44 
NATURE 
[May 18, 1871 

Mr. Hollingworth “On the Chinese Game of Chess,” Mr. 
Forrest (acting Consul at Ningpo) “On the Christianity 
of Hung Tsiu Tsuen, being a Review of Taeping Books,” 
and the Rey. S. R. Brown’s translation of a curious old 
Japanese rianuscript entitled “Annals of the Western 
Ocean.” The last-named article is one of singular interest 
in many respects. It is divided into three parts, the 
first of which contains an account of the arrest ofa 
Roman Catholic priest upon an island called Yaku- 
Shirna in the year 1708, his removal to Nagaski and 
examination there, and his subsequent arrival at Yeddo, 
imprisonment, trial, and death. The name of the person 
as given in Japanese syllables was Jean Baptista 
Shirotte, and he is supposed to have been the last Roman 
Catholic missionary who landed in Japan previous to the 
year 1859. ‘The second part contains the report of the 
prisoner’s examination, and the information obtained 
from him respecting the military and naval power, and the 
wars and conquests of the Western nations; while the third 
comprises the missionary’s answers to the questions put 
to him about himself and his family connections, his 
reason for coming to Japan, and his religious creed. 
From the very curious paper on the “ Birds and Beasts 
of Formosa” whichis translated by Mr. Swinhoe, H.B.M. 
Council at Taiwan, from the 18th chapter of the “ Taz-wan- 
foo-che, or Statistics of Taiwan,” we learn that “as soon 
as the doe that has finished suckling observes her roe 
getting to maturity, she deserts it and repairs to other 
hills, fearing that her young might entertain an improper 
affection for herself. Animals do not confuse the laws of 
consanguinity, the horse excepted. The doe deprives her 
offspring of any such opportunity by setting a distance 
between herself and her young.” 
passage because it contains almost the identical views 
expressed by Aristotle,* but we suspect that this idea is 
not based on any sound foundation. 
Several of the articles, and especially those of Dr. 
Henderson “On the Medicine and Medical Practice of 
the Chinese,” and of Mr. Walters ‘On Chinese Notions 
about Pigeons and Doves,” throw considerable light on | 
the absurd mode of practice adopted by the native 
doctors. From the latter paper we learn that the eggs of 
pigeons are an antidote to the injurious effects of boils 
and smallpox. 
worse than the disease, as the following course has to be 
followed :—Two eggs must be hermetically sealed in a 
bamboo tube and placed in the middle of a cesspool for 
half a moon. The whites are then to be mixed with 
three ounces of shen-sha,a very fine red sand-like sub- 
stance, and the compound is to be divided into pills of 
the size of a green pea. If thirty of these pills are taken 
three times a day, the patient will soon find relief, for the 
poisonous matter will be rapidly discharged by the bowels 
and kidneys. The excrement of the same bird, when roast 
to cinder and soaked in wine, forms a cure for cold on the 
chest, and there are several other affections in which it is 
very useful. Let us conclude with a pleasanter remedy. 
© Of the s/z-chzn or wood-pigeon it is written that its flesh 
is sweet, delicate, and without poison. It also gives one 
a composed mind, and enables him to do with little sleep. 
* See his “ History of Animals,” Book ix.. chap. 34 (Creswell’s Translation 
in Bohn's Scéentific Series), in which he tells two very remarkable stories | 
regarding a camel and a stallion in relation to this subject. 
We have quoted this | 
Some persons may think the remedy | 
Its foot and leg bones have the very delightful quality of 
exciting affection between husband and wife. If on the 
fifth day of the fifth moon the husband takes one of these 
bones and the wife takes one, each putting the bone in a 
basin of water, one from the left and the other from the 
right side, the two bones will come together and float 
together, thus indicating a long and happy union to the 
parties trying the experiment.” 
G. ED 


OUR BOOK SHELF 
A Manual of Structural Botany for the Use of Classes, 
Schools, and Private Students. By M. C. Cooke. 
New Edition. (London: R. Hardwicke.) 
WE have so often felt it our duty to expose the incompe- 
tence of those who attempt to write elementary text-books 
of science, that it is a real pleasure to come upon one like 
Mr. Cooke’s “ Manual of Botany,” where a man of really 
- accurate scientific knowledge applies 
himself to writing an elementary 
work on the rudiments of his science. 
The special object of the publication, 
a cheap manual to place in the hands 
of students in the Botanical Classes 
established for operatives in connec- 
tion with the Department of Science 
and Art ; but it may well be used as 
a first book to prepare for other ob- 
jects, as, for instance, for the first 
B.Sc.examination,orthat forWomen, 
at the University of London, though 
it would then have to be supplemen- 
ted by others on the systematic 
branch of the subject. The descrip- 
tions are clear and accurate, and 
expressed in commendably terse language. It is illus- 
trated by over two hundred woodcuts, some of them of 
decided merit; and we have reserved our crowning sen- 
tence of commendation till the last—the price is one 
| shilling ! A. W. B. 
| Geographisches Fahrbuch. 11. Band, 1870. Unter Mit- 
wirkung von A. Anvers, J. Baeyer, A. Fabricius, A. 
Griesbach, Fr. Miller, Fr. Neumann, L. K. Schmarda, 
F. R. Seligmann, J. Spdrer, H. Wagner :—Heraus- 
gegeben von E. Behm, Mitredakteur von Petermann’s 
Geogr. Mittheilungen, 1870, (Gotha: Peithes. London: 
Williams and Norgate.) 
WE lately had occasion to speak in terms of high com- 
mendation of Vivien de St. Martin’s Année Géographigue, 
and we can award equal praise to Behm’s corresponding 
work, which is the more elaborate of the two, and conse- 
quently the less agreeable to the ordinary reader. It is 
divided into four parts, devoted respectively to Geographi- 
cal Chronology, Geographical Statistics, Essays on the 
Progress of Geographical Knowledge, and Tables of use in 
| Mathematical Geography. The first part consists of a 
geographical calendar, stating the date of the discoveries 
of various countries, of the birthdays and deaths of great 
geographers, &c. (for example, on the day on which we are 
now writing, April 22nd, J. Richer arrived at Cayenne, 
1672; the island of Rea or Wallis was discovered by 
Maurelle, 1781 ; Reao was discovered by Duperry, 1822 ; 
Denham arrived at India (Mandara) 1823; and the Vovara 
sailed from Singapore, 1858) ; and it treats of the manner 
in which time is calculated in certain countries, The 
second part is extremely valuable, but is very dull; 
any information that may be required as to the state 
of the populatiort of any country, of the number of houses 
and inhabitants in a square mile, &c., may be readily 
The third part consists of extremely 


Pitcher of Nepenthes 


| found here. 
as stated in the preface, is to supply - 
