558 



NA TURE 



[April i6, 1908 



features of Egyptian archaeology and philology, and 

 Sir J. Rhys covering similar ground in Wales, are not 

 inappropriate. 



There is one thing, however, which we commend 

 earnestly to the Congress, namely, the preparation and 

 publication of a supplementary place-index, which 

 might be brought as nearly to date as possible, and 

 would render this volume and the annual indexes 

 doubly or trebly valuable. The fact that some fifty- 

 four of the journals indexed are the publications of 

 local archaeological societies speaks for itself. With 

 Mr. Gomme's work completed the rest would be 

 easy ; but it is none the less an urgent need. 



Notions generates de Biologie et de Plasmogenie coni- 



parees. By Prof. A. L. Herrera. Translated by 



G. Renaudet. Pp xxviii + 260. (Berlin : W. Junk, 



1906.) Price 10 marks. 

 This is a remarkable book, full of suggestive specu- 

 lation, much of which is unlikely to command general 

 acceptance, but at the same time the analogies which 

 the author draws between emulsions of various sorts 

 and organic form are full of interest. 



The whole book seems to have arisen out of a series 

 of notes for students, and its rather disconnected form 

 retains the impress of this original design. The 

 result is rather original, and arrests the attention 

 even where one does not agree with the author. 



Prof. Herrera suggests that organic structure arises 

 as the result of precipitation, coagulation, or solidifi- 

 cation modified by the presence of diffusion currents 

 and similar influences. A large number of experiments 

 are given in which commonly occurring organic struc- 

 ture is closely imitated by precipitations of silica, &c., 

 under conditions which are carefully described. 



There is a refreshing freedom from dogmatism, 

 but the author has the full courage of his own con- 

 victions, as is shown by the crisp and clear definitions 

 which he gives of phases of organic life that most 

 investigators find difficult of satisfactory expression. 



The work is introduced by a preface from the pen 

 of Moritz Benedikt, professor of medicine at Vienna, 

 who is, of course, in sympathy with the general trend 

 of the book, whilst he is, like its author, alive to the 

 many difficulties in establishing all the conclusions. 

 \ sentence from the final essay of the volume, also 

 contributed by Prof. Benedikt, puts the main thesis 

 of Herrera so clearly that we may be pardoned for 

 quoting it : — " . . . le monde organique, et la vie, sont 

 n6es du monde minerale dans les masses de v^sicules 

 mousseuses hautment organis^es." 



Einfiihrung in die Paldontologie. By Gustav Stein- 

 mann. Second edition. Pp. xii + 542; illustrated. 

 (Leipzig : W. Engelmann, 1907.) Price 14 marks. 

 In the matter of bulk this edition shows a marked in- 

 crease over the first edition (1903); while, in most 

 cases, at any rate, it appears to have been brought 

 fairly well up to date. The ancestral proboscideans 

 fiom the Egyptian Eocene are, for instance, duly 

 noticed, and recent work on Patagonian Tertiary verte- 

 brates likewise receives due attention. On the other 

 hand, we notice an absence of any reference to Dr. 

 Broom's opinion that the South African Triassic Trity- 

 lodon is, after all, a mammal; while in certain cases 

 the author departs from the generally accepted classifi- 

 cation without any apparent or sufficient reason. In 

 the ungulate mammals, for example, the hippo- 

 |)Otamus is removed from the .'Vrtiodactyla to find a 

 place with Dinoceras and Coryphodon among the 

 .\mblypoda ; in fact, Hippopotamus and the .'Xmerican 

 1 crtiary genus Merycochoerus are actually included in 

 the family Coryphodontids. This is bad enough, but 

 when we find Oreodon — the immediate ally of Mery- 



KO. 2007, VOL. 77] 



cochcerus — occupying its proper position in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the camels, we are at a loss whether to 

 attribute such eccentricities to mere carelessness or to 

 lack of knowledge on the part of the author; 



Carelessness cannot, however, be pleaded in the case 

 of the phylogeny of the vertebrata given at the close 

 of the volume. For there we have carefully com- 

 piled tables in which the dolphins are brigaded with 

 ichthyosaurs as Ichthyotheria, while sperm-whales and 

 ])lesiosaurs are grouped together as Plesiotheria, and 

 whalebone whales and the mosasaurs as Thalatto- 

 theria. The giving of definite names to these incon- 

 gruous groups is of itself a sufficient proof that the 

 author regards them as definite phylogenetic assem- 

 blies, and not mere instances of adaptive analogy ; 

 but the matter is clinched by the following statement 

 on p. 512, viz. : — " Wir sind also vor die Entscheidung 

 gestellt, entweder cin unverstandliches und geradezu 

 ubernatiirliches Eingreifen vorauszusetzen, oder uns 

 im Rahmen des gesetzmiissigen Naturgeschehens die 

 zahlreichen einzelnen Saugerstamme voneinander 

 gesondert aus ebensovielen Stammen der Reptilien 

 herworgegangen zu denken." 



With such eccentricities, alike in classification and 

 phylogeny, we are unable to recommend Dr. Stein- 

 mann's volume as a trustworthy guide to the student 

 of palaeontology. Neither can we congratulate the 

 publishers on the illustrations, unless, indeed, a 

 " paleeographic '" style of art be deemed specially suit- 

 able to a paleeontologieal treatise. R. L. 



Tlie Chemistry of the Diazo-compounds. By Dr. 



J. C. Cain. Pp. xi+172. (London : Edward .Arnold, 



1908.) Price los. 6d. net. 

 When we compare the steady output of monographs 

 on chemical subjects on the Continent with the few- 

 publications of this class in English, we nativrally ask 

 whether English publishers are less enterprising than 

 their neighbours, or English chemists less given to 

 specialisation. 



We are inclined to the former view, and regard it 

 as a welcome sign that the new departure in Eng- 

 lish chemical literature, introduced in the form of 

 physical chemistry manuals, and published under the 

 editorship of Sir W. Ramsay, has found favour with 

 another enterprising firm, and extended to organic 

 chemistry. It is to be hoped that the present volume 

 represents the first of a series of similar publications. 



.\lthough the chemistry of the diazo-compounds 

 appears at first sight to 'be a subject of rather re- 

 stricted range, it must not be forgotten that it is of 

 direct technical importance, connected as it is with 

 one of the largest branches of the colour industry. 

 Moreover, a special interest attaches to the appearance 

 of Dr. Cain's book at the present tiine, for it stands 

 as a memorial of the fiftieth anniversary of Griess's 

 famous discovery, .'\lthough Johann Peter Griess was 

 a German, born and bred, the bulk of his researches 

 on the diazo-compounds were carried on in this 

 country, first whilst he was acting as assistant to 

 Hofmann in London, and later during intervals of 

 leisure extending over many years after his appoint- 

 ment as chemist to Messrs. .Mlsopp, brewers, of 

 Burton-on-Trent. 



The protean character of the chemical changes 

 which the diazo-compounds exhibit, their close con- 

 nection with colour chemistry, as well as their struc- 

 tural relations, which still furnish a perennial subject 

 of discussion, appeal in turn to the scientific and 

 industrial chemist (if this distinction between the two 

 forms of chemical energy is permissible). The author 

 has been able to write with the authority of long 

 experience in the works and in the laboratory, and 

 his exhaustive method of treatment has not rendered 



