Dee. 9, 1869] 
NATURE 
165 
occurred within the memory of living men, and Dr. Bell 
counted 52 jets of steam issuing from the ground in one 
valley. A considerable number of the known species of 
cactus are found about the Mexican boundary line; of one of 
these, the Cereus gzganteus, which is sometimes called the 
Monumental cactus, we give an illustration: the mistletoe 
grows in the same region. We also give an engraving of 
the “ Mushroom Rock,” one of the many similar monu- 
ments, denuded and abraded by water, which are to be 
found in the arid plains of Kansas. Dr. Bell’s book 
contains thoughtful matter on the Indian races of the past 
and present sufficient for a monograph on the subject. 
He writes briefly and sensibly on the Mormons, denying 
the common assertion that Salt Lake City, setting aside 
polygamy, is a moral place, and stating that there is an 
entire absence of religious devotion. The Joe Smith 
anti-polygamy party are making rapid strides, especially 
in the numerous outlying settlements in Utah and Nevada. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Lehrbuch der Chimie, gegrtindet auf die Werthigheit 
der Elemente. Von. A. Geuther, Prof. in Jena. Erste 
Abtheilung. (Jena: Dcebereiner, 1869.) 
THE doctrine of Quantivalence plays a most important 
part in the general theory of modern chemistry ; but when 
carried out to the extreme lengths which Dr. Geuther 
claims for it, this doctrine, so useful in the classification 
of elements, fails altogether to bear an original meaning. 
The following is an extract from a table, on page 16 of the 
above-named work, showing the Quantivalence of the 
elements according to Geuther :— 
Ee 
As V. Ill. I. | Na Vin WV Die euk 
Ba Ite U6) OS! Waal Wak ane Tone aaE 
Br We Ave DONE Te eS Wak, TAZ TG Me 
Cs Varme AV aes DT eel Dey ten |), Ni We 156 IE 
Cl Wie Vin WMI Ale IG, Tee 
Cr VAPOUR WL, |) 48 Va livte len Te 
Fe WAL AS WE de |) Wines WAR WAL OA wade BoE 
Fl (AGES) (Ava) BENE || WAU AG TRU we 
Here, for example, we find potassium described as acting 
as a monad, a dyad, a triad, a tetrad, anda pentad element, 
and chlorine as a monad, dyad, triad, pentad, and heptad 
element. What does this do more than express, in a 
roundabout and inconvenient way, what Dalton long ago 
enunciated as combination in multiple proportions—that 
great law round which the whole structure of the science 
is built up? 
The doctrine of Quantivalence is, in strictness, only 
applicable in the case of gaseous elements and com- 
pounds ; bodies whose molecular weight can be estimated 
by their vapours obeying Avogadro’s law of volumes, viz. 
that the molecule of an element or compound is that 
weight of the body which occupies in the gaseous state 
the volume of hydrogen gas weighing 2: the Quantiva- 
lence of an element being determined by the number of 
atoms of hydrogen or of chlorine, or other distinctly 
monad element or radical, which it may be able to take 
up in this molecular volume. By an extension of this 
reasoning, we term potassium a monad and barium a dyad 
metal, because we find that they each form only one com- 
pound with chlorine, potassium combining with one atom 
and barium with two; and we assume that KCl and 
BaCl, represent the respective molecular weights of the 
compound. Many metals, doubtless, may be considered 
to exhibit a variation in Quantivalence : such as iron in the 
ferrous and ferric chlorides; mercury in Hg,Cl, and HzCl, : 
though this difference may be also explained in the case of 
mercury by the two atoms of metal being joined together. 
But to term chlorine a heptad because it forms the com- 
pound HCIO,, or potassium a pentad because we know of 
the body K,S., appears to be an exaggeration of a useful 
doctrine almost as unphilosophical as the divisible atoms 
of M. Delavaud. Apart from these views, Prof. Geuther’s 
book will be welcomed by all chemists as containing clear 
and concise descriptions of many compounds not men- 
tioned in other manuals, which are of much importance 
for the theory of modern chemistry. H, E. ROSCOE 
Parasitology.— Zeitschrift fiir Parasitenkunde, Heraus- 
gegeben von Dr. E. Hallier und Dr. F. A. Ziirn. 
Band I. Zweites Heft. 8vo. pp. 126, with 2 Plates, price 
3s. (Jena, 1869. London: Williams and Norgate.) 
THERE can be no more conclusive evidence of the vigour 
with which scientific researches are pursued in Germany 
than the fact that a circulation is found for a periodical 
publication devoted entirely to the study of parasites, 
animal and vegetable. We find in the present number 
reports of observations on the Aspergillus glaucus, and 
two other newly-discovered parasitic Fungi, found in the 
passages of the ear, and connected with certain forms of 
deafness, and a description of a cure in the case of the 
former species by the external application of alcohol. The 
greater part of the number is devoted to a dissertation by 
Dr. Hallier on the parasites of infectious diseases. A 
portion of this paper is occupied by a discussion whether 
the minute JZyxogastres found on decayed wood, grass, 
&c., belong to the animal or vegetable kingdom. Since 
the only high authority who has maintained the animal 
nature of these parasites, Dr. de Bary, in opposition to 
Fries, Berkeley, and others, has since apparently altered 
his views, the question may now be considered as disposed 
of. If the apparent spontaneous motion of the young 
germinating spores of 77zchzia and other Fungi be con- 
sidered proof of an animal nature, the same argument must 
be applied to the zoospores of certain Alga. A. W.B. 
Serials 
Hardwicke's Science Gossip, for December, contains, 
among others, articles on the employment of wild flowers 
for decorative purposes (in gardens), on the invasion of lady- 
birds, on the structure of the hairs of plants, on variations in 
the Primu/acee, on the influence of food and light on Lepi- 
doptera, and on the natural history of the Ruff and Reeve. 
The Monthly Microscopical Fournal for December 
(No. 12) contains some remarks on the nineteen-band 
test-plate of Nobert, and on immersion lenses, by Mr. 
J. J. Woodward, United States Army ; a paper on high- 
power definition, with illustrative examples, illustrated 
with a plate of test-objects, by Dr. G. W. Royston-Pigott ; 
and one entitled “ My Experience in the Use of various 
Microscopes,” by Dr. H. Hagen. These relate to the in- 
strument and its use. The papers devoted to subjects for 
investigation are—one by Mr. Staniland Wake, on the 
Development of Organisms in Organic Infusions, and 
further remarks on the Plumules or Battledore Scales of 
some of the Lepidoptera, by Mr. John Watson, the latter 
illustrated with a plate. The Microscopical Society’s Pro- 
ceedings contain some interesting remarks on the Scales 
of the 7iysanura, in connection with Dr. Pigott’s paper. 
The recent numbers of the Revie des Cours Scientifigues, 
a periodical whichis hardly so well known in this country 
as it deserves to be, and which is intended to furnish a 
general weekly statement of the proceedings of the 
principal scientific societies both in France and in other 
countries, contain translations of Dr. Christison’s historical 
account of the operations of the Royal Society of Edin- 
burgh from 1783 to 1811; of Sir Roderick Murchison’s 
anniversary address to the Geographical Society in May 
last ; and of the first of Dr. Bence Jones’s lectures on 
Matter and Force, delivered before the Royal College of 
Physicians. Of foreign scientific doings, we find a trans- 
lation of Carl Vogt’s paper on the Primitive History of 
Man, read before the meeting of German naturalists at 
Innsbriick, and M. Vulpian’s lecture on Pathological 
Anatomy, delivered at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, 
