December 24, 1908] 



JVA TURE 



215 



IHE ASHMOl.EAN NATURAL HISTORY 

 SOCIETY OF OXFORDSHIRE. 



1 Historical Account of the Ashniolean Natural 

 History Society of Oxfordshire, 1880-1905. By 

 Frank Arthur Bellamy. Pp. xvi + 544. (Oxford: 

 Published by the Author, 4 St. John's Road, 1908.) 

 Price 10s. net. 



THE volume before us should have an interest, not 

 only for members of the society in question, 

 but for all naturalists, who should be glad to possess 

 a record of the doings of one of the lartrest, most 

 arrive, and — in virtue of its amalgamation with the 

 \-hmolean Society, founded in 1828 — one of the oldest 

 scientific societies in England. It is seldom that such 

 an organisation finds so good a biographer; the pre- 

 cision of the astronomer can be traced in the author's 

 attention to the minutest details of history, and the 

 care taken to ensure accuracy with regard to every 

 point mentioned. Owing to the arrangement adopted, 

 it has evidently been impossible to avoid the slight 

 overlapping of subject-matter, but there can be few if 

 any questions relating to the society's existence and 

 work which are not dealt with in this very comprehen- 

 sive record. 



It is probably true of almost all societies that they 

 owe much to their officers, but especially has this been 

 true of the Ashmolean Natural History Society of 

 Oxfordshire in all stages of its chequered existence. 

 Of the earliest officers of the " old Ashmolean " little 

 is known, owing to the disappearance of the original 

 minute-books; the " Proceedings " of that society were 

 not published until some years after its origin, though 

 we learn (p. xv) from the Radcliffe Observer in 1866 

 that 



" At the time of its institution it was second to 

 scarcely any similar society in Europe, either in the 

 roll of its illustrious members or in the value of its 

 contribut'ons to science." 



So late as 1880, however, it had not opened its 

 doors to any but members of the university, and this 

 fact gave origin to the Oxfordshire Natural History 

 Society and Field Club, founded by the even then 

 well-known botanist Mr. George Claridge Druce, 

 with the cooperation of many distinguished men of 

 science. 



No circumstance is more happy in the history of 

 the two societies than that when the " old Ash- 

 molean " decided to unite the property and traditions 

 of a glorious past and — shall we say? — a somewhat 

 decadent present to the active existence and brilliant 

 future of the society which now holds a well-deserved 

 position as the senior scientific society of Oxford. 

 The tale of how this was accomplished is fully set 

 forth in Mr. Bellamy's pages, as well as the part 

 played by many of the society's officers in bringing 

 about this union. Perhaps a large share of honour 

 may be felt to be due from English naturalists 

 generally to Dr. V. H. Veley, F.R.S., whose 

 strenuous exertions as last librarian of the older society 

 alone saved from an ignoble fate and made available 

 for all time one of the largest and most valuable 

 lending scientific libraries in England, which included 

 complete sets of periodicals no longer obtainable at 

 -iny price, as well as single volumes of great rarity. 

 XO. 2043, VOL. 70] 



Mr. Bellamy's history shows that no " winter 

 wind " of ingratitude ever blew over the Ashmolean 

 Natural History Society, for are not all these things, 

 as well as the labour of love of many presidents, 

 treasurers, librarians, and secretaries, writ large in his 

 chronicle? The only person whose unremitting if 

 unobtrusive labours on behalf of the society receive a 

 bare line of notice is the author himself (p. 121). 

 But none who knows the inner history of the society 

 will fail to give honour where honour is due. Such 

 a record must necessarily contain many dry facts and 

 statistics, which are of value mainly to those con- 

 cerned, but there is ample evidence that such re- 

 searches may be enlivened by flashes of humour, as 

 in the account of the recovery of the ancient wood- 

 block (p. 59) and of other quaint occurrences. 



The book is excellently printed, and contains as 

 frontispiece a portrait of the late Prof. J. O. West- 

 wood. L. J. V. 



'ELECTROCHEMICAL PRACTICE AND POWER 



DEVELOPMENT. 

 (i) Cya)iide Processes. By E. B. Wilson. Fourth 

 edition. Revised and enlarged. Pp. vii-l-249. 

 (New York : John Wiley and Sons ; London : 

 Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1908.) Price 6s. 6d. net. 

 (2) Electric Furnaces. The Production of Heat from 

 Electrical Energy and the Construction of Electric 

 Furnaces. By Wilhelm Borchers. English Trans- 

 lation by H. G. Solomon. Pp. ix+224. (London : 

 Longmans, Green and Co., 1908.) Price ys. 6d. 

 net. 

 {3) Hvdro-electric Practice. A Practical Manual of 

 the Development of Water Power, its Conversion 

 to Electric Energy, and its Distant Transmission. 

 By H. A. E. C. von Schon. Pp. xv + 382. (Phila- 

 delphia and London : J. B. Lippincott Company, 

 1908.) Price 25^. net. 

 (i) ' I 'HIS book upon " Cyanide Processes for Gold 

 J- Extraction " is evidently intended for those 

 who know nothing about the extraction of gold by 

 means of cyanide, and it is therefore written in a 

 style to suit the tyro, and is also intended to help 

 those who wish to take up the cyanide-extracting 

 industry. It commences with a description of ores 

 suitable for the cyanide process, and starts off with 

 the definition that any material which it will pay to 

 work is an ore. Ores are distinguished as free, milly, 

 refractory, acid, and base-metal ores, and it is shown 

 how these various ores behave towards cyanide solu- 

 tions. We notice on p. 11 that tellurium is said to 

 be soluble in the presence of sodium dioxide, but 

 sodium dioxide is hardly a substance which one expects 

 to find employed in the extraction of gold. 



We regret to say that chapter ii. is very unsatis- 

 factory. It deals with potassium cyanide and oxygen, 

 and contains several equations, some of which are not 

 correct; but chapter iii. is still worse, and this has 

 to do with the chemistry of the operation. On p. 27 

 we notice that there are men working the cyanide 

 process successfully who know little of its chemistry 

 and no other chemistry at all. From this chapter 

 they will not learn correct chemistry of the cvanide 



