£60 
v 

valve setting, and turbine valve mechanisms and 
governors. 
The volume is noteworthy for the clearness of 
the drawings (mostly taken from working draw- 
ings), and for the lucidity of the text. It is difh- 
cult, however, to state what precisely would be its 
position in the engineering courses at colleges in 
this country. This is owing to the matter being 
almost wholly descriptive. Students of engineer- 
ing learn best by doing, not by merely listening or 
reading. Numerous valve diagrams are given, 
but no student desires to copy these, and no de- 
finite exercises are given to be worked out by the 
student himself. As a minor matter, we may 
point out that it would have been an advantage 
if even one leading dimension had been inserted in 
the detail drawings. It is difficult for beginners to 
sort out which devices are suitable for large and 
which for small engines. The book, however, 
can be recommended to any student who wishes to 
improve his knowledge of the construction of valve 
and governor details. 
Reports from the Laboratory of the Royal College 
of Physicians, Edinburgh. Edited by Dr. J. J. 
Graham Brown and Dr. J. Ritchie. Vol. xviii. 
(Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1915.) 
Tue directors of every research institution have to 
face a peculiar difficulty connected with publica- 
tion. In issuing an account of the various in- 
quiries conducted in the laboratories under their 
charge two modes of publishing are open to them. 
They may issue a special report, or they may allow 
the workers in the laboratories to contribute their 
results to appropriate professional journals or pro- 
ceedings of societies. A special report is expen- 
sive; it does not secure the ear of the scientific 
public so well as professional journals do. The 
laboratory of the Royal College of Physicians in 
Edinburgh has combined these two methods; it 
has collected the papers contributed to various 
journals by its workers during 1913-14, and issued 
them as the thirteenth volume of its Reports. In 
all there are thirty-two papers, every one of them 
representing a definite contribution to the basal 
subjects of medicine. Four papers give an 
account of the researches of Dr. J. P. McGowan 
into the nature of sarcocyst, associated with the 
disease of sheep known in Scotland as ‘‘ Scrapie.”’ 
Four papers are devoted to human anatomy, Dr. 
J. S. Fraser’s sections of the inner ear being of 
particular merit. The remaining papers are de- 
voted to biological chemistry, pathology, and 
bacteriology. We note particularly the research 
carried out by the late Dr. Alexander Bruce— 
whose death was a serious loss to British 
neurology—and Dr. James W. Dawson on a 
curious form of tumour which occurs in the cen- 
tral nervous system. A _ study of the minute 
structure of these neuromata supports the multi- 
cellular theory of nerve-fibres. Dr. D. P. B. 
Wilkie’s important observations on the clinical 
signs of acute obstruction of the appendix vermi- 
formis as distinguished from acute inflammation 
of the appendix also appears in this volume of 
NO. 2386, VOL. 95| 
NALORE 

[JuEy 22, Tors 

reports. The thirteenth volume is one on which its 
editors, Dr. J. J. Graham Brown and Dr. James 
Ritchie, superintendent of the laboratory, may be 
warmly congratulated. 
The Poison War. By A. A. Roberts. 
(London: W. Heinemann, 1915.) 
Mr. A. A. Roserts, who is described as a 
member of the Chemical Society of France and 
also of the Society of Chemical Industry, has 
given the public a book to which no one with 
any chemical knowledge will deny the epithet 
“remarkable.” Two or three short extracts 
from its pages will perhaps best illustrate its 
value. 
On page 57 
Pp. 144. 
Price 5s. net. 
we find “The white smoke re- 
ferred to, upon the explosion of German shells, - 
is caused by the union of phosphoric and phos- 
phorus acids with the oxygen of the air.” On 
page go we are told: ‘‘Toluene is a colourless 
liquid obtained from resins such as tolu: the 
latter being the product of a South American tree. 
Some of the medicinal preparations of this resin 
are well known to the public, as ‘ Balsam of Tolu’ 
and ‘Friars Balsam.’ ” In reference to gun- 
cotton, on page gt we learn: “ Reverting to the 
subject of gun-cotton, this explosive is now made 
by soaking cotton or waste in nitric acid. Cotton 
is indispensable, as it absorbs the oxygen and 
nitrogen contained in the acid, and is a com- 
bustible substance.” On page 98 we read: 
““Nitro-glycerine, or even gun-cotton, if burnt in 
an open vessel, will not explode, but the moment 
they are fired by detonation explosion follows, the 
explosion being due to decomposition.” The 
non-poisonous character of nitro-glycerine is illus- 
trated by the following statement on page 99: 
“A laboratory employé, in another instance, par- 
took of two ounces of nitro-glycerine, mistaking 
it for chocolate, and on the morrow was none 
the worse for his stupidity.” 
Indian Mathematics. By G. R. Kaye. Pp. 73- 
(Calcutta and Simla: 
1QI5-) 
Mr. G. R. Kaye's booklet gives a summary of the 
actual contents of Indian mathematical works, 
translations of original passages, an approximate 
chronology, and a bibliography. The net result of 
recent work in this field is to reduce still more 
the claims once made on behalf of Indian mathe- 
Thacker, Spink and Co., 
maticians, both in respect of priority and in that~ 
of originality; two main questions are still un- 
answered—who invented the decimal notation now 
current, and what is the complete history of the 
Pellian equation? Mr. Kaye suggests that India 
is probably indebted to China for some of its 
analysis, just as it is certainly to Greece for its 
geometry (in Arabic translations or otherwise) ; 
it is to be hoped that Chinese documents will be 
forthcoming to throw light on these and other 
matters. Meanwhile, such a work as this of Mr. 
Kaye’s is very useful as a trustworthy conspectus. 
of what is actually known about early Indian 
mathematics at present. 

