July 28, 1910] 



NATURE 



lOI 



hundred particular inquiries, some of which are very 

 quaint, e.g. "Now that there are so many nature- 

 books, how shall I choose the most useful one?" or, 

 already, "Is nature-study on the wane?" 



(2) Mr. Arthur H. Patterson has added a fourth 

 volume to his series of east-coast books, and it is 

 welcome, for the author writes with a light touch of 

 the business of man and beast on the tidal waters of 

 East Anglia. He describes at first hand much that 

 is of interest regarding punt-gunning, decoying, snipe 

 shooting, smelt fishing, shrimping, eel catching, and 

 so on, and gives us delightful glimpses of the bird- 

 life in particular. There is a great deal of fisher- 

 man's gossip in the book, but it is wholesome, open- 

 air gossip, now and then cutting into the circle of 

 the sciences. 



(3) Sir Digby Pigott's nature-story for boys and 

 girls is a sequel to "The Changeling," in which the 

 author worked out, in a manner that pleased manv, 

 the idea of a child who was at one time a rook, at 

 another a bee, at one time a fox, and at another a 

 wild goose, and in due course a swift, a mole, and 

 a short-cared owl. The author seeks to get young 

 folks into close quarters with the real life of wild 

 creatures, introducing them, through "Tommy's" 

 adventures, to fur-seals and skuas, walruses and pere- 

 grines, and even to the dodo and " Archaeopterix." 

 We find the book a little too informative, but it is 

 kept, on the whole, commendably simple, and we 

 doubt not that it may be useful for thos.- children 

 who really enjoy getting at things in this curiously 

 circuitous fashion. The notes seem to us to be an 

 artistic mistake. 



(4) Dr. Graham Renshaw's natural-history essays 

 are well known and justly admired, but he has excelled 

 himself in the sequel, which deserves its title of 

 "Animal Romances." With the help of more than a 

 score of peculiarly interesting and artistic photographs, 

 he has succeeded in giving us living pictures of many 

 wild animals in their natural setting — giraffes (" the 

 dream creatures," "the aristocrats"!) Grevy's zebras 

 ("the Horses of the Sun"), elephants ("the giants"), 

 hippopotamus (" Behemoth "), and so on. He stays 

 longest in Africa, but he takes us also to the Andes, 

 to the Antarctic ice, to Tasmania, and elsewhere, and 

 is always a lively guide. There is plenty of science in 

 his nature-pictures, but there is poetry, too, and h's 

 book is literature of high quality. 



TECHXIC.AL CHEMICAL .AN.iLYSLS. 

 Technical Methods of Chemical Analysis. By Prof. 

 George Lunge. English translation, edited by Dr. 

 C. A. Keane. Vol. i., parts i. and ii. Pp. xxiv + 

 996. (London : Gurney and Jackson, igoS.) Price 

 2I. I2S. 6d. net. 



A BOOK which covers such a wide ground as 

 ■'*■ Prof. Lunge's "Technical Methods of Chemical 

 Analysis " is by no means easy to review. No one 

 chemist, for example, is likely to be practically con- 

 versant with all the branches of analysis which are 

 dealt with, and, recognising this, the author has, as 

 is usually the case in similar works, obtained those 

 NO. 2126, VOL. 84] 



who have specialised along certain lines to undertake 

 the writing of such sections. 



One of the difticulties to the reader of books like 

 this is that to some extent it is a dictionary of 

 methods, and it is sometimes a little bewildering to 

 know which of many methods given for the analvsis 

 of one special substance is the best to employ. It is 

 consequently not a book for the ordinary student, but 

 one for the experienced worker, although even he will 

 require to bring his critical faculty into play. The 

 book is well written and is interesting to read, and 

 those who study it will find it to contain quite an 

 extraordinary amount of information which is by no 

 means only analytical. The sections on clay and on 

 clay wares, earthenw'are, and glazes are, for example, 

 most interesting to read, even if one has no intention 

 of carrying out the analysis. We like the arrange- 

 ment of the section on potassium salts ; first, all 

 the methods employed are given in detail, and then 

 the applications of these methods to special cases, 

 such as analysis of Stassfurt salts, manures, beet 

 ashes_, and so on. 



That the book is of the utmost value in the labora- 

 tory — in fact, almost indispensable — we can vouch, as 

 since its publication it has been in constant use, and 

 it is rarely that, within the scope of this volume, we 

 have not obtained the information desired. 



In conjunction with this volume an extremely useful 

 little handbook of 260 pages, called "The Technical 

 Chemist's Handbook," has also been issued. It is in 

 limp cover, and of such a size that it can be carried 

 in the pocket. Nearly 100 pages consist of tables, 

 comprising, among others, factors for calculating 

 gravimetric analysis, specific gravities, boiling points, 

 tension of aqueous vapours, and weight of sheets of 

 metals ; there are, in fact, thirty-nine useful and valu- 

 able tables. The special part which follows deals with 

 methods of analysis under various headings. To take 

 an example at random, "III. Saltcake and Hydro- 

 chloric acid; A. Salt, B. Saltcake, C. Chimney-test- 

 ing, D. Testing of the Gases in the Hargreaves 

 Process, E. Hydrochloric acid." It should be men- 

 tioned that beside the thirty-nine tables referred to 

 there are further tables in the special part, for 

 example, the specific gravities of hydrochloric acid. 



Dr. Lunge and Dr. Keane are to be congratulated 

 on the issue of this volume, the one for writing it and 

 the other for so ably editing the English edition. We 

 hope that it will not be long before vols. ii. and iii. 

 are ready. 



BRITISH FOSSILS. 

 Palacontographical Society. Vol. Ixiii., 1909. 

 (London: The Society, and Dulau and Co., Ltd., 



THE sixty-third volume of the Palaeontographical 

 Society's monographs contains instalments of 

 works already in progress, and the council announces 

 its desire, so far as possible, of completing these 

 before commencing new monographs, for which they 

 have received numerous proposals. 



Prof. S. H. Reynolds continues his monograph of 

 the British Pleistocene mammalia, here dealing with 



