35? 
NATURE 
[Marcu 17, 1923 

generally. Incidentally it may be mentioned that 
an important feature of this recorder, namely, that 
the calorific value is recorded in strict relation to the 
chart ruling, however the chart may be displaced on 
the drum, is omitted from the description of the chart 
on p. 127. The electrical flow meter of C. C. Thomas 
described on p. 208 et seq. is finding extensive application 
in industry, more especially in America. In all descrip- 
tions of this instrument with which we are acquainted, 
it appears to have been overlooked that the device 
is merely an application of the constant flow method 
of calorimetry introduced by Prof. Callendar, and is 
one more in the lengthy and lengthening list of con- 
tributions—not always acknowledged—made by pure 
to applied science. Considering that the platinum 
resistance thermometer is among the most accurate 
of all indicating or recording instruments, it is dis- 
appointing to find its calibration inaccurately described 
on p. 62 and the variation of the resistance of platinum 
with temperature wrongly given in Fig. 56. 
The main defect of the present volume is what we 
may be pardoned for describing as its apparent partisan 
character. About one-third of the instruments 
described are the products of a single firm. This is 
certainly unjustifiable in a work claiming, according 
to the preface, to describe all recording instruments 
of utility in gas engineering. We are acquainted with 
at least five types of recording pyrometers which go 
unmentioned although they are of utility at least 
equal to that of any described. Scant justice is done 
to certain forms of carbon dioxide recorders, to depth 
gauges, to water or steam meters. The recording 
specialities of one firm are referred to in the advertise- 
ment pages included in the volume but are not found 
in the text! We register our protest against this 
growing tendency in English scientific literature of 
a certain type. 
(4) Under the Gas Regulation Act of 1920, the gas 
undertaking is interested in ‘the supply of gas right 
up to the point of combustion of the gas in the burner. 
Mr. Walter Hole, from his experience as superintendent 
of the City of Leeds Gas Mains and Distribution 
Department, is, we think, as well qualified as any one 
within the industry to undertake the task of com- 
piling a standard work on the subject of gas distri- 
bution. That a fourth edition of his work has been 
called for is eloquent testimony that it supplied a 
need felt in the industry. We would suggest, however, 
that the subject of gas distribution is so large that a 
treatise to be adequate must be the result of the 
co-operation of a number of experts in its various 
branches. In these days of specialisation it is not 
to be anticipated that a single individual will be able 
to deal adequately with, e.g., the jointing of steel mains 
NO. 2785, VOL. 111] 

and the laws of flow of gases in pipes. The result of 
such an attempt might be foreseen and is evident in 
the present volume. 
laying is excellent and constitutes the best part of 
the volume. That devoted to®a theoretical discus- 
sion of the flow of gases in pipes is inaccurate and 
altogether inadequate. It would be well, we think, 
to include the work of Stanton and Pannell and the 
empirical formula deduced by Lees from their results 
in this section. 
New chapters on inferential meters and gas for 
industrial purposes have been included. The former 
is not entirely adequate. The form of Pitot tube 
developed as the result of work carried out at the 
National Physical Laboratory is quite incorrectly 
attributed to Griggs. This error will serve to illustrate 
the author’s apparent general lack of acquaintance 
with the more strictly scientific aspects of the subjects 
of gas distribution. The chapter on gas for industrial 
purposes is wholly commendable and illustrates the 
great development which has occurred within recent 
years in this direction, a development very much 
accelerated by the call for munitions during the War. 
Summing up our impressions after carefully reading 
the four volumes, we would say that the gas industry 
has at long last started on the way to provide itself 
with a scientific and technical literature which shall 
be in some measure adequate to its needs and deserts. 
The four volumes here briefly reviewed stand in serious 
need of overhauling, and we suggest that when a further 
edition of any of the volumes is called for, the proof- 
reading should be a little more carefully done. Gram- 
matical errors and split infinitives are in some of the 
volumes almost as thick as “leaves in Vallombrosa,” 
and we are tempted to infer that the gas industry has — 
its own peculiar variant of Kings’ English. The 
prices of the volumes are, even in these days of inflated 
index figures, exceedingly high. A considerable portion 
of the text and illustrations in Mr. Hole’s and Dr, 
Levy’s volumes is available gratis in the form of 
trade circulars, and we believe that these circulars will, 
owing to the high price of issue of the volumes, con- 
tinue to be the main source of information consulted 
by the great majority interested in gas distribution 
and gas-works recorders. J. S. G. THomas. 

The Earth under the Rule of Man. 
Man as a Geological Agent : An Account of His Actions 
on Inanimate Nature. By Dr. R. L. Sherlock. Pp. 372. 
(London: H, F, and G. Witherby, 1922.) 20s. net. 
HE Human period of the Quaternary era has set 
in. Disregarding epochs of the Pleistocene or 
of earlier periods in which man has left traces of his 
The section devoted to main-— 
