
“ June 16, oa) : 

= 
NATURE 
8o1 
tion, and grateful to a competent showman, so to speak. | cryptic creature, he has recorded in very readable form 
In the present volume the author ranges wide—from 
the gorilla which, having spent its childhood in devoted 
attachment to a lady in Sloane Street, sickened and 
died when she was obliged to part with him, to the 
parasites of a pond snail and Metchnikoff’s investigation 
of the means of making old age still older. The title of 
the book is well chosen, for it contains the conclusions 
of a trained intellect upon such great problems as the 
suffering inseparable from the existence of all animals, 
and upon such small ones as the relative advantage 
(or otherwise) of the different ways of using tobacco. 
Even those smokers who display little interest in 
chemical science, though rightly regarding nicotine as 
the chief toxic agent in tobacco, may feel relieved in 
learning that “it is a colourless volatile liquid, which 
is vaporised and carried along with the smoke,” and 
not the malodorous oily juice that collects in the stem 
of a foul pipe or the stump of a cigar. 
Elderly folk who were reared in the belief that they 
had to work their way through life equipped with only 
five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch— 
may be surprised to learn that all the time they have 
been served by double that number. Increased know- 
ledge of physiology has revealed the existence in the 
human frame of a distinct apparatus and separate 
nerve-threads for the perception of heat, cold, and pain, 
_ for muscular contraction and for the maintenance 
of equilibrium, all of which—except the last, which 
escaped consideration—were of old roughly assigned as 
functions of the sense of touch. 
Sir Ray Lankester points out that the mosi salient 
anatomical difference between man and the gorilla 
is in the structure of the foot. In man the axial line 
of the posterior limb passes straight down the shin- 
bone to the hallux or great toe ; whereas in plantigrades, 
such as bears and anthropoid apes, it is directed between 
the third and fourth digits, leaving the hallux to be 
deflected and developed into a powerful grasping organ. 
The importance of this difference consists in the 
absence of any trace of a form of foot intermediate 
between that of man and the ape. 
This volume, like its predecessors in the series, is 
written with lucid fluency, is admirably illustrated, and 
many readers will pass a hearty vote of thanks to the 
author for having devoted his well-earned leisure to 
their profit. : 
(2) In his great work on British and Irish mammals, 
Mr. J. G. Millais apologised for having quoted at so 
great length from Sir Alfred Pease’s treatise on the 
badger, which had rendered it scarcely possible to 
write anything new upon that subject. While Mr. 
Mortimer Batten can scarcely claim to have made fresh 
addition to our knowledge of the habits of this most 
NO. 2798, VOL. 111] 
his own patient observation thereof, confirming much 
that has been written by other naturalists and giving 
his own views upon points whereon these have differed. 
He considers the badger to be “‘ the most abused and 
misunderstood of British wild beasts,’ quoting the 
sickening treatment of the animal prescribed by 
Nicholas Cox in the sixteenth century before baiting it 
with terriers. “ Cut away the nether jaw, but meddle 
not with the other, leaving the other to show the fury 
of the beast, although it can do no harm therewith.” 
Drawing the badger, a so-called sport which it is to 
be feared is still in vogue as a clandestine pastime, was 
made illegal by the Act of 1850; but unfortunately 
there is no law against “‘ trying ” terriers on a captive 
badger. 
Sir Alfred Pease stated that the badger had become 
rare in Scotland and had “ entirely vanished ” from the 
north-east of that country. Mr. Mortimer Batten, 
however, has satisfied himself that the race survives in 
far greater numbers than most people think, founding 
his opinions not only on the badgers which he has 
himself found, with his terriers, in cairns, but also on 
the great preponderance in some hill districts of the 
tracks of badgers in snow over those of foxes. 
Naturalists have differed widely in estimating the 
period of the sow badger’s gestation. Mr. Millais 
accepted fifteen months as possible, at least for a badger 
in captivity ; Sir Alfred Pease put it at nine months, 
Tom Speedy at seven, Sir Harry Johnston at six; but 
Mr. Batten gives good grounds for agreeing with Capt. 
Salvin that the normal term is eleven or twelve months. 
He rejects the supposed analogy with the roe, which 
has been credited with the power of postponing par- 
turition until circumstances are suitable for her. 
“What really does happen in the case of the roe is 
this—the embryo does not develop, or at least develops 
very slowly, during the first four months of pregnancy, 
so that she carries her young close upon four months 
longer than is normal. This peculiarity of the roe is 
probably owing to a total change of environment—that 
is, the animal originated under semi-tropical conditions, 
and migration northward during [? after] the glacial 
age led to a postponement in the operation of parturi- 
tion.” 
This may pass for speculation on an obscure problem ; 
the value of Mr. Mortimer Batten’s book consists in 
the convenient manner in which he has summarised all 
that is known of one of our larger wild animals, subject 
to critical light from his own observation, and has 
supplied excellent photographs and explanatory cuts. 
(3) Charles Macintosh was of a type not infrequent 
among the Scottish peasantry—men self-taught in 
some branch of natural history ; keen observers but 
ill-equipped with appliances and books of reference, 
ZAI 
