6 
NATORE 
[Mov. 3, 1881 
style and is illustrated in a very attractive manner. But 
we feel that an opportunity has been missed of producing 
a volume which should open up one of the most marvel- 
lous pages in the book of nature, in a manner to interest 
a wide class of readers and attract many new votaries to 
the study of these most beautiful and in many respects 
most instructive members of the great class of insects. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science. (London : 
Churchill.) 
THE twenty-first volume of the second series of the above 
journal—published during the four quarters of this year— 
lies in its complete form before us, and it seems to merit 
more than a passing record at our hands. The volume 
contains over 650 pages of text, and, besides woodcuts, 
thirty-four plates, many coloured, and the majority of 
double size; but it is not the quantity of the material, 
gratifying though it be to see that the British school is 
not wanting in this respect, so much as the quality of the 
contributions that we would call attention to. In the 
importance of its Memoirs this journal, now in its majority, 
may fully claim to rank on the level of the highest of 
those comparable to it published in Germany, and its editor 
and his assistants are to be congratulated on seeing that 
all the subjects coming under their province are so fairly 
dealt with. It is not proposed to treat here of the individual 
memoirs from a critical point of view—no one individual 
could write such a criticism—but as a general 7ésvmé of 
the workdone. Slightly classified, vegetable histology and 
physiology is enriched by the papers on Welwitschia mira- 
bilis by F. Orpen Bower ; on the development of starch 
grains, by F. W. Schimper; on the water glands in the leaf 
of Saxt/raga crustata, by W. Gardiner. As contributions 
to zoology may be mentioned the memoir by G. Busk 
on Polyzoa; by H. B. Brady on Reticularian Rhizopods ; 
a most important paper on Limulus an Arachnid, by the 
editor ; to embryology the researches of Lankester on 
Limnocodium, Scott on Lampreys, Wilson on Actino- 
trocha; to anatomy the memoirs, on the head cavities 
and nerves of Elasmobranchs, by Dr. Marshall; on the 
nasal mucous membrane, by Dr. Klein; on the Bran- 
chiate Echinoderms, by Herbert Carpenter; on the organ 
of Jacobson, by Dr. Klein; on the lymphatic system of | 
the skin and mucous membrane, by Dr. Klein; on the | 
Wolffian duct and body in the chick, by Adam Sedgwick ; | 
on the cranial nerves of Scyllium, by A. Milnes Marshall ; 
and on the structure and significance of some aberrant 
forms of Lamellibranchiate gills, by Dr. K. Mitsuri. Nor 
must the papers by Mrs. Ernest Hart on the micrometric 
numeration of the blood corpuscles; by J. F. Dowdeswell 
on some appearances of the blood corpuscles ; nor those 
by Dr. Cunningham on microscopic organisms in the 
intestinal canal, and Prof. Lister on the relations of | 
micro-organisms to disease, be overlooked. The value of 
this volume will thus be apparent to the reader who | 
ows of the subjects of which the above is a condensed 
ist. 
viz. a really efficient index to its valuable contents. The 
two pages and a half of index to these 650 pages of matter 
form an index only in name. Would it not be well to 
have an index volume published to the twenty-one volumes 
of this series, and then with volume xxii. commence a 
yearly index which would be both a help and a service to 
the student ? 
Essays on the Floating-Matter of the Air in Relation to 
Putrefaction and Infection. By John Tyndall, F.R.S., 
LL.D (London: Longmans and Co., 1881.) 
TO reprint these essays in an easily-accessible form was 
a happy thought of the author’s. It is of vast importance 
to the public at large that they should at least know what 
One thing alone, to our mind, the volume needs, | 
views are being held by a large majority of working and 
thinking men on the subjects of putrefaction and infection. 
Quite apart from the question of how germs originate is 
the question of what evils arise from their presence ; and 
although, with most of those who have investigated the 
matter, we regard it as well proven that, except froma 
pre-existing germ, no new germ arises, yet we would be 
prepared almost to overlook this part of the matter in our 
anxiety to see proper notions diffused as to the effects 
produced by these “ floating matters of the air.” The 
benefits that mankind has gained by the researches of the 
biologist, chemist, and physicist into this subject are 
already beyond calculation ; nor is there yet any appa- 
rent limit to them. From the pages of this small volume 
some ideas may be gleaned of what the modern treatment 
of surgical cases has gained by a knowledge of this sub- 
ject; nor do we think the day far distant when medicine 
may reach to the rank of surgery through an insight into 
the germ causation of febrile disease. The history of the 
silkworm disease in Italy and France bears witness to the 
enormous value, even if measured in a commercial sense, 
of the labours of Pasteur, Quatrefages, and others in work- 
ing out from this point of view the parasitic diseases that 
caused at one time the almost total destruction of the silk 
industry in Europe; and the history of Pasteur’s researches 
on fermentation, even when told in a few words, as in the 
fourth chapter of this volume, does it not tell of discoveries 
full of benefit to one portion at least of mankind? Prof. 
Tyndall well writes : “The antiseptic system of surgery 
is based on the recognition of living contagia as 
the agents of putrefaction.” Keep these away, de- 
stroy them either by an excess of cold or heat, and 
the putrefaction is prevented. But this is true not 
of surgery only; it makes itself felt in the routine of 
every-day life. An account was laid before the Academy 
of Sciences of Paris, in May of this year, of an examina- 
tion of the feeding-bottles in use ata créche in Paris. The 
milk for the children put into these contracted a nauseous 
odour. Of thirty-one examined, twenty-eight contained 
in the eaoutchouc tubes or nipples germs (microscopical 
microbes), and even in some cases there were masses, 
more or less abundant, of fungoid vegetations. The 
milk found remaining in some was acid, with numerous 
bacteria ; and this in spite of what was thought to be clean- 
liness. No wonder Prof. Tyndall writes of such material 
—such matter out of place—as dirt. We cannot all con- 
trive to live in the grand, pure air to be found in such 
places as the Bel Alp; but all could help towards making 
the air of their dwellings freer from the contagion of dirt ; 
and if right and accurate notions were held on such mat- 
ters by all interested in them, prevention would soon be 
seen to be much better than cure. This little volume will 
be found exceedingly interesting reading, and its contents 
will furnish the reader with abundant material for thought, 
wkich perhaps may, in floating through his brain, take 
root there and bring forth a crop of good fruit. 
E. P. W. 
LEDLERS LO LHE BOTIROR 
[Zhe Lditor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 
or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 
No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 
[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 
as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 
that it is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even 
of communications containing interesting and novel facts.) 
The Struggle of Parts in the Organism 
MR. ROMANES, in his ‘etter published in your number of Oct. 27 
(vol. xxiv. p. 604) draws a distinction between the ‘‘ Argument 
from Design as elaborated by the Natural Theologians of the 
past generation,” and another argument from design which he 
