pli 
NATORE 
[ Dec. 23, 1869 
acquaintance with the geological facts which guide mining 
operations. Mr. Smyth modestly says of himself: “I 
wish it to be distinctly understood that I am merely a 
compiler.” But his book abundantly proves that he has a 
thorough knowledge of what practical mining is, and that 
he is no mere tyro in geology. A tolerably good test of 
the accuracy of a man’s geological knowledge is often 
furnished by the way in which he draws a section. He is 
compelled to put down definitely the notion which he has 
formed of the structure of a district, or of the relations of 
certain rocks to each other, and the manner in which he 
does this may be usually regarded as an indication of the 
extent of his acquaintance, not merely with the locality in 
question, but with the fundamental laws of geological 
structure. At the same time, too, he unconsciously betrays 
whether or not Nature has gifted him with any trace of the 
artistic faculty. Now Mr. Smyth’s sections are singularly 
excellent. He procured them from miners, mining com- 
panies, geologists, and private friends, and no doubt, in 
many cases, from his own observations. Everybody who 
has ever tried to collect sections in this way knows that 
they come in every conceivable style and scale, usually 
grossly exaggerated either in length or height. Such were 
doubtless the sections which arrived at the Victorian Office 
of Mines. But Mr. Smyth has recast them after his own 
pattern, and they now appear in a uniform kind of drawing; 
which reminds one of the artistic finish introduced many 
years ago into geological section-drawing by the late Sir 
Henry De la Beche. 
It is hardly possible to over-estimate the advantages 
which must accrue to mining interests in the colony when 
the Government department of Mines possesses a secretary 
who is evidently most thoroughly in love with his work, 
and who is endowed with so much sound scientific 
knowledge and experience. This book is an eminently 
practical one. Yet it offers every now and then glimpses 
into geological questions of the highest interest. To some 
of these reference will be made in a subsequent article. 
ARCH. GEIKIE 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Terrestrial Physics.—Probleme der vergleichenden Era- 
kunde. By Oscar Peschel. (Leipzig, 1870.) 
THE fundamental thesis of the author, involving his con- 
ception of the true province of the science of comparative 
terrestrial physics, appears to be this:—If a series of maps 
of the globe, or any part of it, drawn at different times during 
several centuries, be compared, there becomes obvious a 
radical want of truthfulness in the elder representations ; 
such coast-lines, such mountain-chains, such river-courses 
are utterly impossible. On the other hand, a modern 
map convinces us at once of its internal truth. This truth 
must be founded on some general laws, which must be 
discoverable by studying the resemblances in the external 
features of countries; and finally a series of such resem- 
blances distributed over different localities must lead to 
the discovery of the conditions of their origin. 
One example. taken at random, will be sufficient to 
indicate the authors method of procedure. A compara- 
tive study of the localities, where fiords occur, shows— 
(1) that they are mostly to be found on west coasts, and 
appear generally associated, rarely single; (2) that they 
are limited to high latitudes, and excluded from the region 
confined on both sides of the equator by the isothermal 
line of 10° C.; (3) that they are all within the region of 
rainfall during the whole of the year. Hence the general 
law is deduced, that fiords owe their origin principally to 
certain climatic conditions, viz. a low temperature, a 
maximum amount of aqueous deposition, and protection 
from the drying influence of easterly winds. 
Now, we can well admit the possibility, or even proba- 
bility, that continued actual observations may lead to 
similar conclusions ; but in the mean time we are at a 
loss to understand how rain or isothermal charts, represent- 
ing most recent conditions, can be applied to explain 
phenomena which the author himself thinks must have 
happened so long ago, that the time would have to be 
reckoned by hundreds of thousands of years. 
M. Peschel, as it appears from his own admissions, has 
never left his study to observe the phenomena on which 
he reasons. He has collected, extracted, compiled, com- 
pared, and—generalised. This is not the legitimate ap- 
proach to Nature’s secrets, and consequently the author's 
work, although written in a masterly style, leaves us com- 
paratively in the dark. It is the ingenious pleading of a 
lawyer for the cause he has undertaken, rather than the 
transparent and triumphant language with which the 
genuine student of Nature proclaims his discovery to the 
world. 
Cinchona Plantations in Java. 
Fava. Von J. W. Van Gorkom, ans dems Holland- 
ischen tbertragen von C. Hasskarl. (Leipzig, 1869.) 
THE efforts of the English Government to establish the 
quinine-producing plants of South America in our Indian 
possessions have excited very general interest. Other 
European Governments are, however, not less alive than 
our own to the danger of depending any longer solely 
upon the chance products of the forests of South America 
for supplies of the most indispensable of medicines. Our 
neighbours, the Dutch, have for more than twelve years 
devoted much attention to the regular cultivation of cin- 
chona trees in Java, and although the results obtained 
hitherto are not so favourable as we should have hoped, 
there is good reason to believe that the experience now 
gained will lead to great success in the future. The scale 
on which the Dutch experiments are being made will be 
best indicated by the fact that on the 3ist March last 
there were in Java in nurseries and regular plantations 
nearly a million cinchona plants under cultivation. Be- 
sides these, more than 900,000 have been planted in the 
jungles, but have, unfortunately, owing to a variety of 
causes, already mostly disappeared. In the present pam- 
phlet M. von Gorkom gives the experience of the Dutch 
cultivators, as well as a general review of the literature of 
the subject. Appended to the pamphlet are tables show- 
ing the present state of cinchona-culture in Java, the 
rate of growths of the plants, and the results of chemical 
analyses of the various species cultivated. Monsieur 
van Gorkom has had the advantage of having his work 
rendered into the more generally accessible German 
language, by a gentleman who has himself taken so dis- 
tinguished a part in cinchona-culture as to induce a jury 
of the French International Exhibition of 1867 to confer 
a gold medal upon him, while assigning to Markham, 
Mclvor, and others silver medals only. 
Transactions of the Bremen Scientific Association.— 
Abhandlungen des naturwissenschafilichen Verens zu 
Bremen, Vol. 2. parti. (Bremen, 1869.) 
AN article by Dr. Foske on the late Professor Trevirarus 
points out that in some of his works the fundamental 
ideas of Darwinianism were clearly expressed, long be- 
fore the theory was explicitly propounded by Mr. Darwin. 
We would direct the attention of biologists to a paper 
in the same volume, by M. Luerssen, “On the influence 
of red and blue light on the plasma-stream in the hairs of 
Urtica and Tradescanfia virginica.” It appears that the 
action of red light is to disturb the molecular structure of 
the protoplasm, and finally to destroy it entirely, while 
blue and white light act similarly ; the blue, however, with 
somewhat less energy. BL. 
Die Chinacultur auf. 
