MarkcH 11, 1897 | 
NATURE 
437 
from the deposit of materials brought down the fen rivers 
in flood-time, and have then been enclosed and drained: 
The area of land thus reclaimed from the sea, since the 
formation of the first sea banks about 1700 years ago, 
amounts to 63,300 acres, or an average yearly addition 
of 37} acres. Mr. Wheeler points out that the re- 
clamations must be gradual, owing to the limited quan- 
tity of fertilising alluvium brought down by the rivers, 
and that the schemes which have occasionally been 
brought forward for enclosing large areas of the sandy fore- 
shores of the Wash, adjoining the fens, would be financial 
failures on account of the barren nature of the sands | 
before they are covered over with warp. 
The subject is dealt with in seventeen chapters, followed 
by eight appendices ; and it is illustrated by fourteen maps 
of the various districts, and two diagrams exhibiting the 
strata, levels, and rainfall of the fens. Unfortunately, 
no pages are given in the table of contents, which 
renders reference to the different chapters and illustra- 
tions a tedious search; and marginal headings in small 
print only partially compensate for the absence of top 
headings to the pages, and the entire omission of notes. | 
A general early history of the fens is given in the first 
chapter, and the several drainage districts are described 
in turn; and special chapters are devoted to the river 
Witham, the river Welland, the estuary and its re- 
clamation, Boston Harbour, and the Witham Outfall, 
with which the author has long been professionally con- 
nected, the geology and water-supply of the fens, and a 
concluding chapter on the natural history, products, 
climatology, and health of the district. The inhabitants 
of the fens have had to maintain a constant struggle 
with nature, first in rescuing and preserving these fertile 
lands from the sea, and by degrees increasing their 
extent by fresh enclosures ; and secondly, in improving 
the drainage of these flat low-lying districts by straight- 
ening, enlarging, and embanking the channels of their 
rivers, and supplementing them by numerous straight 
drains, so as to prevent the inundation of the lands in 
times of heavy rainfall. Pumps also have been exten- 
sively introduced to remove the water from the lands, 
and, to assist in the drainage of the district, which, 
owing to the small fall, cannot be wholly effected by 
gravitation. Sluices placed across the rivers in the 
neighbourhood of their outfalls, with gates to arrest the 
tidal flow, and thus secure the land above from any 
chance of an inroad of the sea, through breaches in the 
embankments along the river banks, have naturally, in 
conjunction with silting in the Wash, produced a de- 
terioration in the depth of the outfalls, which has been 
detrimental to drainage as well as navigation. The 
straightening, however, of the outfall channels has 
effected some improvement; and the formation of a 
more direct outlet for the Witham, by cutting a new 
channel for the river, in 1880-84, two and a quarter miles 
long, through a projecting clay bank below Boston to 
deep water in the Wash, has effected a great amelioration 
in the navigable channel between Boston and the sea, 
and in the outflow of the drainage waters, which latter 
was at the same time further facilitated by an enlarge- 
ment of the Grand Sluice above Boston. 
The author being an engineer, has perhaps given 
more prominence to the engineering features of the 
NO. 1428, VOL. 55| 
| Whooping Cough. 
history of the fens than another writer might have done ; 
but unquestionably the prosperity, and even the existence 
of the fens are almost wholly dependent on engineering 
works. The book, however, does not pretend to give 
detailed descriptions of the works carried out, which 
have been recorded by Mr. Wheeler and others in 
engineering publications; and the book will chiefly 
interest archeologists and topographists, and especially 
those who live in the neighbourhood of the districts 
described. Though Mr. Wheeler, as an old inhabitant, 
has given somewhat too rosy a description of the attrac- 
tions of the fens on pages 2 and 486-487, where the 
features of the landscape are banks, drains, windmills, 
and occasional church towers, and keen north-east winds 
often prevail through the spring up to June, he shows 
great interest in the country he resides in, extending to 
minute details on a variety of topics, and has produced 
a volume exhibiting considerable labour and research. 
OUR BOOK SHELF. 
Bacteria of the Sputa and Cryptogamic Flora of the 
Mouth. By Filandro Vincentini, M.D. ‘Translated 
by Rev. E. J. Stutter and Prof. E. Saieghi. Pp. 
x + 239. (London: Balliére, Tindall, and Cox, 1897.) 
THis volume is a collection of three monographs and 
an appendix, viz. First memoir: On the Sputa of 
Second memoir: Recent Bacterio- 
logical Researches on the Sputa. Third memoir: On 
Leptothrix racemosa. 
Without in the least wishing to detract from the 
earnestness, enthusiasm and laudable industry of Dr. 
Vincentini, we are sorry to have to confess that this 
book is what, in Germany, would be called an overcome 
standpoint—etnx wéberwundener Standpunkt, Fifteen 
years ago, prior to the introduction, by Koch, of exact 
methods of bacteriological study, this book, dealing 
with the purely microscopic examination as to size and 
shape of micro-organisms in the sputa and of the mouth, 
would have had some vazson d’étre ; not so at the present 
time. Everybody knows that if you talk of a bacterial 
species, of pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms, 
you mean not merely the size and shape of a microbe, 
but that you have studied its biological, chemical and 
cultural characters, and that you have ascertained 
whether or not, and under what conditions, it possesses, 
or is devoid of, pathogenic properties when introduced 
in one way or another, experimentally or otherwise, into 
the animal system. Of all this, Dr. Vincentini is quite 
innocent. To assert, as he does from purely microscopic 
examination, that a host of microbes—bacilli, cocci, 
vibrios, and spirilla, occurring in the sputa and in the 
fluid of the mouth—are all derived from, or are parts 
of, a single species “leptothrix,” requires either tre- 
mendous courage, or is due to a want of appreciation 
of the enormous amount of exact work hitherto accom- 
plished. The discussion in the appendix, by Dr Vin- 
centini, of the views of antiquated authors on spontaneity 
of origin of infectious diseases, and, further, his extra- 
ordinary derivation of the tubercle bacillus, spirillum of 
relapsing fever, gonococcus and pneumococcus from the 
indifferent leptothrix, is an anachronism of a curious and, 
we had hoped, extinct type. E. KLEIN. 
Neudrucke von Schriften und Karten iiber Meteorologie 
und Erdmagnetismus. Nos. 7-9.  Edited_by Prof. 
Dr. G. Hellmann. (Berlin: A. Asher and Co., 1897.) 
THESE reproductions in facsimile of classic papers in 
meteorology and terrestrial magnetism are attractive In 
appearance, and Prof. Hellmann’s introductions and 
