
FU 12, 1871 | 

NATURE 
205 

benefits already attained by this system are so astonishing 
that we havea right to demand from those who would 
supplant it, proof of much better results of some other 
method, and not mere doubtful probabilities.” * 
In this connection we must note the omission from this 
valuable digest of any mention of Mr. Baldwin Latham’s 
newly-invented, most simple, and most efficacious ma- 
chinery for straining off, or rather for dredging out, of the 
entire mass of the sewage of a town those more coarsely 
divided, which are also the most grossly offensive and 
the least useful, of excretory products, together with the 
floating non-excremental rubbish, such as corks and 
other “ properties ” of the complex compound in question. 
Prof. Corfield, as a disciple of the late Dr. Daubeny, to 
whose work he refers with a very proper reverence, is too 
good a botanist not to be aware how hurtful it is to the 
vital operations of plants, in disinfecting and rebuilding 
up decaying organic compounds, for them to have their 
leaves and stems besmeared over with adherent viscosity ; 
this non-transpirable envelope being as really injurious to 
them as the sight of coherent masses of filth is cestheti- 
cally disgustful to us; and both these difficulties Mr. 
Latham’s invention has removed. Croydon, we learn from 
the guide-books, is not inaccessible from London; and 
“possesses,” to quote further from the same authorities, 
“many objects of interest for the intelligent visitor.” We 
trust Dr. Corfield will follow the example of the health 
officer of Bombay, who, in a sanitary tour, the results of 
which are given us in the “ Report of the Measures 
adopted for Sanitary Improvements in India, from June 
1869 to June 1870,” visited Croydon, and has reported 
(p. 232) most favourably upon the particular “ object of 
interest ” in question, and its successful coadaptation of the 
turbine of the dredging machine and of the Archimedean 
screw. 
With a few disjointed remarks we will conclude our 
notice of this useful work. Dr. Corfield, like most men 
who can calculate, is an adherent of the “separate system ” 
as regards the rainfall and the sewage proper. Mr. Men- 
zies’ name, however, has somehow or other slipped out of 
his pages (159, 160), where he treats of this improvement 
on the older plans for sewage. We feel ouselves bound 
in our rate-paying capacity, to say nothing of any other, 
to emphasise the name of the Windsor sanitarian, know- 
ing how much his writings have saved us in brickwork. 
It is half amusing, half melancholy, to have to note how 
preachers of Hygiene have, like preachers of higher things, 
to “ become all things to all men, that by any means they 
may save some.” If Dr. Buchanan (see p. 170) is quoted 
in one placeas telling us ina single sentence what another 
sanitarian professes to tell us in a whole volume (Der 
Einfluss der Wohnung auf die Sittlichkeit), viz., “that the 
progress made by the inhabitants of certain towns in- 
spected, in decency, cleanliness, self-respect, and morality, 
was at least as striking as the improvement in their health 
measured by the mortality returns ;” we find at another 
the preacher of Hygiene (see p. 25) continually pointing 
out that sickness is the chief cause of the non-payment of 
rent, and appealing to witness after witness, who assure 
* See further, p. 226 to p. 282, in which pages the detailed facts’ are 
given as verifiable at many places, from Edinburgh, where irrigation has been 
practised for a couple of centuries, to Milan, and in which we are told that 
the famous chemist, Dumas, whilst inspecting the well-known Barking 
Farm, exclaimed, “oui, l'eau doit étre la charette de I'engrais.” 


him in voices trembling with pathos, and in language 
worthy of such sentiment, that “rent is the dest got from 
healthy houses.” 
Professor Corfield’s book will, we doubt not, shortly ap- 
pear in a second edition. In this second edition we shall 
hope to find a bibliography such as that which Varrentrapp 
has appended to his work “Ueber Entwasserung der 
Stadte.” In this bibliography we shall hope to find Pet- 
tenkofer’s papers duly and chronologically catalogued, it 
being the bounden duty of all sanitarians to help in pro- 
pelling the sphere of Munich Hygiene out of the penumbra 
in which it is at present into full sunlight. To his bibli- 
ography our author will do well to superadd an index, and 
in correlation with his index should be, from page to page 
of his text, references given to the pages of the memoirs 
he quotes. It is not everybody who possesses the often 
Brobdignagian Blue Books of sanitary commissioners ; but 
those whodo possess them like to have these references, and 
those who do not, will not be much harassed by their incer- 
tion. We have suggested the making of these additions 
to the end of this book ; they will cost their writer much, 
and save his readers some trouble if carried out. We will 
suggest the making of an addition to the beginning of his 
book, and that in the shape of a motto which was sug- 
gested to ourselves by one of the first of living scholars 
as an appropriate one for the Thames Conservancy. It 
may be found some seventy lines short of the end of 
Hesiod’s * Works and Days,” and runs thus :— 
ines = a , 
Mnoe mor €v mpoxor Torayav dade mpopecvrwv 
My& emt Kpnvawy ovpew, pcda 6’ e£adéacbat, 
My& tvarowi yew" * ro yap ovror Awiey ‘orw. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 
Choice Stove and Greenhouse Plants Vol. Il. 
S. Williams. (London: Williams, 1370.) 
PURELY horticultural works are somewhat out of the 
range of this journal, but in the present book, besides 
the usual practical cultural instructions, the author has 
thrown in much valuable information on the native habitats 
and uses of the plants enumerated. The palms, being 
a large order and such general favourites, occupy a large 
portion of the book, and the following may be taken as 
an example of its style :— 
“ Borassus flabelliformis. Of this noble palm, a native 
poem, in describing its beneficial properties, records nearly 
one thousand uses to which its products may be applied. 
It is a gigantic tree, reaching eighty feet or more in 
height, and two feet in diameter; the leaves are nearly 
circular, and plaited like a partially open fan, and have 
about seventy ribs, which radiate from a common centre. 
As young plants (which are the only specimens of this 
genus existing in this country), they are exceedingly 
handsome, but they are very rare and of very slow growth. 
The sap produces a very intoxicating toddy, from which 
sugar of superior quality is made and imported into this 
country, while its leaves are used for making hats, baskets 
and mats, umbrellas, fans, bags, and also in the manu- 
facture of a very nice kind of matting for floors, as well 
as for thatching, &c. It is found principally near the 
sea, on low-lying sandy tracts, widely distributed through- 
out Asia.” An excellent but very much condensed chap- 
ter on “ Palms and their Uses” is likewise appended. 
By B. 
* The word évarowWvxew is not acommon one. Its meaning is well given 
by Mr. Simon in his last Report (Twelfth Privy Council, Medical Depart- 
ment, 1870), p. 16, « frofos of the habits of the ‘‘ polite natives” of Wake- 
field. 
