August 



1911] 



NATURE 



143 



Biysica] features will find the pocket-book instructive 

 and interesting. 



(3) Dr. Stroobant's annual summaries of the most 

 important results obtained in astronomical research 

 each year an- models of concise and careful compila- 

 tion, in which the general reader, as well as the pro- 

 fessional astronomer, will find much to interest and 

 instruct. 



Limitations of space Forbid any extensive r&sumi 

 or discussion of the various sections here, but, whether 

 it be in solar physics or in astronomy of position, it 

 would be difficult to point to any result of value that 

 is not included. In the present volume, as one would 

 naturallv expect, Halley's comet is given a prominent 

 place, the bringing together of the most important 

 Reservations and results occupying about sixty pages; 

 the history of the 1909-10 apparition is brought up 

 to the end of July, 1910, and illustrated by several 

 photographs and charts. W. E. R. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Inorganic Chemistry for Schools. By \Y. M. Hootton. 



Pp. viii + 408. (London: Edward Arnold, n.d.) 



Price 3s. 6d. 

 The author of this volume has exercised a consider- 

 able amount of ingenuity in illustrating his subject 

 bv relcii nee to many of its most interesting technical 

 applications. His own knowledge is evidently exten- 

 sive and up-to-date, and it is therefore all the more to 

 be regretted that he should have adopted a method of 

 teaching which is radically bad and indefensible. As 

 in so many other cases of the kind, he has evidently 

 sacrificed sound method to the demands of those who 

 require "a sufficient preparation for the London Matri- 

 culation 1 new syllabus), Northern Universities Matricu- 

 lation, and Army Entrance Examinations in 

 chemistrv," compressed into a two years' course, and 

 has adopted a system which approaches perilously near 

 to "cramming" pure and simple. 



Formulae are introduced on p. 48, but the pupil has 

 to take them as ex cathedra pronouncements until on 

 p. 201, almost at the close of his course, he receives 

 a faulty explanation of the way in which they may 

 be deduced. In the meantime, he must be puzzled by 

 being told, on p. 51, without any explanation, that 

 ■phosphorus pentoxide (P,O ln ) is a white powder 

 ensilv soluble in water." It would scarcely be possible 

 to conceive a more direct violation than this of the 

 maxim which forms the opening words of the preface, 

 that "It is demanded of a school course of chemistry 

 that it shall train the reason " ! The imperfections 

 of his own reasoning is shown by a statement on 

 p. 267 that "according to Avogadro's theory, the 

 atomic weights of elementary gases are numerically 

 equal to their densities." Such a statement, if repro- 

 duced bv his pupils, and applied by them to mercury, 

 sulphur, and phosphorus, should go a long way 

 towards securing their failure in the examinations for 

 which this book is intended to prepare them. Such 

 errors would be impossible if the author had con- 

 sulted the original papers or the "reprints" by which 

 thev are now rendered so easily available. 



The same lack of accuracy and absence of all 

 bistorir sense is shown in a very picturesque way on 

 p. 46, Fig\ 14, where Lavoisier is represented as heat- 

 ing mercury in a loner-necked retort bv means of coal- 

 gas ,and with the help of the burner invented several 

 decades later bv Bunsen. In a book so faultily de- 

 signed and containing such errors, the inclusion of 

 NO. 2179, VOL. 87] 



diagrams of electric furnaces for the manufacture of 

 calcium, of carbide, and of carborundum, is a very 

 inadequate compensation. Such a volume cannot be 

 recommended. 



East and West. Comparative Studies of Nature in 

 Eastern and Western States. By S. D. Kirkham. 

 Pp. x -I-280. (New York and London: G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons, 1911.) Price Js. 6d. net. 

 The title refers to the two horizons of the American 

 continent so widely distant that there is the greatest 

 difference in the scenery and organic life representa- 

 tive of the States situated on the Atlantic and Pacific 

 slopes. Primarily it is the author's desire to interest 

 his countrymen in the natural beauties of the land of 

 their inheritance. He presents a dozen sketches of 

 typical scenes or associations with which he is fami- 

 liar. The descriptions are taken from localities in 

 the States of New York or Massachusetts, on the 

 east, and from the States of California and Arizona 

 on the west, where the author has evidently spent 

 some time in leisurely observation. Cape Ann, Long 

 Island woods, Chaparral and Arizona gardens are 

 sufficiently explanatory as to their situation; other 

 localities described are the forest-clad waterways in 

 the Adirondacks, the " finger-lakes " — so called on 

 account of their configuration — in New York State, 

 and the Elysian fields, situated in this case in the 

 Santa Inez valley in California. 



The sketches or impressions relate almost entirely 

 to natural artistic effects, plant associations, or the 

 habits of birds; they will appeal with special force 

 to the traveller who has trodden paths remote from 

 civilisation. To English readers many of the names 

 of birds and plants will be a puzzle ; chickadee, road- 

 runner, phoebe, and vireo are strange ; similarly 

 madrona, bay berry, and hobble bush require trans- 

 lation. An appendix of scientific names would add 

 materially to a better understanding of the text. It 

 is evident that the author has found greater diversity 

 and brilliancy in the plant- and bird-life in the 

 western States, for which reason the later sketches 

 are the more attractive and illustrative. 



Columbia University Contributiotis to Anthropology. 



Edited by Franz Boas. Vol. ii., Kwakiutl Taies. 



Bv Franz Boas. Pp. viii + 495. (New York: 



Columbia University Press; Leyden : E. J. Brill, 



Ltd., tqio.) 

 This volume is the first to appear of a projected 

 annual series under the general editorship of Dr. 

 Franz Boas, and forms, with tales previously pub- 

 lished by him, a largfe mass of material for the study 

 of the myths of the Kwakiutl, who live between River 

 Inlet and Cape Madge, on the coast of British Colum- 

 bia. There are here many interesting parallels to 

 legends of Japan, Australia, and other distant lands, 

 as well as racial and local tales, often humorous, of 

 culture-heroes and sorcerers, and naive explanations 

 of the origins of dances and ceremonies, and of 

 animals and natural objects. The usefulness of the 

 collection could have been much increased, especially 

 for readers not familiar with American-Indian lore, by 

 multiplvinfi: the footnotes, and by an introduction such 

 as Dr. Boas himself sunplied to Teit's "Traditions of 

 the Thompson River Indians," for, as pointed out 

 bv him elsewhere, the traditions and organisation of 

 the tribe are mutually explanatory, and here we 

 have the traditions only. 



The first tale, for example, has no notes, and yet 

 the general render can scarcely be expected to know 

 that the victor who takes unawares an adversary more 

 powerful in magic is a tribal culture-hero, and that 

 the double-headed serpents forming the belts and 



