October 20, 19 10] 



NATURE 



49: 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 

 A Historv of British Mammals. By G. E. H. Bar- 

 rett-Hamilton. Part i., October. Pp. _ xvi-i-S8. 



(London : Gurney and Jackson, 1910.) Price 2s. bd. 



net. 

 .\ THOROUGHLY up-to-date and scientific account of the 

 mammals of the British Isles, written in such a style 

 that it may be acceptable to the field-naturalist as 

 well as to the specialist, has long been a desideratum. 

 So far as it is possible to judge from the first part 

 this want promises to be supplied, at all events, from 

 the scientific aspect, by Major Barrett-Hamilton's 

 work, which is to be published in twenty-four monthly 

 parts, so arranged as, when complete, to form three 

 volumes, of which the fir.st is to be devoted to the 

 bats, while the third is to include the whales and 

 dolphins, with an appendix on extinct and domesticated 

 species. \\"hether the work will appeal with equal 

 strenijth to that section of the general public interested 

 in natural history remains to be seen. A distinctly 

 popular element is, however, supplied by the twenty- 

 seven coloured plates, reproduced from sketches made 

 for the work bv that accomplished artist-naturalist, 

 Mr. E. .\. ^^■ilson. The plate in the present part is 

 a group of dormice in a sloe-bush, which we hope will 

 prove the least successful of the series, as the tw'o upper- 

 most fierures are scarcely satisfactory, while the eyes 

 of all the individuals appear too small and lacking in 

 prominence. 



Except for an instalment of the introduction to 

 the Chiroptera and the general account of the family 

 Vespertilionidae, the present part is devoted to the 

 noctule and Leisler's bat, each of which has an 

 appalling list of svnonyms. The onlv fault we have 

 to find with these lists is that, beyond a statement on 

 an earlier page (6) to the effect that the tjeneric term 

 Nyctalus was applied to the group by Dr. K. Ander- 

 sen in iqo8, there is no clue to the authority for the 

 names Nyctalus noctula and .V. leisleri. It is true 

 that these names do not actuallv appear in Dr. Ander- 

 sen's paper in the "Annals" for the vear cited, but 

 reference to that paper oug-ht certainlv to have been 

 made in the lists. The work has our best wishes 

 for success. R. L. 



Bacteriology for Nurses. By Isabel Mclsaac. Pp. 



xii+179. (New York: The Macmillan Company; 



London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., igog.) Price 



5s. net. 

 While ag-reeincf with the proposition that the nurse 

 should have a clear and definite knowledge of the 

 principles of the germ theory of infective diseases, we 

 doubt if this book will really aid her to attain this 

 end. It is too much an elementarv text-book of 

 bacteriology, and does not contain sufficient of the 

 practical application of bacteriological principles in the 

 every-day routine of the nurse's work. The greater 

 part of the book is occupied by descriptions of the 

 causative organisms of the various infective diseases, 

 but far too little is said about the why and the where- 

 fore of surgical cleanliness and the means of attain- 

 ing it, and the methods of preventing the spread of 

 infection in the ward and household. Thus the section 

 on sterilisation and the use of disinfectants occupies 

 a bare nine pages, and the principles of antiseptic 

 and aseptic surgery are almost omitted, vet these 

 subjects constitute almost the beginning and the end 

 of the surgical nurse's work. In the section on 

 malaria, while the importance of protection from 

 mosquitoes as a preventive is fully recognised and 

 the '"screening" of houses recommended, not one 

 word is said of the mosquito net, which may often 

 be the onlv means available for carrying out any form 

 of " screening." 



These instances of omissions might be multiplied. 

 NO. 2138, VOL. 84] 



While, therefore, the book may prove a readable 

 elementary text-book of pathogenic bacteriology for 

 the general public, including the nurse, we cannot but 

 regard it as lacking in many of the bacteriological 

 details which are so essential to the intelligent work 

 of the nurse for whom it is avowedly written. 



R. T. H. 



TJic Inherent Law of Life: A New Theory of Life 

 and of Disease. By Dr. Franz Kleinschrod. 

 Translated from the German and edited by Louise 

 C. Appel. Pp. vii + 214. (London : G. Bell and 

 Sons, Ltd., 1910.) Price 3^. 6d. net. 

 Dr. Kleinschrod is a vitalist of the order of his 

 celebrated countrj'man, Dr. Hans Driesch. He holds 

 that life is not explicable from a mechanistic point 

 of view. It has its own laws, beyond all physical 

 and chemical formularies. Moreover, as we know- 

 life better — at closer quarters, so to speak — than in- 

 organic nature, it is absurd to explain the former by 

 the latter. "All our ideas of nature are obtained 

 directly from the law of life ; are vitalisms, as Prof. 

 Lipps, the psvchologist, so aptly terms them. Force, 

 energv, gravitation, pressure, &c., are ideas derived 

 from life and transferred to the lifeless world." It 

 is more sensible to interpret the inanimate from the 

 standpoint of the living than conversely. 



Disease and healing are, eoually, life-processes. A 

 true remedv is a remedy which calls forth the healing 

 processes, and does not merely suppress symptoms, 

 as in the application of ice to inflamed parts. The 

 thing to do is to stimulate function. Digitalis does 

 not increase cardiac strength ; it merely whips up the 

 action, and uses up life-force too fast. Graduated 

 exercises reallv strengthen the heart. Similarly with 

 other pathological conditions. Less drugging, more 

 " nature-cure." 



There is much that is debatable in this book, but 

 it is certainly suggestive. On its practical side it is 

 in accord with the trend of modern practice, and the 

 author sensibly admits the auxiliary uses of surgery 

 and drugs, thus steering clear of the extremes into 

 which some nature-cure propagandists are apt to rush. 



Philosophies. By Prof. Ronald Ross, F.R.S., C.B. 

 Pp. viii + 56. (London : John Murray, igio.) 

 Price IS. net. 

 The title of this brochure is rather unhappily chosen, 

 for, coupled with the author's scientific and academic 

 distinctions, it may give an untrue impression. As 

 a matter of fact, the book is a collection of short 

 poems, written in the leisure time of a busy and use- 

 ful career. All are tuneful and satisfying to the ear, 

 and many have the genuine inspiration which distin- 

 guishes poetry from mere verse — e.g. the "Vision of 

 Nescience," and many a line in the longer poem, " In 

 Exile." Prof. Ross is, of course, best known by his 

 researches on malarial fever, and his discovery of the 

 part plaved by mosquitoes in carrying infection. The 

 results of his work are world-wide. It seems prob- 

 able that, largely in consequence of his discoveries, 

 many uninhabitable districts may be rendered fairly 

 healthy; this is already being done in parts of Brazil. 

 The following couple of verses, \vritten at Bangalore, 

 admirably portray the pity in a noble worker's mind, 

 and the pathos of suffering humanity. The title is 

 " Indian Fevers." 



" In this, O Nature, yield I pray to me. 



I p.ice and pace, and think and think, and take 

 The fever'd hands, and note down all 1 see, 



That some dim distant light may haply break. 

 The painful faces ask, can we not cure? 



We answer. No, not yet ; we seek the laws. 

 O God, reveal thro' all this thing obscure 



The unseen, small, but million-murdering cause." 



