Te 
the appropriate term adopted by the author. 
FEBRUARY 26, 1914] 
NATURE 
709 
science, such as that of “medical hydrology ’’— 
But 
in thus binding his facts together in scientific 
order, he repeatedly insists on the individual 
physiological factor presented by each case. The 
author reminds us that medical hydrology in this 
twentieth century is not taught in any of our 
schools, whereas in France, Germany, Austria- 
Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, 
and in the United States, the student can obtain 
instruction in this department of medicine. The 
irony of our position in this matter is emphasised 
by the fact that the modern conception of the use 
of baths and waters in health and in disease 
actually originated with an Englishman, Sir John 
Floyer, of Driffield, who, in 1697, published his 
work entitled, ““An Inquiry into the Right Use 
and Abuse of the Hot, Cold, and Temperate 
Baths in England.” Ina word, though England 
is its birthplace, hydrology has been mainly reared 
abroad. ; 
The author advocates the establishment of a 
chair in hydrology in this country. This matter 
has our entire sympathy and support. But we 
should bear in mind that the teaching of that 
chair should embrace a wider range than that 
of hydrology; for in these days spas are under- 
going a process of evolution, and are widening 
their therapeutic methods beyond the use of 
medicinal waters—the latter being supplemented 
by the adoption of other forms of physio-therapy 
such as treatment by electricity, light, the different 
rays, physical exercises of different kinds, &c. 
Therefore the spa physician should possess a good 
working knowledge of all the various physiological 
lines of treatment now adopted at our watering- 
places. 
We trust that a progressive practical university, 
like that of London, will decide to set up a chair 
of “medical hydrology and physico-therapeutics,” 
and allot it to a lecturer, such as Dr. Fortescue 
Fox himself, who has the experience of many years 
as a spa physician, and is endowed with the 
requisite scientific spirit. 
GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLOOK AND 
CONTROL. 
(1) The Continent of Europe. By Prof. L. W. 
Lyde. Pp. xv+446+maps. (London: Mac- 
millan and Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 
(2) Industrial and Commercial Geography. By 
Prof. J. Russell Smith. Pp. xi+914. (New 
York: Henry Holt and Co., 1913.) Price 
3-50 dollars. 
(1) JN this important volume Prof. Lyde applies 
higher geographical methods to the treat- 
ment of the continent of Europe. The use of the 
NO. 2313, VOL. 92] 
word “higher” is intended to convey the fact 
that the volume is clearly intended for students 
at an advanced stage, if not, indeed, for their 
teachers. In fact, the reader is frankly faced, in 
the initial chapter, with five pages the difficulty of 
which there is no endeavour to conceal; it pre- 
supposes a very strong mental digestion, the active 
forces of which include a complete fore-know- 
ledge of the tetrahedral theory of the earth’s 
shape, and are expected to assimilate a philosophy 
of the ‘world-relations” of Europe, based (in 
part) upon that theory. These five pages passed, 
we are on easier ground when the regional rela- 
tions of Europe, its relief in general and its 
climate, and the geographical ‘‘control” exercised 
by these factors, are considered. These topics 
occupy. nine chapters, while the remainder deal 
with the four great European peninsulas, and 
within these, and thereafter, with divisions purely 
political. The regional relations of the continent 
are wisely made clear at the outset, and thereafter 
kept in subordination to the political divisions; 
geographical work of this character must neces- 
sarily proceed on these lines, and Prof. Lyde 
admits in his preface that he finds it “difficult to 
picture clearly the precise limits of a natural 
region”; it might, indeed, be asked whether 
anyone supposes that such limits exist. 
Throughout the book geographical control is 
kept constantly in view, whether as exercised over 
natural distribution or over human activities. In 
a book of so general a character, it is a matter 
for congratulation that the author (unlike many 
writers of smaller volumes, in which the fault is 
even less justifiable than it would be here) refrains 
from straying into the domain of pure history, 
and only permits himself reference to historical 
facts in such cases, let us say, as that of a town 
which has risen or decayed from its former estate, 
and when in the explanation of such process a 
geographical factor is involved. 
The author has some slight tendency (but here 
again he exercises more restraint than others) 
towards the creation of a vocabulary of his own, 
the necessity for which is not always apparent; he 
explains, however, and gives reasons in his 
preface for certain unfamiliar terms which he 
prefers, such as ‘“‘wyr” and “wind-whirl.” It is 
a matter for’ question whether he makes out a 
case for the exclusion of “‘cyclone” and ‘‘anti- 
cyclone,” or whether geography, borrowing these 
terms from another department of science, with 
which it is in a condition of mutual dependence, 
has any right to attempt to replace them. 
The book is fully mapped, Messrs. Philip’s 
coloured physico-political maps being satisfactory ; 
the textual maps and diagrams are of varying 
