4 T 2 



NA TURE 



[March i, 1906 



certificate. Having obtained the certificate and 

 possessing the theoretical as well as the practical 

 knowledge, the) would quickly be on the look-out 

 for official appointments, and if there was an un- 

 willingness on the part of the Local Authorities to 

 appoint tin in. tin' necessary pressure to compel them 

 in do --ii would be forthcoming." 



If Mr. Nicholson could induce the Sanitary Insti- 

 tute to add a lecture on " The Nature of Smoke " to 

 the course he prescribes, and was to attend it, he 

 would find the information of distinct advantage in 

 dealing with " smoke abatement." 



The Preservation of Antiquities, a Handbook for 



Curators. Translated from the German of Dr. 



Friedrich Rathgen bv Dr. G. A. Auden and Dr. 



H. A. Auden. Pp. x'iv+176; with 48 figures in the 



text. (Cambridge: University Press, 1905.) Price 



45. 6d. net. 

 Dr. Rathgen states in his preface to the German 

 edition of this little book that it is intended to stimu- 

 late curators and others interested in the preservation 

 of antiquities to make public their experiences in this 

 branch of archaeology. 



The first part deals with the changes brought about 

 by the long-continued action of soil, moisture, and 

 air on metals, glass, organic substances, limestone 

 and clay; the materials of which "antiquities" are 

 nit 1-1 usually composed. This is a subject about which 

 very little is known, one of the commonest cases, the 

 "rusting of iron," being -till a subject for argument 

 and speculation among chemists. The author, there- 

 fore, i- onlj able, as a rule, to state the effects pro- 

 duced by these natural agents, and in comparatively 

 few cases can suggestions lie made as to the modes by 

 which these effects are brought about. 



In the second part, methods of cleansing recently 

 disinterred antiquities of various kinds and of pre- 

 serving them are given, and here the author is able to 

 quote largely and usefully from his own wide experi- 

 ence of this work. 



The translators have added to the English edition 

 some notes ol recent work and additional illustra- 

 tions which are useful in elucidating various points 

 In the text. The book should be useful not only to 

 curators for reference, but should prove suggestive to 

 all interested in the preservation of natural or artificial 

 structures exposed to the action of air, soil, or 

 moisture. 



Organography of Plants. Bv Dr. K. Goebel. Au- 

 thorised English edition by Prof. 1. Bayley Balfour. 

 Pail i., pp. xvi + 270. ios. net. Part ii., pp. xiv + 

 70S. 21s. net. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press.) 

 The German edition of the "Organography" has 

 already been reviewed in NATURE (vols, lviii., p. 74, 

 lxiii., p. 141), lxvi., p. 51), and it is unnecessary, there- 

 fore, to insist again on the importance of Prof. Goebel's 

 book, both to botanists and to others who are interested 

 in the development of plant life. 



The Clarendon Press is to he congratulated on 

 having secured Prof. Bayley Balfour to undertake the 

 responsibility of preparing the English edition, and 

 his name on the title-page carries with it the assurance 

 that the work has been well done. Moreover, his 

 great knowledge of plants has enabled him to give 

 that indefinable cast of originality and interest to the 

 translation thai one so often misses in presentations 

 of this kind. 



The text is well broken up, by means of headlines 

 and bv the use of different founts of type, thus render- 

 ing the book more easy to use. The printing, and 

 also the figures, are excellent, and there is a good 

 index, both of illustrations and of subject-matter. 



NO. 1896, VOL. J $] 



Both the Clarendon Press and the editor have laid 

 English-speaking botanists under obligation by the 

 excellent production in our own language ol this 

 important work. J. B. F. 



( atalogue ol the Madreporarian Corah hi the British 

 Museum (Natural History). Vol. v.. The family 

 Poritidae, ii., The Genus Parites, Part i., Porites of 

 tin- lndo-Pacific Region. By Henry M. Bernard. 

 Pp. vi + 303 4- xxxv plates. (London: The Trustees 

 ol the British Museum, 1005.) 

 Ix the preparation of this important catalogue Mr. 

 Bernard was confronted with the difficulty, experi- 

 enced In nearly all naturalists who have attempted to 

 arrange corals in specific groups, that the characters 

 afforded by the skeletal structures only are so variable 

 (ha( there is no possibility of accurately defining the 

 limits of " species." This is a difficulty which is wont 

 to grow rather than dwindle as our knowledge of 

 specimens of a genus increases, and Porites being a 

 common and widely distributed coral, represented in 

 the museum bv very many specimens from numerous 

 localities, the difficulty presented itself in a particularly 

 exaggerated form. 



No one will deny that the binomial system when 

 applied to such a genus is unsatisfactor} , and it will 

 probablj remain so unless further investigation of the 

 anatomy of the living polyps reveals some characters 

 of better value for purposes of classification. But 

 the system adopted by Mr. Bernard, of abandoning 

 the old specific names and giving the specimens a 

 geographical label and a number, does not appear to 

 offer a more satisfactory solution of the problem, and 

 will not. probably, be generally approved. Cns.itis- 

 factory as they may be, many of these specific names 

 are of some value, and all of them of historical 

 interest. To sweep them all away at a stroke is a 

 drastic measure which cannot be recommended, either 

 on the ground of science or expediency. 



But even if Mr. Bernard's system is disapproved, 

 naturalists will undoubtedly agree in their tribute of 

 thanks for the skill and patience he has displayed 

 in building up this monumental work on the Indo- 

 Polynesian specimens of the genus. The detailed de- 

 scription of the specimens in the museum will be of 

 value to those who may, in the future, be tempted to 

 grapple with the species question in the genus; but 

 a real and important contribution to knowledge- is to 

 be found in the concise statements concerning the 

 morphology of the skeleton and the affinities of the 

 genus. The catalogue is adequately illustrated. 



Microscopes ami Accessories: How to Make ami Use 

 Them. Edited by Paul N. Hasluck. Pp. i<><>. 

 (London: Cassell and Co.. Ltd., 1905.) Price is. 

 net. 

 We are very doubtful whether the first portion of this 

 book, dealing with the practical construction of a 

 microscope liv the amateur, will serve any useful pur- 

 pose. Such an instrument, however well constructed, 

 must almost inevitably fall far short of the perfection 

 attained lw the instrument makers, even if the amateui 

 he a first-class mechanic, and efficient instruments may 

 nowadays be picked up second-hand at ridiculously 

 low prices. In the description of the tube, all that is 

 said with regard to the attachment of the objective is 

 1I1, a at the bottom (of the tube) a disc of hi ass is 

 sweated on. the hole in its centre being I in. diameter, 

 and chased with a fine thread; not a wind about the 

 standard screw" now adopted by till makers. The 

 latter portion of the book, dealing with the preparation 

 and mounting of objects, is concise and to the point, 

 hut presents nothing novel in its treatment of the 

 subject. R- T. Hewlett. 



