Feb. II, 1875J 



NA TURE 



28- 



are excluded from its protection ; but we may 'ask, is 

 there any good ground for supposing that they require it ? 



There are a few other points in which we should be 

 disposed, had we room, to discuss some of Mr. Hancock's 

 opinions — but at all times with the greatest respect, for 

 such is justly due to his authority. His assertion, for 

 instance, as to the amount of variability in Cuckoos' eggs 

 (p. 25) will hardly change the mind of those who have 

 seen long series of specimens from Germany or other 

 countries, or recollect the evidence of foreign ornitho- 

 logists adduced someyeais ago in these pages (Nature, 

 vol. i. p. 266). Nor is it by any means certain that 

 all birds '' do not discriminate nicely the colours or 

 other characters of their eggs." None of the examples 

 he quotes to that effect are of kinds which act as foster, 

 parents to the Cuckoo, and their case therefore can 

 hardly be said to apply to " the theory of Ur. Baldamus.'' 

 Again, too, we must remark that Mr. Hancock must have 

 been exceptionally unfortunate in performing the expe- 

 riments of Herr Meves to explain the " bleating" or hum- 

 ming of the Snipe. The late Mr. WoUey put on record 

 his acquiescence in their satisfactory nature (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 185S, p. 201), and a more competent witness could not 

 be easily found, especially when we consider that his 

 evidence was given afier he was acquainted with the 

 extraordinary and entirely difierent noise made by the 

 smaller species of Snipe which has not stiff rectriccs. 

 We must therefore demur to Mr. Hancock's statement 

 that " the neighing or bleating of the Snipe results from 

 the action of the wings, and that any sound produced by 

 the tail-feathers is inaudible." 



It remains for us to notice the plates, fourteen in num- 

 ber, by which this work is embellished. All of them are 

 characteristic, and most of them excellent ; a fact espe- 

 cially to be noticed, si ace they are chiefly designed from 

 birds stuffed and moun.cd by Mr. Hancock. Yet most of 

 us who are old enough to remember his beautiful con- 

 tiibutions to the Great Exhibition of 1851, to say nothing 

 of specimens of his skill which we may have since seen 

 elsewhere, have therein no cause for surprise. In the art 

 of taxidermy — for art it is with him in a high sense— Mr. 

 Hancock has no equal now, and possibly never had but 

 one, the late Mr Waterton ; and the difference between 

 specimens mounted as these are and the handiwork of 

 ordinary bird-stuffers is apparent to anyone who has an 

 eye for a bird. Whether Mr. Hancock's genius in this 

 respect is innate, or whether it has been developed in 

 him from a study of his fellow-townsman Bewick's la- 

 bours, matters not much ; both artists may be rated 

 equally high as delineators of birds, while the younger 

 one, as the pages of this publication prove, stands as a 

 naturalist immeasurably above the elder. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Notes of Deiiioiistrations on Physiological Chemistry. 

 By S. W. Moore, F.C.S., e^c. (London : Smith, Elder, 

 and Co., 1S74.) 



The Preface to the " Notes of Demonstrations on 

 Physiological Chemistry " states " the want felt by the 

 average medical student, viz., hints as to which are the 

 most important points in practical work which he can be 

 expected to acquire," and " the impossibility for a class 

 of men with only three hours a week at its disposal for 



practical work to go through lengthy and uninteresting 

 processes," induced the author to compile the "Notes," 

 " so arranging them as to show the student methods that 

 more nearly concern his immediate and future requ.rc- 

 ments." In other words, the book is not intended to 

 treat thoroughly of any pirt of physiological chemistry, 

 but only to remind the student of the principal points on 

 which he is likely to be questioned, and to refer him for 

 further information to the College Demonstration. To 

 place a book of this kind in the hands of the medical 

 student cannot be productive of good, as it enables him 

 to acquire a pretence of knowledge that is, in his case 

 especially, worse thin the want of it. No one will deny it 

 to be the duty of the teacher to confine the attention of 

 students to those matters he regards as essential, and 

 to pass over lightly those of less impottance. But what 

 will be the result if every teacher writes a book pointing 

 out his mode of treating the subject .'' The effect will be 

 to educate one-sided nien, and to stifle all craving for 

 further information. The only way to avoid this cata- 

 strophe is to recommend the use of a really good book, so 

 that the student may acquaint hinise'f with any part of 

 the subject, or confine his attention solely to those points 

 treated by the lecturer. The present work may be very 

 useful to the author's pupils, but we cannot commend it 

 as a satisfactory introduction to the subject of physio- 

 logical chemistry. 



The Microscope and its Revelations. By W. B. Car- 

 penter, M.D., F.R.S. Fifth Edition. (London : 1. 

 and A. Churchill, 1874) 



The recent excellent investigations of Mr. Wcnham, Col. 

 Woodward, and others, on the optical principles of mi- 

 croscope construction and manipulation, together'with the 

 results obtained by the employment of immersion objec- 

 tives, have added so much to our knowledge of the 

 principles of minute investigation and the interpretation 

 of the results obtained, that any standard work on " The 

 Microscope" must necessarily require fresh editing. In 

 the fifth edition, just published, of his well-known work 

 on the subject. Dr. Carpenter shows how well he has 

 kept pace with modern investigations. In it we find 

 the most recent views on the nature of the markings 

 on Diatoms fully entered into, the opinions of Col. Wood- 

 ward, Mr. Stoddard, and Mr. Rylands, being clearly 

 stated and criticised. The much discussed new prin- 

 ciples and methods proposed by Dr. Royston-Piggott are 

 in no wise omitted, the general tenour of the comments 

 on their value being rather in their favour than other- 

 wise. This last-mentioned subject the author has placed 

 in the hands of Mr. H. J. Slack, the secretary to the 

 Microscopical Society. In looking at the book as a 

 whole, the question which we cannot help asking is, what 

 is the limit to the points which shoulel be touched upon 

 in ic ? Why should certain tissues be described, and not 

 others ? Why should the organisation of some minute 

 animals be entered into, while others are not referred to ? 

 We cannot answer this question ourselves, and think it 

 will become more difficult to do so as every fresh fact in 

 histology and minute zoology is added to the considerable 

 mass already at our disposal. 



Ueber Algebraische Rauincurven. Von Eduard Weyr. — 

 Ueber die Steiner'schcn Polygone aufeir.er curve dritter 

 Ordnung C itiid damit susainmenlidngendc Sdlzc aiis 

 der Geometric der Lage. Von Prof Karl Kiipper. — 

 Die Lemniscate in Razionaler Dehandlung. Von Dr. 

 Emil Weyr. (Frag, 1873.) 



The first memoir (27 pp.) treats of curves in space, and 

 then discusses special space-curves, viz., those of the fifth 

 order, concluding with the consideration of curves of the 

 sixth order and second and third class. Reference is 

 made to Prof. Cayley's papers on the subject in the 

 Coinptcs Rcndus, tome liv. (1S62). 



