lyo 



NA TURE 



[December 26, 1907 



best acceleration. They show that although high 

 acceleration means low energy per ton-mile, it does 

 not necessarily mean low running cost, because the 

 cost of substations and feeders increases considerably 

 wiili I he acceleration provided for. All these matters 

 are Irealcd from a thoroughly practical point of view. 



The second volume begins with a chapter on the 

 tlu-nry and design of the polyphase railway motor, 

 uitli useful e.Kamples of such motors as applied to the 

 Vallcllina and other lines; then follows control, over- 

 head equipment, rolling stock, energy consumption, 

 and other details. In view of the increasing import- 

 ance of single-phase working, the authors have done 

 well to restrict the three-phase part of the book and to 

 di:vote the space saved to the more recent single- 

 phase system. Here they break new ground by 

 going at some length into the question of single- 

 phase commutator motors, both with and without 

 commutating poles, compensating winding, and 

 other refinements. There is, however, a certain 

 ambiguity about the motors described, and the reader 

 will not find it easy to know what particular type 

 is meant, especially as diagrams of windings and 

 vector diagrams are too sparingly used. Neither will 

 he find mention of the designers by the names of 

 which particular motor types have become known ; 

 there is no mention of Lamme, Fynn, Winter-Eich- 

 berg, Richter, Latour, and so on, yet each of these 

 men have produced distinct types. To give an instance 

 of the ambiguity : we are told that the London Bridge 

 to Victoria line is being equipped with " compensated 

 repulsion motors," but nothing is said of the particular 

 type being the Winter-Eichberg. 



The chapter on overhead work is distinctly good, 

 both as a theoretical treatise and as a collection of 

 examples from the best modern practice, whilst the 

 chapters on feeders, inductive drop in rails, energy 

 consumption, and capital outlay on single-phase rail- 

 ways will repay careful study on the part of the 

 engineer who has work of this kind to design. 



GiSBERT KaPP. 



VETERINARY ANATOMY. 

 The Surgical Anatomy of the Horse. Part ii. Bv 

 [ohn T. Share-Jones. Pp. xii + igo. (London : 

 Williams and Norgate, 1907.) 

 'X^T'HY do British veterinary anatomists adhere so 

 V V tenaciously to a nomenclature which is abso- 

 lutely indefensible? Many of the terms at present 

 employed in the various English text-books on the 

 anatomy of the domestic animals are admittedly un- 

 satisfactory ; yet British veterinary writers persist in 

 their use, with the result that a Continental reader 

 wishing to consult an English work is put to an infinity 

 of profitless trouble. Not only are the English names 

 mcompatible with comparative anatomy; sometimes 

 they are strikingly absurd. No more deplorable in- 

 stance of misdirected ingenuity is to be found than 

 in the names given to the three phalanges. The first 

 phalanx rejoices in the name of " os suffraginis." Not 

 only is this an unknown expression in scientific 

 anatomy, it is also the outcome of error. Its inventor 

 —possibly a French writer, be it said— completely mis- 

 NO. 1 99 I, VOL. jy^ 



took the meaning of the Latin word suffi-ago (suffni- 

 ginis), which is generally defined as " the ham or 

 hough of a quadruped's hind leg," and is used by 

 Pliny and others as opposed to armus. If, then, an 

 0.5 suffraginis is to be recognised, it seems more 

 reasonable to regard it as the femur. It certainly is 

 not the first phalanx. 



The second phalanx is known to the quasi-scientific 

 veterinarian as the as coronae, a term which may be 

 passed over by saying that the only defence for its 

 use is the application by the stable-man of the name 

 coronet to the region of the limb in which the bone 

 is situated. To speak of the third phalanx as the 

 OS pedis is to subvert the meaning of the word pes 

 as used in anatomy. The pes of the scientific anat- 

 omist includes the tarsal, metatarsal, and phalangeal 

 regions of the posterior or pelvic limb; and has its 

 parallel in the maims of the anterior or thoracic 

 member. 



In no part of the body are objectionable terms, 

 applied so frequently as in the limbs. This is doubt- 

 less due to the extreme degree of modification from 

 the mammalian type which has been produced during 

 the evolution of the modern horse, a modification so 

 marked as to lead the original inventors of veterinary 

 anatomical nomenclature to devise terms which to 

 them seemed fitting, irrespective of their incompati- 

 bility with anatomical terminology in general. The 

 time has come, however, when there is little excuse 

 for aberrations. The BNA was devised with the 

 intention that it should make the writings of an 

 anatomist easily intelligible to his brother men of 

 science. Works on anatomy, whether they be purely 

 anatomical or partly surgical, should embody the 

 universal nomenclature. If thought necessary, as is 

 doubtless the case in books written largely for the 

 practitioner, the customary English equivalents might 

 be set down side by side with their Latin synonyms. 



Mr. Share-Jones, in the volume before us, employs 

 exclusively the undesirable names found in other 

 English text-books, with the result that he cannot 

 expect to appeal to a wider circle of readers than 

 those who speak the English tongue. What exactly 

 the aim of Mr. Share-Jones may be is difficult to 

 determine. He certainly cannot claim to have pro- 

 duced a surgical anatomy, since he deals at some 

 length with fractures and other traumatisms, diseases, 

 symptoms, and even treatment. How far he was 

 justified in including such subjects as " sore-shins," 

 "breakdown," "speedy-cutting," Sec, in a work en- 

 titled " The Surgical .Anatomy of the Horse " is 

 doubtful ; but it is beyond question that microscopic 

 structure is out of place in such a production. 



Reputable books on anatomy — surgical or other- 

 wise — are now produced with illustrations which may 

 be termed artistic witliout doing violence to the Eng- 

 lish language. Indeed, the illustration 'of scientific 

 works in general is now an art in itself. This being 

 so, a work the value of which depends mainly upon its 

 plates is apt to be judged by a fairly high standard. 

 Most of Mr. Share-Jones's figures would not stand 

 such a judgment. Apart from their execution, it is 

 difficult to see why some of them are printed on so 

 large a scale as to require quarto plates. It is, further, 



