December 5, 1901] 



NA TURE 



weights. If he wants to know how physical ideas of 

 the constitution of matter and the nature of electrical 

 charges are applied to chemical problems he will read 

 Fitzgerald's lecture on Helmholtz. If he looks for the 

 story of Pasteur's wonderful scientific career and how 

 the chemist applied his chemical experience to the 

 difficult problems of disease and life he will find it 

 admirably told by Frankland in this volume. There are 

 fifteen of these essays in the book, and each possesses 

 an individuality of its own and in general a very high 

 standard of literary quality is reached. 



It must, of course, be admitted that the volume does 

 not give the whole history of the progress of chemistry 

 during the last half century, for of course these lectures 

 relate only to deceased /o/d'4'« members of the Chemical 

 Society. The work of Williamson, Odling, Frankland 

 sen., Perkin, Gladstone and Crookes, for example, is only 

 incidentally referred to, for happily these Fathers of 

 Modern Chemistry, with one exception, are still with us. 

 Neither does the volume include any account of the life- 

 long labours of Berthelot, the senior Foreign Fellow of 

 the Society, whose celebration of the fiftieth year of his 

 scientific activity has so recently attracted the sympa- 

 thetic attention of the whole civilised world. But the 

 rising generation of scientific men may well be reminded 

 in the words which M. Berthelot is reported to have 

 spoken recently in the presence of the President of the 

 French Republic at the Sorbonne, that it is not they 

 who are making the science of the time, but their scien- 

 tific ancestors. " If each of us adds something to the 

 common domain in the field of science, of art, of morality, 

 it is because a long series of generations have lived, 

 worked, thought and suffered before us." 



Experimentelle entomolngische Studien vom physikalisch- 

 cht-iiiischcn Standpunktaus. \'on Prof. P. Bachmetjew. 

 Mit einem \'orwort von Prof. Dr. August Weismann in 

 Freiburg i. Br. Erster Band. Temperaturverhaltnisse 

 bei Insekten. Pp. x + i6o, mit 7 Figuren im Text. 

 (Leipzig : Wilhelm Engelmann.) Price 4^. net. 

 Hitherto the best-known researches into the tempera- 

 ture of insects have been those directed to the effects 

 produced on the development or coloration of perfect 

 insects reared from larva; or pups which had been sub- 

 jected to carefully graduated variations of high or low 

 temperatures. There is, however, a very considerable 

 literature, chiefly scattered in foreign periodicals, dealing 

 with the temperature of insects from a much wider 

 standpoint, especially as to their power of resistance to 

 heat or cold. In the present work Prof. Bachmetjew, who 

 commenced his researches in 1898, and who has already 

 published some preliminary papers, has brought together 

 and classified these scattered materials, adding to them 

 the results of his own work. 



The first section is devoted to the effects of tempera- 

 ture, moisture, movement, food, &c. ; and the second to 

 the extreme limits of heat or cold which insects are 

 capable of resisting in their various stages. The biblio- 

 graphy at the end of the volume comprises, with addi- 

 tions, upwards of 200 references. The importance of this 

 little volume of 160 pages is far greater than its unpre- 

 tentious appearance would indicate, more especially as a 

 . very useful basis for further investigations and experi- 

 ments. It is freely illustrated with diagrams and tables, 

 and is too technical for a very detailed notice. The second 

 volume, now in preparation, will be devoted to " Ein- 

 fluss der ausseren Faktoren auf Insekten." 

 Flora of Guernsey and the Lesser Channel Islands. 

 By Ernest David Marquand. Pp. viii -1- 501. (London : 

 Dulau and Co., 1901.) Price \os. 6d. net. 

 The author of this work is to be congratulated on the 

 way in which he has succeeded in his task of bringing 

 up to date the state of our knowledge of a very interest- 

 ing group of islands. The number of plants recorded in 



NO. 1675, VOL. 65J 



this volume for Guernsey and the lesser islands collec- 

 tively is as follows : — 



Flowering plants ... ... 82S species 



Ferns and fern allies ... ... 29 ,, 



Mosses .. ... ... ... 156 ,, 



HepaticEe ... ... ... 41 ,, 



Fungi ... ... ... ... 624 ,, 



Lichens ... ... ... ... 334 ,, 



Algna 641 „ 



Total ... ... ... 2653 species 



The flowering plants and ferns are arranged and named 

 in accordance with the last (eighth) edition of Babing- 

 ton's " Manual of British Botany." Each island is 

 separately dealt with, and separate indexes are given 

 for Guernsey, Alderney and Sark — the other five islands, 

 viz. Herm, Jethou, Lihou, Crevichon and Burhou, not 

 requiring one. For Burhou, indeed, less than a score 

 flowering plants and ferns are recorded. 



From the descriptive notes we learn that Guernsey is 

 the most densely populated island on the face of the 

 earth — a fact which the visitor, rambling through its 

 country lanes, would find hard to realise. During the 

 last twenty years the fruit-growing industry — owing 

 largely to the extremely favourable climate — has advanced 

 enormously. " At the present day there are certainly 

 scores, if not hundreds, of miles of greenhouses in the 

 island. . . . Every week-day during the sprmg and 



summer months large shiploads of vegetable produce 

 leave (juernsey for the English markets, as many as 

 28,000 baskets and 'crates having been dispatched in a 

 single day." Owing to draining operations and increased 

 cultivation generally some of the rarer local plants will, 

 before long, certainly disappear. 



The first record for each plant is given, and interesting 

 notes on its native names and former and present uses, 

 &:c. On p. 156 we find a blunder — one, however, 

 repeated in every local flora, and indeed in many much 

 more pretentious works which we have consulted — the 

 plant there noted by Mr. Marquand is certainly not 

 Lyciidii barbaruin, but doubtless L. chinense. This last 

 is a very different plant from the true L. barbarum, 

 which 1s a thorny small- leaved desert planf — a native of 

 North Africa — which is not anywhere naturalised in 

 Britain or the British Islands. L. chinense, on the other 

 hand, is a Chinese plant which readily naturalises itself. 



G. N. 



Water and IVater Supplies. By J. C. Thresh, M.D., 

 D.Sc. Medical Officer of Health to the Essex County 

 Council. Third edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. 

 XV + 527. (London : Redman, Limited, 1901.) Price 

 7^-. 6d. net. 

 This work deals with the chemical composition and 

 physical characters of water ; the various sources from 

 which it may be collected ; the different ways in which 

 it may be polluted and the effect on health of such pol- 

 lution ; the interpretation of the results of chemical 

 analyses of water ; the methods of purification and 

 softening of water ; the quantity required for domestic 

 and other purposes ; the protection of water supplies ; 

 the means of storage and distribution ; and the 'law on 

 water supplies. 



Thus it will be seen that the subject is considered from 

 every point of view of importance to those who are 

 interested in providing a good water supply for domestic 

 or trade purposes, and that the work appeals to a wide 

 clientele, to whom we have no hesitation in confidently 

 recommending it. 



For general accuracy, clear exposition and arrange- 

 ment of subject- matter, and for evidence of a wide 

 practical experience on the part of the writer, this work 

 deserves to take a prominent place in public health 

 literature. The book is well printed and tastefully 

 bound. 



