March 2^. i 



NA TURE 



483 



a space about three-quarters of a mile wide and a mile 

 and a quarter long, and seems likely to continue or 

 increase in richness as depth is gained. Even from so 

 small an area there is room for the production of 

 millions of ounces, and if, as E. F. Pittman indicates, 

 discoveries of similar deposits of tellurides are made 

 along a line stretching for fifty miles from S.S.E. to 

 N.N.W., the future of West Australia as a gold producer 

 is guaranteed for many years to come. 



One of the most interesting discoveries in this district 

 was that of a lump of gold weighing 303 ounces in a 

 quartz lode at Black Flag, six feet below the surface. 

 Almost the only difficulty in accounting for the formation 

 of placer gold, by supposing it to be derived from 

 auriferous lodes by denudation, has been that large 

 masses of gold occurred in gravels which had no 

 counterpart in lodes. This difficulty has now been 

 removed. 



It might, perhaps, have been better if Herr Schmeisser 

 had concentrated his attention on West Australia, and 

 left the rest of Australasia alone. After quitting West 

 Australia, his time was so limited that he could make 

 only flying visits to a few localities, and has made 

 scarcely a single original observation about one of them. 

 Nevertheless the whole book is eminently readable, all 

 the most interesting points in the subject being well 

 brought out and dwelt upon. .A. striking picture of the 

 contrast between the dry, hot, sandy plains of Australia 

 and the deep ravines, splashing waterfalls and lu.xuriant 

 vegetation of New Zealand is drawn in a few vigorous 

 lines. The structure of the continent, too, is tersely 

 indicated— a huge tableland, dipping from the sides 

 towards the middle, and consisting of tertiary sands and 

 Jurassic sandstones and limestones, flanked on the east 

 and west by masses of granite and eruptive rocks. 

 Finally, mention must be made of the admirable maps 

 and plans, some of which are reproduced from the 

 Government Reports issued by the various Colonies. 



Another fine volume of a splendid mining series is 

 Mr. Truscott's work on the Witwatersiand gold-fields. 

 Some of the ground has been already covered in Messrs. 

 Hatch and Chalmers' "Gold Mines of the Rand," but 

 Mr. Truscott has done much more than bring that well- 

 known book up to date. He has not confined himself to 

 a popular account of his fascinating subject, but has 

 treated it in a technical manner which makes his book 

 of great value to mining engineers and students. There 

 is little that is new in the account of the geology of the 

 district, though it is perhaps surprising to find the view 

 finally accepted that the gold in the banket was deposited 

 there by infiltrating solutions, as in the genesis of 

 auriferous quartz veins. Certainly no auriferous veins 

 are so strikingly regular in value as the Witwatersrand 

 conglomerates. 



The greater part of the book, however, deals ex- 

 haustively with the mining practice as it existed in 1897, 

 and this is almost entirely new ground. Not that the 

 practice in the Transvaal differs greatly from the best 

 work in other parts of the world, but there is here a 

 picture of the latest and most approved methods of 

 mining, modified as they have been by the local con- 

 ditions of work. The chapters on sampling, on machine 

 NO. 1534, VOL. 59] 



drills as compared with hand labour, and on sorting and 

 ore dressing are particularly interesting, and much may 

 be learnt in other countries from the results set forth ; 

 but, indeed, the whole book is well worth careful study. 



The third volume of which the title is given at the 

 head of this notice affords further evidence that, though 

 the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy is one of 

 the youngest of the technical societies, it publishes a 

 capital journal, containing many interesting papers. 

 There is a dearth of communications on the iron and steel 

 industry, on coal-mining, and, indeed, on the industries 

 of this country generally. These are all well looked 

 after by other societies. The members of the Institution 

 devote their attention mainly to gold and silver mining, 

 and the extraction of these metals from their ores. Some 

 of the papers have already been noticed from time to 

 time in Nature. The sixth volume, like its prede- 

 cessors, is well printed, but would be perhaps improved 

 if there were more diagrams to illustrate the papers. 



OLD ENGLISH PLANT LORE AND 

 MEDICINE. 

 Medical Works of the Fourtee/ith Centtcry ; together icn'th 

 a List of Plants recorded in Contemporary IVritings, 

 with their Identification. By the Rev. Prof. G. Henslow, 

 M.A., F.L.S., &c. Pp. XV 4- 278. (London : Chapman 

 and Hall, Ltd., 1899.) 



SINCE the publication of Cockayne's " Leechdoms 

 and Wortcunning," &c., and Prof. Earle's excellent 

 little book on the "English Names of Plants," no work 

 of the kind has been published until this volume of Prof. 

 Henslow's ; an important contribution which will be 

 most w-elcome to philologists and botanists. The author 

 is to be congratulated on the possession of so important 

 a MS. as the one marked (A), which gave origin to his 

 book. 



Its philological value is well described in the preface 

 by Prof. Skeat, who finds in it new and interesting 

 features. 



In the beginning of MS. (A) occur a number of recipes 

 for the " steynyng of lynne clo))," " to make red water " 

 and "scarlet water," &c. One of the most striking of 

 these recipes is that (p. 4) " to make soursikele water.'' 

 This, says the note, is better spelt "saussicle, salse- 

 quiura, or heliotrope, rendered in the list as ? Cichoriiim 

 Intyhus, ? Tragopogon porri/olius," both more than 

 doubtful, " or Calendula vulgaris," a more likely plant to 

 produce the required colour. The recipe says: "Take 

 a tie that is like brasel, but it is more yellower in colour." 

 . . . " Take it as thou dost brasel and lay that on thy 

 cloth and do ye it in all manner as thou doust brasel." 

 It is not clear in what this likeness consisted. It could 

 not have been to the plant Caesalpinia sappan, which had 

 been in use throughout Europe for centuries before King 

 Emmanuel of Portugal gave the name of Brazil to the 

 newly-discovered Brazil in the year 1500. It could 

 therefore have been only in the colour of the dye that <a 

 resemblance was found. 



Another recipe was "To make 5elewe watere, — take 

 goud englis woldes," which is not, what might be sup- 

 posed, " woad," but " weldes," Reseda luteola. 



