700 
however, there must have been both greater warmth 
and more moisture to provide sufficient vegetation. 
The mastodons, tapirs, and perhaps macrauchenias, 
must have inhabited damp forests on the edge of 
swamps. The giant ground-sloths, Megatherium and 
Mylodon, could scarcely exist without forest vegeta- 
tion. The numerous and varied small horses and 
llamas were as usual adapted for life on grassy plains. 
The Glyptodon was also probably a feeder on grass, 
and the Toxodon, which may have fed on dry scrub, 
seems to have been comparatively rare. When con- 
ditions began to approach those now met with at 
Tarija, all these animals would be either exterminated 
or driven to lower regions. 
Like all his other descriptive works, Prof. Boule’s 
account of the mammalian remains from Tarija is 
much more than a technical treatise. It summarises 
and briefly discusses our knowledge of the evolution 
of most of the groups represented. It teems with 
facts and suggestions which will interest both zoologists 
and geologists. It is a most valuable contribution to 
palzontological science. A. SHaWe 
Our Bookshelf. % 
The Journal of the Institute of Metals. Edited by G. 
Shaw Scott. Vol. 28. Pp. ix+z1oro. (London: 
The Institute of Metals, 1922.) 315. 6d. net. 
THE new volume of the Journal of this Institute is very 
bulky, owing to an increase in the number of pages 
occupied by papers and also in that of the abstracts. 
Two general lectures are included, one being by Sir 
Ernest Rutherford on the relation of the elements, and 
the other by Dr. Hutton on motion study and voca- 
tional training, the latter subject being a new one in 
this connexion. The sixth report to the Corrosion 
Committee is mainly concerned with the influence of 
colloidal corrosion products on the process, and con- 
tains much interesting matter, although the theory 
remains in a very imperfect state. The authors do not 
commit themselves to the support of any of the theories 
proposed in this field, and consider that several different 
processes are possible. A further contribution to the 
subject of the age-hardening of the light aluminium 
alloys is made by members of the staff of the National 
Physical Laboratory, and the hypothesis originally pro- 
posed to account for ageing is confirmed by the newer 
work. Several other papers deal with the properties 
of aluminium and its alloys. A curious binary system 
is that studied by Mr. M. Cook. The alloys of anii- 
mony and bismuth form a continuous series of solid 
solutions when allowed to solidify slowly, but if, by 
rapid cooling, a heterogeneous structure is obtained, 
prolonged annealing does not lead to diffusion. This 
paper contains some excellent photo-micrographs. 
Other papers include a general survey of eutectics by 
Mr. F. L. Brady, and a method of deriving a value for 
the absolute hardness of metals from the Brinell test 
by Mr. F. W. Harris, as well as several contributions 
on technical matters. 
NO. 2795, VOL, 111] 

NATURE 

[May 26, 1923 
The abstracts section shows a great increase in bulk, 
and the literature of metallurgy has evidently been 
searched very thoroughly ; but some space might be 
saved by the avoidance of duplication, and by omitting 
papers which are merely popular summaries of existing 
knowledge, containing nothing ew. It is always 
difficult to decide where the line should be drawn in 
such cases, but the fact that the present volume extends 
to more than rooo pages proves that discretion is 
desirable in the admission of abstracts to this important 
Journal. 
The Gold-Headed Cane. By Dr. William Macmichael. 
A new edition, with an Introduction and Annotations 
by George C. Peachey. Pp. xxilit+195+5 plates. 
(London : Henry Kimpton, 1923.) 18s. net. 
We recently directed attention to an edition of the 
“* Gold-Headed Cane ” edited by Dr. F. R. Packard of 
Philadelphia (see NatuRE, March 3, p. 281). The 
present volume, which represents the fifth edition of the 
work, is edited by Dr. George C. Peachey, who is well 
known in the medical world as the historian of St. 
George’s Hospital and as a writer of various articles of 
medico-historical interest. In a scholarly introduction 
Dr. Peachey points out that the only two discoveries of 
real value which had issued from English thought before 
the Restoration were the work of physicians, namely, 
the discovery of terrestrial magnetism by Gilbert in 
1603 and the demonstration of the circulation of the 
blood by Harvey in 1628. _ In the later period, however, 
and notably with the death of Sydenham in 1689, the 
year in which the autobiography of the “* Gold-Headed 
Cane” begins, the leading physicians of the period 
whose lives are related by the Cane were remarkable 
for their success in practice rather than for any impor- 
tant additions they made to knowledge. No important 
contributions were made to medical literature by 
Radcliffe, Mead, Askew, or Pitcairn. An exception, 
however, must be made in favour of Matthew Baillie, 
whose position in the history of medicine as the first 
creat English pathologist is not mentioned by Dr. 
Peachey. 
The present edition, which is more sumptuous than 
any of its predecessors, contains in addition to the 
original illustrations six fine photogravure portraits of 
Radcliffe, Mead, Askew, the Pitcairns, and Baillie. 
Everyday Life in the New Stone, Bronze, and Early Iron 
Ages. Written and Illustrated by Marjorie and 
C. H. B. Quennell. (The Everyday Life Series, II.) 
Pp. x+119. (London: B. T. Batsford, Ltd., n.d.) 
5s. net. 
Mr. AND Mrs. QUENNELL must have found their little 
review of the Neolithic and succeeding Ages vastly more 
difficult to write than their earlier book on the Old Stone 
Age. Not only is the material more heterogeneous in 
character and more widely scattered, but on many 
points with which they have had to deal summarily 
there is also a lack of agreement among archeologists. 
The limitations of space and the requirements of their 
public have precluded any discussion of controversial 
matters. To bear this in mind is to disarm criticism on 
points which, in a more ambitious undertaking, might 
call for extended discussion. 
Notwithstanding the vast amount of ground which 
a 
