. FEBRUARY 19, 1914] 
x. and xi. give an account of the recent experi- 
- ments on saturated and superheated vapours made 
in the Munich laboratory, and by Marks and 
Davis, and new equations for the specific heat, 
entropy, energy, and heat content of superheated 
_ steam are deduced and published for the first time. 
Throttling and ‘“‘wire-drawing” are treated very 
fully, and a concise discussion of the various types 
of steam turbines and refrigerating apparatus 
using vapour media brings this useful and emin- 
ently practical volume to a close. 
THREE BOOKS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 
(1) The Entomologist’s Log-Book, and Dictionary 
of the Life Histories and Food Plants of the 
British Macro-Lepidoptera. By A. G. Scorer. 
Pp. vii+ 374. 
.Sons, Ltd., 1913.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 
(2) The Fauna of British India, including 
Ceylon and Burma. Edited by Dr. A. E., 
Shipley, assisted by Guy A. K. Marshall. 
Diptera nematocera (excluding Chironomid 
and Culicide). By E. Brunetti. Pp. xxix+ 
581+xii plates. (London: Taylor and Francis ; 
Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co., 1912.) 
Price 20s. 
(3) Handbuch der Entomologie. Herausgegeben 
von Prof. Chr. Schréder. Lieferung 1-3. 
Pp. iv+480. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1912-13.) 
Price 15 marks. 
(x) “ HE Entomologist’s Log-Book,” com- 
piled by Mr. Scorer, should be ex- 
tremely useful to all those who for any reason 
are interested in the natural history of our British 
butterflies and larger moths. Not only the 
ordinary collector, but also the worker in bionomic 
problems and the economic entomologist will find 
here information of value in easily accessible form. 
The arrangement of the book is alphabetical, the 
names of both insects and plants occurring in 
their proper order, so that reference to any item 
that may be wanted can be found at once. Under 
the name of each plant is given a full list of the 
Macrolepidoptera that feed upon it; while as to 
the insects themselves, it would be difficult to 
adduce any well-authenticated fact of their life- 
history which is not duly recorded in the appro- 
priate place. We have tested the data in several 
particulars, and have found them accurate and 
trustworthy as representing existing knowledge. 
There are still gaps in our information as to life- 
histories; many of these, it is to be hoped, will 
be filled up by the help of Mr. Scorer’s book, the 
usefulnéss of which is enhanced by interleaving 
with blank pages. 
(2) The names of the editors and author of the 
NO. 2312, VOL. 92] 
(London: George Routledge and | 
NATURE 
| and careful investigation; 
recently published volume of the “ Fauna of British 
India,” dealing with the Diptera nematocera, are 
a sufficient guarantee that the work is worthy 
of the admirable series to which it belongs. The 
study of the two-winged flies, besides its intrinsic 
scientific interest, derives great importance from 
the influence exercised by members of the order 
upon agriculture and forestry, and their intimate 
connection with various forms of disease. Mr. 
Brunetti’s work bears the impress of much minute 
and the sections de- 
voted to the external anatomy, the life-history of 
the early stages, and the classification of the 
Diptera are as valuable in their way as the more 
distinctively systematic portion. The plates of 
wing-venation and other details are well executed 
and clear. 
(3) The first three parts of the elaborate 
“Handbuch der Entomologie,” issued under the 
editorship of Prof. Schréder, contain chapters by 
Prof. Deegener, of Berlin, on the integuments and 
cutaneous organs, on the nervous system and 
organs of sense, the alimentary tract with its ap- 
pendages, the organs of respiration and circula- 
tion, the body-cavity, the musculature and endo- 
skeleton of insects. Dr. Prochnow adds a section 
on stridulating and other sound-producing organs. 
The portion at present published, which runs to 
nearly 500 pages, is less than a quarter of the 
work as it will ultimately appear. It will be seen, 
therefore, that the treatise has been planned on 
an extensive scale. The parts now before us 
constitute the fullest connected account as yet 
available of the departments of insect morphology 
with which they deal. The execution of the work 
is for the most part good, and the figures reach 
a high standard of merit. The bibliography, 
though in places not quite complete, has evidently 
been compiled with great care. 
In a general work of this kind, however excel- 
lent, it usually happens that the student of special 
points finds something to criticise. There is no 
exception here; the section devoted to scent- 
glands contains several statements that are open 
to question, and a figure is borrowed from Illig 
which purports to represent a plume-scale from 
Pieris napi, but gives a very erroneous idea of 
that structure. Freiling, from whom _ several 
figures are taken, though cited in the text, appears 
to have no place in the bibliography. But slips 
of this kind are rare. It is worth noting that the 
remarkable conclusions on pupal assimilation 
announced by the Grafin von Linden (see Nature, 
vol. xc., 1913, p- 379) are considered by Prof. 
Deegener to be unwarranted by the existing 
_ evidence. 
Beane: 
