700 

therefore have been there as larva from the be- 
ginning. The claim that the borax killed eggs 
is then untenable. 
There is no information as to the number of 
maggots in the manure to start with, the tempera- 
ture of the manure (a very important point), or 
the comparative temperatures of each lot. Prac- 
tically, the book depends on one experiment, 
carried out under doubtful conditions and con- 
trary to much larger experiments made here. We 
regret it, as it will mislead many, and lead to 
much useless employment of borax. 
(2) The second volume is an attempt to get 
people to realise that the house fly is a real danger 
and to persuade them to cope with it. “Know- 
ledge is power only when it is turned to practical 
use” is the opening to chapter vii., and we could 
quote other sentences full of meaning that occur 
in it. 
The remedies advocated in it are usually sound - 
and practical. Like others, the author fails to 
realise that the fly maggots live in material that 
is actually fermenting and in manure heaps that 
are hot, and that in consequence a purely super- 
ficial treatment will often kill them. It is also not 
true to say that “an insecticide to kill maggots 
must be about four or five times as strong as that 
used against other kinds of insects”’: it must be 
different, that is all. 
The various chemical treatments recommended 
(salt, sodium arsenate, Paris green, sulphate of 
iron, etc.) are not practical for manure, nor are 
they cheap, and it would be interesting to know 
exactly what evidence there is of their effective- 
ness. Apart from this, the reader will find the 
book sound and helpful. It is written for South 
Africa, and all the methods advocated would not 
suit this country. 
A chapter is devoted to the stable fly, which is 
possibly a disseminator of infantile paralysis. 
This chapter has special value now in England, 
as the stable fly is sometimes the only fly common 
in seaside resorts where children swarm, and most | 
people, quite naturally, do not differentiate it 
from the house fly. When these matters are more 
NATURE 
| 

fully investigated the importance of the stable fly | 
will be settled. Meanwhile it is worth remember- 
ing that when people think that the house flies 
are biting them, in autumn, it is really the stable 
fly. 
Of the two volumes we prefer the second, and 
we know of no other volume that is quite so 
simple, sensible, and practical. To those who 
wish to realise what the fly is, or does, without 
unnecessary scientific details, we commend this 
little book. 
Ee: 

[AuGuUST 26, 1915 

OUR BOOKSHELF, 
A Descriptive Monograph of Japanese Asteroidea, 
Part I. (Journal of the College of Science, 
Imperial University of Tokyo. Vol. xxix., 
Art. i. December 17th.) Pp. 808+xix plates. 
(Tokyo: The University, 1914.) 
In this large volume of about 800 pages only the 
Phanerozonia of Japan are included. Fifty-nine 
species are described, of which eighteen are new. 
The descriptions, in the case of thirty-nine 
species, are based on an examination of a 
number of collections preserved in various 
Japanese Institutions; but in the case of twenty 
species, which are not represented in any of the 
indigenous collections, either the extant descrip- 
tion of the original author is quoted, or the species 
is very honestly expounded in a series of extracts 
from the several authors, who at different times 
have discussed and criticised it, in such a way 
that its definement suffers no perdition. The 
autoptical descriptions are excellent: they are 
clear and discriminative, and though rather 
tending to be meticulous, are far from being 
tedious or discursive. But in dealing with the 
history and literature of the subject the author 
is inclined not only to a redundance of quotation 
which is largely iterative, but also to burdening 
the quotations with a superfluity of their unim- 
portant detail. Seeing that there is provided an 
exhaustive bibliography, filling over 100 pages, 
and concerned exclusively with papers cited in 
the text, this multiplication of undigested 
extracts descriptive of one and the same species 
is wearisome and unnecessary, though, of course, 
there are some who would not regard this feature 
as in any way a defect. On the whole, however, 
it must be allowed that this monograph is a 
wonderful piece of solid, honest work, the very 
card and calendar of taxonomy, and fit to stand 
among zoological works of reference of the very 
highest class. The typography is excellent, and 
there are nineteen double plates of admirable 
illustrations in photogravure. 
In the copy under review pp. 81 to 86, which 
would appear to relate to Ctenodiscus crispatus, 
are wanting, and in their place pp. 97 to 112 
are duplicated. 
The Health of the Child: A Manual for Mothers 
and Nurses. By Dr. O. Hildesheim. 
+111. (London: Methuen and Co., 
NOS.) ence IS. ets 
THE introduction to this work is written by Dr. 
G. F. Stell, the well-known Professor of Diseases 
of Children at King’s College Hospital, and when 
he praises it, it is a work of supererogation of a 
mere reviewer to say ditto. The feeding, cloth- 
ing, washing, nursing, and early education of the 
infant are all treated with admirable clearness and 
sound common-sense. The underlying doctrine 
that cleanliness and godliness are akin, if not 
identical, is forcibly pressed home. The book 
may not only be placed safely in the hands 
Ltd., 
of every mother and nurse, but it seems almost — 
unsafe to allow any mother and nurse to be with- 
out this excellent shillingsworth. We DoE. 
Pp. xit¥ 
