DECEMBER 7, 1916 | 
scientific basis of treatment for disorders which 
‘are as common as they are obscure. 
For a number of years we have possessed de- 
finite evidence that the pituitary gland plays a 
part in the maintenance of sexual life and in the 
production of the sexual characters of the body. 
Dr. Blair Bell has carried out a prolonged series 
of experiments on the pituitary body. His most 
definite results: were obtained by compressing or 
cutting the stalk-of the pituitary gland; in such 
‘cases the dogs operated on manifested all those 
characters which clinicians are familiar with in 
certain patients. Sexual appetite is lost; the 
genital glands atrophy; there is an abundant de- 
osit of fat all over the body; the bones become 
ong and slender. He also places on record the 
notes of a very instructive case—that of a young 
woman who began to develop certain male 
characters in face and voice. It was found that her 
ovaries were of a complex type; in their cortex 
were true ova, situated in normal follicles; in the 
_ centre of the ovariés the tissue assumed a testicular 
structure, although spermatozoa were not present. 
It is the examination of such cases which shows 
how complex are the factors which go to the 
differentiation of sex. Dr. Blair Bell emphasises 
the influence of the glandular products on the 
mental life of the individual. His final conclusion 
is: Propter secretiones internas totas mulicr est 
quod est. 
VIGNETTES OF FRIENDS. 
Memories. By Edward Clodd. Pp. xi+288. 
(London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., . 1916.) 
Price tos. 6d. net. 
R. CLODD is well known to readers of 
NaTuRE as one who has most successfully 
introduced the discoveries and generalisations of 
various departments of science to innumerable 
readers—old and young. In the course of a long 
and active life he has made friends with a re- 
markable number of noteworthy people, being 
tichly endowed with the “genius for friendship.” 
One has only to look through the table of contents 
of his “Memories” to see how the sympathy of 
the author reaches out to very diverse types, and 
there is scarcely a name on the list which does not 
stand for pre-eminence in literature, ant, or 
science. There are constant references to the 
pleasant Whitsuntide gatherings under Mr. 
Clodd’s hospitable roof at Aldeburgh, where 
kindred spirits, but of diverse aptitudes, exchange 
ideas on all imaginable subjects when éating, 
smoking, walking, or cruising with their skipper- 
host in the Lotus. To some extent the book is 
a series of reminiscences of talks on such 
occasions. The fragment of his own autobio- 
graphy that Mr. Clodd gives as a sort of pre- 
face is interesting reading, and affords a clue 
to the particular direction of his 
activity. 
Most of the “Memories” are very short—like 
Tantern-slides thrown on a ‘screen to be rapidly 
NO. 2458, VoL. 98] 
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s 
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NATURE 
intellectual ’ 
267 
replaced by others. Little is said about Thomas 
Henry Huxley, but in this case the reader should 
refer to the author’s biography of the biologist. 
The jottings on Herbert Spencer do not depict 
the philosopher in a very agreeable light. Con- 
cerning Henry Walter Bates we read: ‘No word 
of mine can convey the charm infusing the memory 
of so rare a soul as that which dwelt in Bates. 
. . . There was a wonderful freshness in all that 
he said, and a wonderful magnetism in the way 
he said it.” The brief account of Joseph Thomson 
indicates how much was lost by the early death 
of a brilliant traveller. The few remarks on 
Paul B. du Chaillu are of interest, as his early 
work was erroneously discredited. Andrew Lang 
has been described as having a ‘“‘touch of super- 
ciliousness in his manner,” but Mr. Clodd says 
“the .aloofness was only skin-deep . . . those 
who came to know him longest learned to appre- 
ciate him most. . . . Sometimes he gave offence 
by the tone of his.reviews, the temptation to 
banter being too great to be resisted. But he 
bore no malice; and they who submit their wares 
to the critic must not be too squeamish over the 
verdict.”” Samuel Butler “was of the genus 
ivvitabile. . . . As Chauncey Depew said: ‘ When 
once you’ve stood on your head, the public won’t 
let -you stand on your feet.’ The truth of this 
was Butler’s irritating experience.”” The appre- 
ciations of Grant Allen, George Meredith, and 
George Gissing are among the best things in a 
‘book replete with shrewd, kindly criticism. 
A. C. Happon. 
OUR BOOKSHELF. 
Cours d’Hydraulique. By Prof. J. Grialou. 
Pp. vi+549. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 
1916.) Price 20 fr. 
Tuis volume is designed for the use of advanced 
students; it embodies the third-year course of 
lectures delivered by Prof. Grialou at the Lyons 
Central School. Much of it, naturally, is ground 
covered by the generality of text-books on the 
subject, but there are also special sections on 
particular problems, such as the application of 
cylindrical co-ordinates to the motion of turbines, 
the loss of head due to abrupt variation of pipe 
section, fluid resistance, etc. 
Prof. Grialou’s treatment is rigorously mathe- 
matical, and he explains that he has endeavoured 
throughout to make constant use of general equa- 
tions, whether applicable to “perfect” liquids or 
to liquids characterised by viscosity. He con- 
siders that the study of hydraulics has acquired 
too empirical a character, and that this should be 
rectified by adhering as closely as possible to 
theoretical principles. 
We certainly agree with him in the desirability 
of directing the attention of students to the lack 
of scientific precision in many hydraulic formule. 
but this is in order that too great a degree of 
accuracy may not be assigned ts the numerical 
results which they give. The conditions attach- 
