366 



NA TURE 



[February i6, 1899 



affected by sanitation ; bacteriology ; the effect of tilth, 

 impure drinking water and foul air on health ; water 

 supply, storage and filtration ; construction of reservoirs 

 and supply of water to towns ; sewerage, both for cities 

 and houses ; and the disposal of garbage and town 

 refuse. In the introductory chapter the elements of 

 sanitary science which are essential to sanitary engineer- 

 ing are briefly outlined, and in the historical notes 

 it is shown how the filthy habits of the people in early 

 times led to direful epidemics of plague. It is pointed 

 out that " the teachings and practice of the Christian 

 Church during the Middle Ages regarded cleanliness as 

 one of the luxuries which was inconsistent with god- 

 liness, while bodily tilth was considered as a work of 

 inward piety and holy sanctification. The example set 

 by the monastic orders was imitated by the people at 

 large ; bathing was unknown, houses and clothing were 

 filthy, and the streets served as receptacles for garbage 

 and human excreta." Some interesting statistics are 

 given to show how the death rate has decreased as sani- 

 tary science has advanced. The annual death rate of 

 the population of London in the latter half of the seven- 

 teenth century was nearly 80 per thousand ; in the 

 eighteenth century, about 50 per thousand ; and soon 

 after the middle of the nineteenth century, about 24 per 

 thousand ; and now ranges about 205 per thousand. An 

 efficient system of sewerage and water supply has been 

 knowfi to reduce the death rate in large towns in Eng- 

 land and the continent from typhoid, from a rate of 2'2 

 per thousand inhabitants to o'4 per thousand. The 

 cholera epidemic which visited Hamburg in 1S92, caused 

 8976 deaths, being at the rate of 134 per thousand in 

 Hamburg, where the water supply was proved to be im- 

 pure and to contain the cholera bacillus ; while in Altona 

 and Wandsbeck, adjoining the city, where the water 

 was properly filtered before being supplied, the rate was 

 respectively 23 and 22 per thousand. 



This book, which is written for American students of 

 sanitation, does not contain anything that is not known 

 to sanitary engineers of this country. Naturally, in 

 such a small compass it was not practicable to deal 

 with any of the subjects treated in an exhaustive 

 manner ; nor can the work be regarded as a text- 

 book, but rather as a well-written and able digest of 

 matters which come within the range of the sanitary 

 engineer. 



La Cytologic Expcrimentiilc. By A. Labbe. Pp. viii 



-t- 187. (Paris : Carre, 1898.) 

 This neat little book has the attractive form and style 

 which characterises many French science manuals, and 

 shares with them the defects inherent in any attempt to 

 convey the difficult results of refined biological research 

 in short paragraphs, even when written in the clearest of 

 languages. At the same time we must add that it does 

 not profess to be a complete text-book or treatise on the 

 subject, and it is perhaps best described as a series of 

 notes on soine modern results of the study of the cell, 

 by a zoologist. Artificial protoplasm and artificial karyo- 

 kinetic figures are misleading terms to the beginner, and 

 the scraps of information here gathered can be of little 

 or no use to more advanced readers. The action of 

 physical and chemical agents on the structure, meta- 

 bolism, and movements of the cell seems curiously in- 

 complete, in a French work, without reference to the 

 yeast-plant ; and although the notes on chemotaxis are 

 interesting, they might have been rendered more valuable 

 had the botanical side of the question been more fully 

 dealt with. Indeed, throughout the work we notice a 

 lack of appreciation of the work of plant-physiologists, 

 e.g. as regards geotropic and heliotropic curvatures — no 

 doubt inevitable where the author is a zoologist, the 

 domain of each subject being now so wide that no one 

 writer can deal adequately with both. Klebs' work on 



NO. 1529, VOL. 59] 



the effects of the environment in modilymg the reproduc- 

 tion of alga;, for instance, is not mentioned. 



The reciprocity between nucleus and cytoplasm ; 

 experimental modifications of cellular reproduction ; 

 adaptation to the environment ; " tropisms and tac- 

 tisms"; and cellular differentiation, are the other subjects 

 dealt with. 



While finding fault to the extent we have done, it is 

 only fair to add that the subject-matter, so far as it is 

 treated, is fascinating from every point of view, and 

 many of the facts given are extremely interesting — e.g. 

 those concerning the artificial separation of the nucleus 

 from animal ova, those on '''■ cyto-symbiflsc" ?^x\& adapt- 

 ation to parasitic life, those on intercellular connections, 

 &c. Much more ought to have been said, we think, 

 concerning the discoveries of botanists, especially in 

 connection with the last two subjects. 



The illustrations are numerous, well executed, and to 

 the point ; and praise must be accorded the glossary and 

 the index to the bibliography, so far as it goes. Finally, 

 we welcome this little book of notes, in the hope that it 

 will be the forerunner of a more masterly treatise on an 

 important and fascinating subject. 



Studien iiber Hirsche {Gattung Cervus /;;/ weitesien 

 Sinne). Heft I. Untersuchungen liber mehrstangige 

 Geweihe und die Morphologie der Hufthierhorner im 

 Allgemeinen. By Dr. H. Nitsche. Pp. xi -I- 102. Plates 

 xii. (Leipzig : W. Engelmann, 1S98.) 

 Whethkr the work of which this first instalment is 

 before us is intended to be a monograph of the Cen'idac, 

 or whether it is to be restricted to morphological con- 

 siderations, future parts will decide. The present sec- 

 tion deals solely with the morphology of antlers and 

 their relations to the horns of other ruminants. In dis- 

 cussing antlers, most English zoologists of recognised 

 position have confined their attention to normal examples. 

 Not so Dr. Nitsche, who is apparently of opinion that 

 the clue to the homology of the diverse structure of these 

 appendages in different species is to be found in abnor- 

 malities, especially such as display a double or triple 

 beam. Such abnormalities are classed under four types, 

 in three of which the additional antler is more or less 

 like the original form, while in the fourth the additional 

 and normal portion together resemble an ordinary 

 antler. Whether the result of these studies will have 

 any important bearing on the classification of the 

 Cervidac, cannot well be considered till the appearance 

 of the later parts. 



In the meanwhile attention may be directed to the 

 author's very lucid account of the distinctions between, 

 the cranial appendages of the Pecora : such distinctions 

 being admirably illustrated in Plate xii. To put it 

 shortly, the author, in opposition to the view of M. 

 Lataste, regards antlers as true outgrowths, or apo- 

 physes, from the frontal bones ; these processes are at 

 first covered w ith hairy integument, after the shrivelling- 

 up and removal of which the exposed bare portion 

 eventually falls otT from necrosis at the base. In the 

 following year the whole process of growth and shedding 

 is repeated. On the other hand, in the remaining three 

 families of the Pecora, to wit, Giraffidac. Aiitiloc,iprid.u\ 

 and Bovidac. the appendages originate as independent 

 bony epiphyses, which become subsequently welded to 

 the frontals. In the giraffe the horns, as these append- 

 ages should be called in all the members of the group, 

 arc clothed only with hairy skin. In the prongbui k a 

 deciduous and forked horny sheath is superadded to the 

 hairy skin. On the other hand, in the Jyox'id<ie. the 

 hairy skin is lost, and the bony core is covered simply 

 with a non-branched and non-deciduous horny she.^lh. 

 The epiphysial origin of the horn-cores of the /yo-idur 

 is illustrated by a figure of the frontal region of a young 

 chamois. 



