6o 



NA TURE 



SjMay 24, 1877 



examined with the view of ascertaining whether such 

 chmates are desirable at all for consumptive patients. 

 The results would have been rendered even more valu- 

 able if the author had availed himself more freely of 

 the labours of others who have written on the same 

 subject. 



But it is the remarkable conclusion arrived at regard- 

 rg the winter climates of the south of England which 

 arrests attention. This conclusion is that Torquay, 

 Bournemouth, Ventnor, and the whole of the western 

 end of the English Channel possess climates less be- 

 neficial to consumptive patients than are the climates 

 of Hastings, St. Leonards, and the eastern end of the 

 Channel ; and it is thence inferred " that it is the 

 stronger influence of the Atlantic warm current and its 

 accompanying winds on the shores of Devonshire and 

 Cornwall, which though it raises their winter temperature 

 many degrees, clothing their hillsides with verdure and 

 causing what would otherwise be waste places to bloom 

 with rare exotics, deprives them of the stimulating and 

 bracing influence which is possessed by the less beau- 

 tiful shores of Sussex with its breezy downs and colder 

 winter climate." 



It may be doubted if the facts warrant this very broad 

 conclusion. It has been shown by Buchan and Mitchell 

 in their discussion of the weather and mortality of 

 London, published in Joitr. Scot. Meteorol. Soiiiiy, 

 vol. iv., p. 205, that the three periods of the year 

 most fatal to consumptive patients are November and 

 the firsthalf of December, when the temperature is rapidly 

 falling and is at the same time low ; in January when the 

 temperature falls to its annual minimum ; but chiefly from 

 March to about the middle of June, when the air is driest. 

 Now these results, which are based on the enormous popu- 

 lation of London and the long period of thirty years, would 

 have led to the expectation that the winter and spring 

 climate of Torquay was certainly not less beneficial to 

 consumptive patients than that of St. Leonards. 



It seems not improbable, from an examination of the 

 whole facts, that the discrepancy may be accounted for 

 by the comparatively small number of patients whose 

 cases have been discussed by Dr. Williams, viz., 243, of 

 whom 100 were under medical treatment at Torquay, 

 58 at Ventnor, 57 at Hastings, and 20 at Bournemouth, 

 and to an important point missed in the discussion, viz., 

 the very different types of weather which have prevailed 

 in the different years and the varying mortality from con- 

 sumption attending on these types of weather. It is in- 

 dispensable in such a discussion that tabular statements 

 be prepared, showing the number of patients under 

 medical treatment for consumption at each place during 

 each month of each year, and the lesults of the treatment 

 as respects each patient, in order that the results may be 

 compared with the meteorology of the place and year to 

 which they refer. Till this be done we cannot be said to 

 be in a position to make any comparative statement of 

 the therapeutic effects on consumptive patients of the 

 climates of the different sanatoriums of the south of Eng- 

 land ; it being evident, for instance, that the relatively hi^h 

 position of Hastings as a sanatorium for consumption 

 may be wholly due to a chance excess of patients sent 

 there during exceptionally mild seasons, and the relatively 

 low position of Bournemouth to the mere accident of one 



or two consumptive patients more than the average bein^ 

 there in a particular season when the weather happened 

 to bo peculiarly severe. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard 



College. Vol. xiii. 

 We must congratulate the authorities of Harvard College 

 on the publication of the Annals of the Observatory. 

 The volume is the result of a large portion of the work of 

 the institution during the time that it has been without a 

 director, since the death of Prof. Winlock in June 1S75. 

 An account is given of the several funds available for 

 purpose of publication, and then follow the biographical 

 notes of W. C. Bond, G. P. Bond, and J. Winlock, the 

 several directors since the foundation in 18 15. We then 

 come to the details of the instruments in use and plans 

 of the observatory and grounds. The work done from the 

 year 1855 appears to have been chiefly the measurement 

 of binary stars, transit observations, investigation of lunar 

 phenomena, drawings of nebula, photographs of the sun, 

 and spectroscopic observations, the latter consisting 

 largely of the examination and drawing of the chromo- 

 sphere. In Part II. we find some thirty-four exquisitely- 

 finished plates depicting the results of the foregoing 

 observations, published at the expense of the Bache fund. 

 These were made by or under the direction of the late 

 Prof. Winlock. It seems a pity that the authorities do 

 not publish from time to time a selection of these papers 

 on special subjects. Part II. would be widely bought by 

 astronomers if its contents were given separately, and the 

 plates, which are, perhaps, the finest accessible, were 

 practically not buried in an odd volume of a lengthy 

 series of " annals." 



Culiivalcd Plants; their Propagation and Improvement. 



By F. W. Burbidge. (Edinburgh and London : William 



Blackwood and Sons.) 

 That Mr. Burbidge possesses the pen of a ready writer 

 no one can deny when it is borne in mind that in a very 

 short time he has produced several books on horticultural 

 or gardening subjects. His '■ Domestic Floriculture," 

 published by the same firm as the present volume, was, 

 up to that period, the best of his productions ; for though 

 it v.'as not of a scientific character, it was of a nature 

 calculated to elevate window gardening from the mere 

 habit of simply allowing a few ordinary plants to struggle 

 for an existence through adverse circumstances to a sys- 

 tem in which all might take an interest. 



The present volume is one of a different character 

 from any of those which have preceded it. Mr. Bur- 

 bidge, in fact, says in his Preface that the primary inten- 

 tion of the book was as a popular handbook on plant 

 propagation and improvement, with a hope also that it 

 might " serve young gardeners as a stepping-stone to 

 works of a higher scientific character, and more espe- 

 cially to those of Charles Dar.win." Nevertheless, the 

 chapters or sections devoted to " Hybridising and Cross- 

 breeding," '' Natural FertiUsation and Cross-breeding," 

 and " Artificial Fertilisation and Cross-breeding," will be 

 useful as bringing together from various and widely 

 scattered sources, what has been done in these cognate 

 branches of scientific research. In these sections we 

 think Mr. Burbidge has done his work well, the refer- 

 ences to the quotations being fully given not only to 

 English but also to French and German works. 



The great bulk of the volume is devoted to a " General 

 review of some of the most popular groups of cultivated 

 plants, with notes on their propagation and natural affini- 

 ties." In this the arrangement of the orders is somewhat 

 novel, for instead of being classified in a scientific man- 

 ner they are placed alphabetically. The habits and pecu- 



