250 
NATURE 
[ FEBRUARY 24, 1923 

Our Bookshelf. 
Gas Manufacture, Distribution and Use: Teachers’ 
Notes for Lessons, with Blackboard Illustrations. 
Second and revised edition. Pp. 148. (London: 
Compiled and Published by the British Commercial 
Gas Association, 30 Grosvenor Gardens, 1922.) 
As may be gathered from the title, the primary purpose 
of this volume is to place at the disposal of teachers 
who wish to give lessons on the subject trustworthy 
information which may be of service to them. In 
addition, the introduction of a number of simple and 
clear diagrams is intended to lighten the task of illus- 
trating lessons on the blackboard. The book will serve 
its purpose admirably. The information is of the right 
kind, and in the hands of a good teacher, who will 
naturally select what he wants for his own purpose, 
should be capable of rendering excellent service. 
It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that the 
usefulness of the book would be confined to those who 
wish to use it for teaching purposes. As a matter of 
fact it brings together, and presents systematically, 
descriptions of gas plants, gas appliances of all kinds, 
and illustrations of theif’ use such as it would be impos- 
sible to consult, so far as we know, in any single work. 
There is probably nobody in the gas industry, or pre- 
paring for it, who would not find this book useful at 
times, and for the journalist who in the absence of 
more thrilling themes may be called upon to deal with 
“the gas peril ” it should provide a very desirable sub- 
stratum of corrective knowledge. 
Moreover, the householder who wishes to have a 
better understanding of the construction and method 
of operation of the gas appliances which he has installed, 
or is thinking of installing, will almost always be able to 
find something pertinent to the questions before him in 
one or other of the 121 lessons here set out, while in 
Appendix C, under the head “ Gas by the Therm,” he 
will find a clear explanation of this unit of heat as a 
basis of charge with a summary of the circumstances 
leading up to the Gas Regulation Act of 1920. 
j- We: 
The Failure of Metals under Internal and Prolonged 
Stress: a General Discussion held on Wednesday, 
April 6, 1921, in the Hall of the Institution of Mechani- 
cal Engineers. Edited by F. S. Spiers. Pp. iv+ 
215. (London: Faraday Society, 1921.) 1os. 6d. 
net. 
Tue general discussion on the failure of metals, 
organised by the Faraday Society in conjunction with 
a number of technical institutions, was one of the most 
successful of the series. The volume containing the 
papers and discussions is likely to serve for some time 
to come as the standard source of information on 
season-cracking and similar defects in worked metals. 
The phenomenon is a puzzling one, and it was necessary 
first of all to collect the observations of many workers, 
whose experience touched the subject at different 
points, before any attempt at explanation could be 
made. The metallurgist and engineer, however wide 
his experience, will probably find much in the volume 
that is new to him. The very extensive records from 
Woolwich Arsenal are particularly valuable. 
NO. 2782, VOL. 111 | 


The theory of the origin of season-cracking is still 
imperfect. The hypothetical amorphous film between 
the crystal grains of metals is invoked by Dr. Rosenhain 
and others as the responsible material, but other 
workers have found the evidence unconvincing, and 
it is too early to say that any satisfactory explanation 
of the whole of the facts has been devised. Hardening 
cracks in steel present a rather different problem, but 
one so closely related to that of season-cracking as to 
justify their inclusion in the same volume. Fortunately, 
the results of recent work are not of academic interest 
merely, but experiments have shown that the cracking 
of cold-worked objects may be prevented entirely by 
annealing at a temperature so low as to cause no 
appreciable loss of hardness. This result has great 
theoretical as well as practical importance. 
CED 
Die europdischen Bienen (Apide). Das Leben und 
Wirken unserer Blumenwespen. Bearbeitet von 
Prof. Dr. H. Friese. x Lieferung. Pp. 112+7 
Tafeln. (Berlin und Leipzig: W. de Gruyter und 
Co., 1922.) os. y 
Tue name of Dr. H. Friese is well known to students of 
the Hymenoptera, and his published writings on bees 
render him competent for a work of this description. 
His aim is to give a general account of the life and habits 
of European bees within a compass of about 450 pages, 
of which r12 pp. are comprised in this first instalment. 
In some ways the work is scarcely abreast of the times, 
and it is a matter of surprise to find in the introduction 
the old Linnean classification of insects still adhered to, 
with the dragonflies included among the Orthoptera. 
Bees are regarded as constituting a single family, and 
the other major groups of Hymenoptera are relegated 
to a similar status. Furthermore, no outline of the 
classification of the Apidz is presented to the reader, 
which is a distinct drawback. The section devoted to 
the general characters of bees might well have been 
longer—it is too brief and elementary to be of much 
value to the serious student. We note only the barest 
reference to the salivary glands, respiration system and 
other organs, although several pages are devoted to an 
account of the body-hairs, nearly fifty different kinds 
being illustrated. The author’s main aim, however, is 
bionomics, and it is evident that the remainder of the 
book, when completed, will provide a trustworthy, well- 
illustrated dissertation on the habits and life-economy 
of the insects with which it deals. 
plates which accompany the present part are composed 
of original figures. Those which portray the various 
types of nest structure are among the most attractive 
illustrations of their kind which we have seen. 
A. D. Imus. 
Morbid Fears and Compulsions : their Psychology and 
Psychoanalytic Treatment. By Dr. H. W. Frink. 
Reprinted from the American Edition. Pp. xxiv+ 
344. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and 
Co., Ltd., 1921.) as. net, 
Dr. Frinx’s text-book deals with psycho-analytical 
treatment and the theories on which it is based. In the 
introduction, by the late Dr. James Putnam, there is a 
criticism of Freud’s view that the duty of the psycho- 
therapist ends with the undeception of the patient and 
the dissipation of his symptoms, without any considera- 

The seven coloured | 
2 
