398 
useful to young botanists. In fact, this work 
would be all that is desirable for the attraction of 
new adherents to nature study if the author 
were either to omit entirely the portions dealing 
with the preparation of herbarium specimens, or 
to exhort the reader to keep on the safe side 
of “wild flower preservation” by refraining from 
digging up any except the very commonest plants ; 
after all, the roots of plants are so uniform in 
morphology that the collector, young or old, would 
lose little by letting them remain in the soil and 
contenting himself with taking samples from the 
upper portions of the plants—if it is considered 
necessary to make a herbarium collection at all. 
BIG: 
OUR BOOKSHELF. 
A Medley of Weather Lore. Collected by M. E. S. 
Wright. Pp. 144. (Bournemouth: H. G. 
Commin, 1913.) Price 2s. 6d. net. 
“Or the making of many books there is no end,” 
and the natural result is that some books remind 
us that better books have already been written 
which tell us what the new ones have to 
tell. There is scarcely a weather proverb in 
the present book which is not given in 
Inward’s “Weather Lore,” a book with which 
the author claims no acquaintance; there are a 
number of beautiful quotations which make one 
long for summer when summer is not here; and 
there are, in addition, a few sayings, such as “If 
boys be beaten with an elder stick it hinders their 
growth,” whose association with the weather is 
remote Perhaps they are essential to a “ Medley.” 
And yet the book has a charm; I saw it picked 
up and read with the greatest pleasure by a visitor 
to a meteorological library; I myself have re- 
newed my acquaintance with old friends scattered 
through its pages, and wondered at the genera- 
tions of experience which went to the production 
of such sayings as :— 
Maayres taails an’ mackerel sky, 
Not long wet nor not long dry. 
or, 
In the middle ot May comes the tail of the winter. 
Some of the sayings quoted are frankly untrue, 
and ought, I suppose, to be omitted on that 
account. Such are :— 
There is never a Saturday in the year 
But what the sun it doth appear. 
or, 
No weather is ill 
If the wind be still. 
but perhaps this latter is intended for use by sea- 
sick folk. 
Possibly the appearance of the book may stimu- 
late some meteorologist to select the better-known 
and representative sayings from the large num- 
bers available, and to bring the light of modern 
physical and meteorological knowledge to bear 
upon them. A short article of this character was 
NO. 2301, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
“Tue displacement of Latin by the national lan-— 
published two years ago by Prof. Humphreys in — 
the Popular Science Monthly; it might with ad- — 
vantage be consulted by anygne interested in the — 
subject. EG 
Weltsprache und Wissenschaft. By Prof. L. 
_ Couturat, Prof. O. Jespersen, Prof. R. Lorenz, — 
Prof. W. Ostwald, and Prof. L. von Pfaundler. 
Zweite Auflage. Pp. vit+154. (Jena: Gustav 
Fischer, 1913.) Price 2 marks. 
guages in scientific publications since medieval 
times is one of the few phenomena at variance 
with the general tendency to internationalise the 
means of “intellectual communication, such as we — 
find it in musical and algebraic notation, the Morse — 
alphabet, the metric system, and the flag-signal- 
ling code. The reaction against this separatist 
tendency in language is found in the three main 
attempts to devise an international pee lan-— 
guage, viz. Schleyer’s “ Volapik ” (1879), Zamen- 
hof’s “Esperanto” (1887), and the “Ido” of the _ 
International Delegation of Academies (1908). 
The present work is a powerful plea for the 
adoption of the last, and it must be acknowledged _ 
that a very strong case is made out in favour of © 
this improved form of Esperanto, in which mos 
of the beauty and flexibility of Zamenhof’s master-_ 
piece is retained, and the changes are directed ' 
towards facilitating the printing and improving — 
the logical structure of the auxiliary language. It 
is interesting to note that biological and mathe- 
matical vocabularies for Ido, English, German, | 
French, and Italian are already published, and — 
that some twenty journals are devoted to the new | 
international idiom. ; 
Physics: an Elementary Text-book for University 4 
Classes. By Dr. C. G.. Knott. Pp) wiepazom 
(London: W. and R. Chambers, Ltd., 1913.) 
Price 7s.-6d- 7 
Tue first edition of Dr. Knott’s text-book of — 
physics was reviewed in the issue of Nature for 
April 15, 1897 (vol. lv., p. 557). Since its first 
appearance radium has been discovered, and the — 
demand for a new edition of his work has pro- 
vided Dr. Knott with the opportunity to add a 
new chapter on the electron theory and radio-— 
activity, to indicate recent advances in other lines — 
of physical research, and to amplify and revise 
the book as a whole. 
How to Enter the Civil Service: a Practical Guide — 
to State Employment for Men and Women. 
By Ernest A. Carr. New edition. (London: 
Alexander Moring, Ltd., 1913.) Price 2s. 6d. — 
net. 
Tuis useful compendium provides the essential 
facts as to the conditions of entry to the Civil 
Service, the various appointments, the subjects of 
examination, and the prospects of persons enter- 
ing the service of the State. Specimen examina- 
tion papers and hints to students are provided 
also. The present edition will be found to be 
fully up-to-date and to provide an account of — 
present conditions. 
