December 5, 1907J 



NA TURE 



99 



purpose of absorbing the maximum amount of 

 carbon dioxide from the air, and in this manner it 

 may be possible enormously to increase the amount 

 of carbon which a given area of land will pick up. 

 This may sound fanciful, but the wonderful improve- 

 ments which hybridisation has effected in the past 

 make it quite possible that in the future still greater 

 improvements may be looked for. 



A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK ON RUBBER. 

 Rubber Cultivation in the British Empire. By 

 Herbert Wright. Pp. vi + loo. (London : Mac- 

 laren and Sons, 1907.) Price 2s. 6d. 



THIS is one of the most interesting and useful 

 little books yet published on rubber cultiva- 

 tion, and should be in the hands of every planter. It 

 is a reprint of a lecture delivered before the Society of 

 Arts. The book is not only of great value to those 

 interested in plantation rubber, but also to those in- 

 terested in the development of wild rubber. Mr. 

 Herbert Wright, who was at one time controller of 

 the Government experimental station in Ceylon, is 

 now the editor of the Ittdia Rubber Journal. He is 

 also the author of one of our best standard works on 

 rubber, viz. " Hevea Brasiliensis," which is a scientific 

 treatise on the botany of rubber. The present pub- 

 lication is more in the form of a useful and practical 

 handbook, and deals with the great potentialities of 

 the rubber industry, and its importance from " the 

 producer's standpoint, especially in British posses- 

 sions." 



The gradually increasing demand for raw rubber, 

 and the remunerative prices obtained, have produced 

 enormous developments in the past few years on 

 Eastern plantations. At the present the most im- 

 portant centre for rubber collection is tropical America, 

 which suppHes about 60 per cent, of the world's out- 

 put. Africa comes next with 30 per cent, to 35 per 

 cent., but tropical .'\sia last year only contributed 3 per 

 cent. Borneo, New Guinea, Fiji, New Caledonia, 

 and the Seychelles are also commencing to develop a 

 strong interest in rubber-producing plants. 



" It may be safely stated," writes Mr. Wright, 

 " that to-day there are no less than 14,000,000/. of 

 English money represented as paid up capital in com- 

 panies directly or indirectly concerned with rubber 

 growing. Furthermore, it may be estimated that 

 approximately 30,000,000/. worth of rubber may be 

 consumed during the present year." 



The natural order which supplies the greater part 

 of the world's rubber is the Euphorbiacese, the most 

 valuable species being the Hevea, which produces 

 the well-known Para rubber which has been planted 

 so extensively in Ceylon, Federated Malay States, 

 Straits Settlements, and Sumatra. 



Mr. Wright speaks with considerable authority and 

 experience on plantation Para rubber, and he thinks 

 that it will sooner or later obtain a prominent, if nol 

 the commanding, position as a source of future 

 rubber; but this will not be for many years, for ir 

 speaking of wild rubber he says : — 



" Should the supplv from wild sources become scarce 

 — an improbsble occurrence — it would be impossible 

 for the plantations to supply the balance for many 



NO. 1988, VOL. 77] 



years to come, as the producing capacity of the land 

 now alienated for rubber in the East will only be in 

 1012 or 3913 some 12,500 to 25,000 tons per year. 

 The rubber manufacturers have hitherto been de- 

 pendent, almost entirely, on wild rubber; and it seems 

 illogical to suggest that the rubber forests on which 

 so much new capital and enterprise have been recently 

 expended, and in which prominent scientific and 

 business men are concerned, will be unable to satisfy 

 the increased demand expected in the next few years. 

 It may confidently be regarded as the principal source 

 of rubber for the next half score of years, for the 

 simple reason that plantations in the proper sense do 

 not exist to produce what will be required." 



.■\t the end of the lecture there is an instructive 

 discussion, in which Lieut. -Col. Prain, Mr. Gray, 

 Mr. Fritz Zorn, and Mr. S. Figgis took part. 



L. C. B. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



School Hygiene; a Handbook for Teachers of all 

 Grades, School Managers, &--c. By Herbert Jones. 

 Pp. X+151. Dent's Mathematical and Scientific 

 Text-books for Schools. (London : Dent and Co., 

 1907.) Price 2S. 

 This is one of the many books that the great move- 

 ment to-;ards school hygiene has thrown up. The 

 book, oi rather booklet, contains practically nothing 

 that is new, but the selection of topics is done with 

 judgment and care ; every main subject of environ- 

 mental hygiene is touched on with sufficient fulness 

 to meet the needs of immediate practice or to provoke 

 to further reading, and the illustrations are profuse 

 and good. The author has succeeded in treating 

 " the subject as simply as possible." The work of 

 Dr. Kerr at the London County Council is largely 

 drawn upon. As in Dr. Newsholme's " School 

 Hygiene," the book is allocated half to the school 

 and half to the scholar. In criticism, it may be said 

 that rather much space is given to matters, e.g. site, 

 building construction, and sanitary appliances, &c., 

 that the teacher cannot alter or affect, and rather 

 little space to what he can affect. But with this 

 qualification the booklet forms a good introduction to 

 the subject. The writing is well adapted to the in- 

 tended readers. 



Regeneration and Transplantation. By Prof. E. 



Korschelt. Pp. 286 ; 144 figures. (Jena : G. 



Fischer, 1907.) Price 7 marks. 

 Ok recent years there has been much experimenting 

 and not a little theorising regarding regeneration and 

 grafting. The results of the experiments have some- 

 times been very remarkable and full of theoretical 

 suggestiveness, and they are now so numerous that a 

 general survey of their import is very welcome. We 

 have alreadv a volume on regeneration by Prof. T. H. 

 Morgan which has been of great service; we 

 have now an analogous volume by Prof. Korschelt. 

 He traces the phenomena of regeneration through the 

 world of organisms, in unicellulars and multicellulars, 

 in plants and in animals, in young forms and full- 

 grown forms, showing the varied distribution of the 

 regenerative capacity and its varied expressions, and 

 always returning to the central question. How has it 

 come about, and bv what precise processes does it 

 come about, that a lost part is re-grown and the in- 

 tactness of the creature restored? Special sections of 

 the book are devoted to a discussion of such subjects 

 as the following :— autotomy, often-repeated regener- 

 ation, restitutions and regulations, heteromorphosis, 

 atavism in regeneration, imperfect and superfluous re- 

 generation, the relation of the nervous system to 



