August 26, 1886] 
NATURE 
83 
Yet, by the marvellous aid of the prism with a narrow 
slit in front of it, there appear to be every year more and 
more persons who can accomplish the feat, and feel 
extraordinary satisfaction, even exhilaration, in the act of so 
doing. Wherefore after reading Mr. Capron’s earlier pages, 
laying down what the rain-band, as seen in the spectro- 
scope, really is, how it is to be observed, recorded, and 
concluded upon, the percentage of its correctness, and 
the kind of assistance it may afford to other methods of 
weather prediction in meteorology,—we have had still more 
pleasure in coming to his Part II., on “ The Rain-Band 
Vindicated.” For therein he describes succinctly the con- 
tests which have been recently going on in the meteoro- 
logical world on the subject, and the rise of many new 
authors, either bringing in most varied experiences to 
show the truth of the principle, or still better pub- 
lishing extensions of it. While from one of Professor 
Sir Henry Roscoe’s earliest works on spectroscopy in 
general, and the telluric additions to the lines of the 
solar spectrum in particular,—is extracted this para- 
graph, which deserves to live. 
“No one can tell what secrets lie hid in these atmo- 
spheric lines, but to us it seems that by their careful and 
systematic observation, ‘the Message from the Stars’ 
which has taught us so much, may be rivalled in prac- 
tical importance by a ‘ Message from the Sky.’” 
And the harvest to be gathered is still on the increase ; 
for since the appearance of Mr. Capron’s last edition, a new 
observer in unusually exalted circumstances of tempera- 
ture, sunshine, and moisture (viz. Mr. Maxwell Hall, in 
Jamaica), almost at once discovered another rain-band, 
not in the red, but in the green of the spectrum; and as 
super-excellent for prediction-use in that tropical island, as 
our D rain-band in the red is to ourselves athome. What 
wonder, then, that so able a physicist and astronomer 
writes, and with such hope and joy too of soon having 
more leisure to devote to science,—writes, we repeat, that 
although he has not yet settled the exact line of research 
he will devote himself to,—it must be “ something spectro- 
scopic.” 
Notwithstanding too that, as yet, the rain-band spectro- 
scope has only been employed by day, in noting the dark, 
or so-called Fraunhofer, lines and bands on the bright 
continuous spectrum of the sun-illumined clouds or sky,— 
there seems a new utilisation of it opening up in detecting 
aurora, when otherwise invisible, by its unique bright 
citron line in.a dark field at night ; and thereby affording 
men another kind of rainfall prediction, even so much as 
forty-eight hours beforehand. 
In conclusion, though not exactly touching on rain- 
band, we should call attention to Mr. Capron’s appendix, 
descriptive of his well-arranged and successfully carried 
out observations on atmospheric electricity, as likely to 
lead eventually to something practical and exceedingly 
important. For, as M. Gaston Planté has long held in 
Paris, he has never yet known a storm of wind which was 
not accompanied by measurable disturbances of elec- 
tricity ; and with indications that the whole quantity of 
that fluid, lying latent in the earth, is a store of almost 
unimaginably large quantity, derived from the Creation 
Age, and only very slowly escaping ; while man is still 
merely looking on, and unable to turn it to any useful 
account. © Bas. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
A Manual of Surgery. \n Treatises by various Authors. 
3 vols. Edited by Frederick Treves, F.R.C.S. (London : 
Cassell and Co., 1886.) 
MESSRS, CASSELL, in issuing these volumes among their 
manuals for students of medicine, did wisely in invoking 
the aid of some thirty hospital surgeons, who have in 
these three handy volumes produced a very practical 
work of high excellence. 
In comparing such a work as the present with a book 
on surgery written fifteen or even ten years ago, we are 
at once struck, on the one hand, by the number of new 
Operations which have been introduced, mainly owing 
to antiseptic surgery; and, on the other, by the much 
greater definiteness and accuracy with which diseases 
and lesions are defined and differentiated from one 
another. Asa consequence, the material isso extensive in 
amount that operative surgery and pathology will occupy 
additional volumes. 
The relations of micro-organisms to septicemia, pye- 
mia, and the treatment of wounds, receive full discussion, 
extending over several chapters. There is a valuable 
chapter by Mr. Mills, Anzesthetist to St. Bartholomew’s 
Hospital, on the production of anzesthesia and the means 
of dealing with the difficulties that may occur. 
In the discussion of knee-joint disease a much more 
favourable view of the benefit cf rest is taken than would 
accord with our experience, and it is stated that with the 
application of splints the great majority of cases will 
end in complete recovery in six to nine months. This 
result, however, is surely uncommon, and too often the 
pulpy mischief progresses until, after months or years of 
rest, the patient is able to get about again with a limb 
liable to lay him up after the slightest exertion, or it has 
ultimately to be amputated. On the other hand, the 
permanent good results which are obtained by excision 
of the knee are much under-estimated, and, instead of 
falling more and more into disuse, the operation will in 
the future often be the means of saving limbs that are 
now amputated, especially when the excellent results 
that can be shown fora long series of cases have been 
published. 
Abdominal surgery receives ample notice, and in no 
department during the last ten years has greater progress 
been made ; many injuries and diseases which were for- 
merly necessarily fatal are now amenable to operation. 
Continental surgeons, able to perform trial operations on 
animals, are far more successful in their operations on 
the intestines than we are, and every year human lives 
are offered up as a holocaust to the fanaticism of the 
anti-vivisectionists. It isto the physiologists that we are 
indebted for the elaboration of the various steps by which 
success is now achieved both in these operations and in 
those on the brain. 
The general excellence of the illustrations, which num- 
ber 200, is worthy of note ; and while many are original, 
not a few have been selected from other books. There 
is no doubt that each yearit becomes more easy to obtain 
typical illustrations of disease. We would therefore take 
exception to the illustrations of the teeth of congenital 
syphilis, of myxcedema, and of single hare-lip, of which 
more characteristic examples might have been taken. 
The handy form of the volumes, as well as the prac- 
tical nature of the book, will insure its popularity among 
students. 
LEvolution et la Vie. (Paris : 
Masson, 1886.) 
This work, which is a véchauffé of the ordinary facts of 
digestion as given in the text-books, and of the relations 
of micro-organisms to vital processes, and more especially 
of Pasteur’s work on the subject, must have been written 
chiefly for the author’s amusement. It opens with a pro- 
Par Denys Cochin. 
