104 



NATURE 



[July 27, 191 1 



volumes themselves; the department of pathology, 

 therapeutics, and surgery alone is found to contain 

 nearly 250 separate articles, exclusive of biographies 

 (which are always classified together at the end of 

 each main division or department). The editors of the 

 list have evidently been faced with an exceedingly 

 difficult problem in allocating some of the headings 

 to their most appropriate department ; any system of 

 duplication which would have allowed every depart- 

 ment to indicate every article which had any bearing 

 upon it would have become hopelessly cumbrous, and 

 those who use this list may sometimes have to turn 

 from their own special subject to a kindred depart- 

 ment. But the whole list is so clearly arranged that 

 this process presents no difficulty. 



It would be improper to attempt a detailed notice 

 of any one branch of science in a general survey of a 

 series of volumes which include such notable contribu- 

 tions as the article on Paleobotany by Dr. D. H. 

 Scott, Prof. Seward, and Mr. Clement Reid ; Prof. 

 H. F. Osborn's Palaeontology ; Mr. Leonard Spencer's 

 Mineralogy and Prof. J. F. Kemp's Mineral Deposits; 

 Dr. Stockman's Pharmacology; Prof. Poynting's 

 article on Sound ; Magnetism, by Shelford Bidwell, and 

 Terrestrial Magnetism, by Dr. Chree ; Map by Dr. 

 Ravenstein and Col. C. F. Close; Prof. Abbe's Meteor- 

 ology; Ocean and Oceanography, by Dr. H. R. Mill 

 and Prof. Krummel, and a host of others. But it is 

 possible to refer in general terms to the satisfactory 

 character of the illustrations which classify so many 

 of these important treatises, from the admirable 

 textual sketches which serve to illustrate the main 

 features of some of the remarkable ancient maps 

 described by Dr. Ravenstein, to the coloured plates 

 accompanying the articles on pathology and parasitic 

 diseases. The coloured plates are for the most part 

 exceedingly good; most of them (such as the beau- 

 tiful Orders of Knighthood, in the preparation of 

 which King Edward VII. took so great an interest) 

 fall outside the scientific articles. Reference, how- 

 ever, may be permissible to the admirable illustration 

 under "Process" of the four stages of the three-colour 

 process, worth far more than its bulk in textual 

 explanation. The half-tone reproductions can only be 

 criticised on the score of occasionally showing evidence 

 of printing at high pressure, while there are some 

 faults of manufacture— in the volumes before us we 

 have happened upon one plate bound in duplicate, 

 while a certain plate-map which is indexed does not 

 appear. But as a whole the half-tones are excellent, 

 and some which call for high detail, such as those 

 illustrating "Lace" or "Pathology," are beyond 

 praise. Engineers will value the cosmopolitan series 

 of plates and line diagrams in the articles on ship and 

 shipbuilding, to which Sir Philip Walls and the Rev. 

 Dr. Warre have contributed. The line drawings 

 throughout the work have printed satisfactorily on 

 the thin paper, and the fineness of some of the zoo- 

 logical drawings (for example), or those illustrating 

 Mr. A. H. Smith's article on jewelry, is admirable. 



It will be understood that the examples named arc 



chosen at hazard out of hundreds, for the illustrations, 



if their treatment by the manufacturers i- open to the 



criticisms already made, afford evidence of systematic 



NO. 2178, VOL. 87] 



editorial arrangement and of no sparing hand on the 

 part of the publishers. 



The statistician has found less materia] for his use 

 in the present than in past editions of the " Encyclo- 

 paedia." It is no doubt a misfortune that the publica- 

 tion of the whole work had to be timed a little in 

 advance of a period at which there became available 

 thai most important series of statistics, the decennial 

 census returns. But the editors have deliberately 

 disregarded (save in exceptional cases) the often de- 

 ceptive intercensal estimates of population. In other 

 departments it would probably have passed the wit of 

 man lo devise mechanism for the insertion of the 

 latest figure in every statistical statement in twenty- 

 eight volumes published almost simultaneously, even 

 if it had been thought desirable, which (as the " En- 

 cyclopaedia " is not an annual publication) it was not. 

 But whereas the notices on the divisions and towns of 

 the United Kingdom and the United States have been 

 relieved of a considerable mass of statistics, the two 

 general articles under these titles have been made 

 the receptacle of a large number of figures, brought 

 down to the latest available dates, which, being set 

 in tables or other comparative forms, will probably 

 be of use to a greater number of readers than if they 

 had been distributed through the lesser articles. 



The principal conclusion of a general survey of the 

 completed work is that the editors deserve to have it 

 realised that they have made a library — not only a 

 dictionarj n«>i a year-book. The work may contain 

 some errors of detail, whether the result of the march 

 of events during its compilation, or simply of a com- 

 piler's human fallibility ; it would be beyond human 

 work if it did not. But it appears to be surprisingly 

 free of editorial misjudgment in respect of the selec- 

 tion of article headings and the apportionment of 

 space to every department of knowledge. The exist- 

 ence of the classified list shows that the editors are 

 not afraid of exhibiting their selection, and the reader 

 who finds an apparent gap in it will probably discover 

 on reference to the index that the subject he seeks is 

 really an indivisible part of a wider one. And by 

 following this process he will probably be paying the 

 makers of the "Encyclopaedia" the compliment of 

 using it as they intend it chiefly to be used. 



COMPARATIVE AN ITOMY. 



Vorlcsungcn iibcr vergleichende Anatomic. By Prof. 

 O. Biitschli. 1 Lieferung, Einleitung; Vergleich- 

 ende Anatomie der Protozoen ; Integument und 

 Skelet der Metazoen. Pp. viii + 401. (Leipzig : W. 

 Engelmann, 1910.) Price 12 marks. 

 HP HE method of studying comparative anatomy that 

 will ever be associated with the honoured names 

 of John Hunter and Gegenbaur appeals strongly to 

 the student of medicine, and those who specialise in 

 human anatomy, as being the most interesting and 

 instructive way of learning the significance of the 

 animal economy. The comparison of homologous 

 structures in the whole range of the animal kingdom 

 and the realisation of their varying development and 

 differing arrangement throw light upon their 

 functions, and in our day explains the process of 



