometers on porisms, projection-methods, 
transversals, duality and reciprocity, &c. Paty, 
Nos. 84 and 85 of the series contain Caspar Friedrich 
Wolff's “ Theoria Generationis,” published in 1759. Both 
volumes have been translated into German, and edited, by 
Dr. Paul Samassa. In the first of the two volumes 1s- 
the general explanation of the plan of Wolff's theory of 
organic development, and the section on the develop- 
ment of plants ; the second part deals with the develop— 
ment of animals, and general conclusions. 
