424 
NATURE 
| March 30, 1871 

Reay Greene, and Dr. Cobbold having retired from the 
ranks, As regards the future, Dr. Giinther, we may state, 
has resigned the editorship to Prof. Newton, who cannot 
do better than follow generally in the footsteps of his pre- 
decessor, but we are glad to say that the founder will still 
continue his admirable contributions, for which no one in 
this country is more fitted. The rest of the administra- 
tion is not, we believe, definitely settled, but there is little 
fear that it will not be as efficient as ever, and we wish 
prosperity to its useful labours, 
But before we dismiss the subject, we should like to add 
a few suggestions, both to the recorders in particular and 
to the scientific public at large. To the former we would 
say that as brevity is the soul of wit, so it is of recording. 
There have been occasions, it must be owned, when this 
virtue has been disregarded. Let there be no indulgence 
in “ paste-and-scissors-work.” It is no doubt a hard and 
perhaps a dangerous matter to attempt an abstract of 
what some authors are pleased to term specific or generic 
“ characters ”—extending, it may be, over a whole page 
In such cases by far the best plan would be simply to 
state that such so-called “ characters” are too diffuse for 
reproduction and too complex for condensation. In this 
way all chance of misrepresenting an author’s meaning— 
the greatest danger that a recorder has to run—would be 
avoided, while a gentle hint would be conveyed to a wordy 
writer that, as it was said of yore, ‘‘ verdositas auctoris artis 
calamitas.” Of course this treatment should not be prac- 
tised but on proper provocation, or the recorder will justly be 
held to be angular rather than angelic, and this last is the 
character he ought to bear, whether he may ever deserve 
or not the title of the “ Recording Angel.” ‘To the scien- 
tific public we may declare that the present is an occasion 
when they ought to come forward and freely encourage 
the new Association. The chemists, we know, are stirring, 
and very properly, for a similar annual, and we believe our 
herbaceous brethren would gladly hail a Botanical Record. 
What chance of getting one so good as by showing that 
the Zoological Record can be made to preserve an exist- 
ence independent of all grants from scientific bodies, 
though in its time of nonage such extraneous help was still 
needed? 


OUR BOOK SHELF 
The Land of Charity. A Descriptive Account of Travan-: 
core and its People. 
F.LS, 
THIs book is the result of material collected and obser- 
vations made during nine years’ residence of a missionary 
in our great Indian empire. Its pages are, of course, 
chiefly devoted to an exposition of the different forms of 
worship and belief, and the progress of missionary work 
‘amongst the native population ; but the author acknow- 
ledges the claims of Science by giving three chapters to 
the Natural History of Travancore and the economic uses 
of the plants of the country. With regard to the Animal 
Kingdom, we are told “a curious story of a crocodile which 
attempted to seize a cow that was grazing near its haunts, 
fastened to a stake by a long rope. The monster had 
nearly reached the wooden post before it was perceived by 
its intended victim. On discovering its danger the terrified 
cow rushed round and round, and the rope caught the 
crocodile in such a manner as to wind around its body 
By the Rev. Samuel Mateer, 
(London : John Snow and Co. 1871.) 



and the post, so that it was held firmly until seen and 
dispatched by the owner of the cow.” Snakes are, as we 
all know, very abundant in India, but itis curious to know 
that in 1862, in Bengal alone, 2,394 persons met their 
deaths from the bites of these reptiles, and it is further 
estimated that, throughout the whole of India, not less 
than 10,000 persons annually die from this cause. Though 
itis a fact that heaps of Indian plants, having no truly 
recognised economic or medicinal value, are reputed by 
the natives to cure snake-bites, our author tells us that no 
certain specific is known, ammonia being probably the 
most useful medicine in these cases. The cultivation of 
the Tapioca plant,which is a native of S. America, seems to 
be spreading in India. The best Tapioca comes into this 
country from Rio de Janeiro, but large quantities are also 
shipped from Singapore, the plant being cultivated in the 
Straits on account of its commercial value. It appears 
also to be grown in Travancore, and yields the natives 
an abundance of wholesome food. In districts where 
water is scarce, or in times of drought, they almost exist 
on the roots. It would appear, from the remark made by 
the author of the presence of a poisonous juice in the 
roots, that only one species of the Tapioca or Cassava 
plant is grown, and that the Manzhot utilissima, Pohl, or 
bitter Cassava, the poisonous properties of which, 
however, are thoroughly dispelled by heat. 
J. Rey. 
The Food, Use, and Beauty of British Birds, &c. By C. 
O. Groom-Napier, F.G.S., &c., author of “ The Book of 
Nature and the Book of Man,” “Tommy Try,” &c. 
NewEdition,:8mo, pp.88. (London,Groombridge, 1870.) 
THE author says that his book was, by an eminent 
living anatomist, termed a “delightful concentrated essence 
of British Ornithology ;” but it appears that the British 
public were so wilfully blind to its merits that they refused 
to buy it, for the so-called “new edition” is simply a re- 
issue of the original unsold sheets with a new title-page, 
a little padding in the shape of “opinions of the Press,” 
and a new preface, to eke out which the Sea Birds’ Preser- 
vation Act has been introduced. The table of contents, 
and, still more, the list of errata which were to be found 
in the old issue, have disappeared from the new one, as 
also has the photograph representing the author in Mr. 
Miles’s starling-haunted shrubbery. The British public, 
we think, will ratify their former estimate of this book. 
A good work might certainly be written on the food and 
use of birds, and, as we know, many volumes are devoted 
to the illustration of their beauty, but with all deference to 
the author of “ Tommy Try,” we doubt if he is the man 
for the task. 
The Forces of the Universe. By George Berwick, M.D- 
Pp. 127. (London; Longmans and Co., 1870.) 
Wuat could possibly have induced the author to “ offer 
this work to the general public” (preface) we cannot tell, 
unless we are to attribute it to a “sudden seizure of 
enthusiasm.” These sudden seizures, together with “re- 
volutionary movements,” “religious revivals,” “insane 
wars” and “sunstroke,” arise, as we find on p. 124, 
from similar causes, and these, it seems, are more than 
probably due to “an aberration of the normal mole- 
lecular action of the nerve-centres, or an increased 
electrical tension or polarisation of the nervous element 
in the brain itself.” 
The aim of the work seems to be an attempt to prove 
the identity of electrical attraction and the attraction of 
gravitation. The author confesses that the idea is not 
original, but we may add that his arrangement, to say 
the least of it, of the English language certainly is, e.g, 
p- 43—“It has been ascertained that the deeper that 
we descend into the bowels of the earth, the temperature 
increases at the rate of,” &c. On p. 41, “moreover, the 
