August io, 191 1] 



NATURE 



179 



physiology, as also an introductory survey of crypto- 

 gamic life, should be taken. 



The chief aims during the advanced stage are to 

 amplify the earlier courses of anatomy and physiology, 

 to expound the theory of development and other work- 

 ing hypotheses, to correlate botany with ether 

 rices, and to indicate the nature of biological in- 

 vestigation. It is manifest that from the elementary 

 stage, when the author considers it necessary to offer 

 a word of warning lest impatience on the part of the 

 teacher should discourage the youthful inquirer, to the 

 summit of the advanced course is an exceedingly long 

 journey, too long to be traversable during school life. 

 However, if the scheme is not workable in its en- 

 tirety, various sections are practicable, and one can 

 confidently bring the volume to the notice of teachers. 



It will be found that the book is not overweighted 

 with philosophic discussion, and that the greater part 

 of it is devoted to illustrative examples and hints for 

 various substages of the course. The precise para- 

 graphing of the subject-matter under chapter contents 

 affords a ready means of reference and a useful biblio- 

 graphy is appended. 



Treherne's Nature Series. — (i) British Butterflies and 



Moths. Arranged by VV. F. Kirby. Pp. vii + 26 + 



xii plates. 



Inimals : Wild and Tame. Arranged bv W. F. 



Kirby. Pp. ii + 22 + xii plates. 

 <4) Minerals. Arranged by W. F. Kirby. Pp. ii + 



24 + xii plates. 

 (London : A. Treherne and Co., Ltd., n.d.) Price 8d. 



net each. 

 The Nature-lover's Handbook. By Richard Kearton 



and others. Pp. viii + 265. (London, New York, 



Toronto, and Melbourne : Cassell and Co., Ltd.. 



[911.) Price 2s. 6d. net. 

 The fox is "a destructive animal in hen-roosts, but 

 still common in Britain, being preserved for the 

 fashionable sport of fox-hunting"; and, again, the 

 female of the black arches moth "is furnished with 

 a very sharp projecting ovipositor, an organ not 

 usually very conspicuous in moths." Such are the 

 main items in the notices of two species in a couple 

 of the volumes in Treherne's Nature Series; and it 

 will be perfectly manifest that the reader who wants 

 the first (which, by the way, is not true for Britain 

 as a whole) can have no possible use for the second. 

 Again, in the volume on minerals, we find, to take 

 one example only, under the heading of cerusite, a 

 statement to the effect that carbonate of lead is 

 common in most parts of the world, but nothing to 

 show that cerusite and lead carbonate are one and 

 the same. If little is to be said in favour of the text 

 of these volumes, in the case of the one on animals 

 it is difficult to give much praise to the illustrations. 

 The case is, however, quite different with the volume 

 on butterflies and moths, in which the coloured plates 

 are really excellent; and, in a somewhat modified 

 degree, commendation may be bestowed on those in 

 the mineral vclume. The low price of these "book- 

 lets" renders them accessible to all, and if thev serve 

 to awaken an interest in natural history, their issue 

 is no doubt justified. 



"The Nature-lover's Handbook" is on an alto- 

 gether different platform from that of the other 

 volumes, and cannot fail to be useful to the young 

 student, giving, as it does, interesting notes on the 

 animals and plants specially noticeable in each month, 

 followed bv lists of birds, butterflies and moths, and 

 •wild, flowers, with the respective "station," or season 

 of appearance of each species, in our islands. The 

 ■only alteration we can suggest is that the species in 

 ihe lists should be arranged alphabetically, as they 



NO. 2l8o, VOL. 87] 



are now difficult to find; and that if it is necessary to 

 use names like "barn swallow," the dominant term 

 should come first. R- L. 



Introduction to Chemistry. By William Ostwald. 

 Authorised translation by W. T. Hall and R. S. Wil- 

 liams. Pp. ix + 368. (New York: J. Wiley and 

 Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1911.) 

 Price 6s. 6d. net. 

 In this volume the contents of Prof. Ostwald's " Schule 

 der Chemie " are reproduced in narrative form, in 

 place of the conversational method previously adopted. 

 From the point of view of the average reader the 

 change is a great advantage, and the book is now 

 written in such a form as to be readily available for 

 use in the teaching of classes of elementary students. 

 As might be expected, much attention is directed to 

 physical and physico-chemical properties; it is quite 

 refreshing in an elementary book to find crystals classi- 

 fied according to their axes of symmetry, in contrast 

 with the emphasis which is usually laid exclusively 

 upon the planes of symmetry. 



The most surprising fault of a book, which is in 

 nearly every respect an admirable introduction to the 

 study of chemistry, is found in its treatment of equiva- 

 lents, atomic weights and molecular weights. After 

 a discussion of the laws of simple, multiple,_ and 

 reciprocal proportions, Dalton's atomic theory is in- 

 troduced, but is followed by a table of "Combining 

 Weights of the Most Important Elements," which re- 

 present, not the equivalents — which alone can be 

 deduced from this theory— but the modern system of 

 atomic weights, as firmly based by Cannizzaro upon 

 Avogadro's hypothesis. This hypothesis is not men- 

 tioned by name, either in the text or in the index, 

 and the latter contains no reference to gas-densities 

 or vapour-densities; these important matters are 

 smuggled into a chapter on carbon, and the theory 

 which is really the basis of all determinations of 

 atomic weights is merely used to provide a few_ exer- 

 cises on the combining volumes of gases. A pupil who 

 had the curiosity to inquire why the atomic or "com- 

 bining " weight of oxygen relatively to hydrogen is 

 taken as sixteen, and not as eight, would find it very 

 difficult, if not impossible, to find a satisfactory answer 

 in the book now under review. 



This is, however, the only serious fault that has 

 been noticed in a volume that in other respects dis. 

 plays the admirable quality of lucid exposition, which 

 is characteristic of the author. The translation has 

 been so well done that the book gives the impression 

 of having been written first in English and then trans- 

 lated into German. T. M. L. 

 Milk Testing, a Simple, Practical Handbook for Dairy 

 Farmers, Estate Agents, Creamery Managers, Milk 

 Distributors, and Consumers. By C. W. Walker- 

 Tisdale. Revised edition. Pp. 86. (London : Dairy 

 World Office, 9S Fetter Lane, 1911.J Price 15. net. 

 This useful little book has so commended itself to 

 those for whom it was intended that it is now for 

 the second time revised and enlarged. The new matter 

 includes such recent developments of the dairy industry 

 as the testing of sour milk and the description of port- 

 able appliances for use bv travelling inspectors. It is 

 a happy circumstance that Mr. Walker-Tisdale, who 

 is himself the manager and a director of a large milk 

 company, should thus place his experience at the 

 disposal of other dairy managers, and it is equally for- 

 tunate that the British dairy manager and farmer, so 

 far from abusing the monopoly he possesses (for there 

 is practically no importation of milk from abroad) 

 should show himself so ready to apply chemical tests 

 in order satisfactorily to establish the purity of his 

 milk. 



