lOO 



NA TURE 



[May 31, 1906 



is an excellent example of what can be done under 

 the new impulse given to the old practice of " nature- 

 study." It shows how members of our fauna, that 

 have long suffered from negligent and contemptuous 

 treatment, may in friendly hands receive their proper 

 meed of appreciation. Though, out of deference tc 

 tradition, the book goes by the unprepossessing name 

 of "The British Woodlice," its subtitle redeems the 

 subject from prejudice by assigning it to its true place 

 in classification. The many scurrilous colloquial 

 terms that have been applied to these terrestrial 

 isopods have, to the ordinary observer, obscured the 

 fact that they are really made of one flesh and blood 

 with the epicure's cherished treasures, the lobster and 

 the prawn. Their use medicinally in old times would 

 probably have been robbed of half its charm had this 

 been understood, since in those days curative agencies 

 seem to have been valued in proportion to the pain 

 and disgust they inflicted on the patient. So lately 

 as 1883, W. G. Black, in his "Folk Medicine," 

 writes : — 



" A relation of mine was in the cottage of a wise 

 woman at Penzance about two years ago, and found 

 that she was still in the habit of prescribing in 

 scrofulous cases grammar sows, sow-pigs, mille- 

 pedes or woodlice, to be swallowed as a pill. Ac- 

 cording to the Penzance woman, the sufferer must 

 himself secure his medicine, but she had a corner in 

 her little garden where nothing was grown but mint 

 and thyme, and there the sow-pigs were reared. As 

 a concession to modern feelings, patients are now 

 allowed to wear this disagreeable medicine in a little 

 bag round the neck, if they shrink from the heroic 

 remedy of swallowing it." 



One may wonder whether the man who first ate a 

 shrimp thought himself a hero ! It will be noticed 

 that the wise woman of Penzance had to foster her 

 colony of animated pills. Mr. Webb also recounts the 

 efforts of industrious research on the part of himself 

 and others by which the present small total of British 

 species has been slowly ascertained. Some of the 

 species, indeed, are known to be widely distributed, 

 and in places to be very abundant. But there is little 

 proof that even those which have the worst repute for 

 ■depredation do any serious amount of harm in our 

 gardens. They are chiefly to be found in rubbish 

 heaps or nests of garden pots, or under flat, neglected 

 stones. Many of the species are the rare prizes of 

 diligent collectors. Mr. Webb has given a very full 

 and faithful record of published captures, the only 

 work of importance which he does not appear to have 

 thoroughly examined being the Transactions of the 

 Devonshire Association. Ireland, with a list of 

 species not quite equal to that of England, still in 

 Trichoniscus vividus (Koch) keeps one form exclu- 

 sively to herself. In the very large number of Euro- 

 pean species all of ours are included, and twenty of 

 them have been described by Prof. G. O. Sars in his 

 admirable work on the Crustacea of Norway. 



The authors of the present volume are most scrupu- 

 lous in acknowledgment of assistance they have 

 received from various sources. They are to be con- 

 gratulated on their own accuracy and diligence. The 

 results of their good work in the field, with the 



NO. 1909, VOL. 74] 



microscope, and in the study of the available literature 

 on the subject are presented in a compendious and 

 excellently illustrated treatise. Marine isopods arc 

 sometimes found with the front half of the body mucli 

 narrower than the after part. Light is thrown upon 

 this odd appearance by one of the incidents of exuvia- 

 tion. The animal sheds the hind part of its skin first, 

 while the more dilatory front remains still incapable of 

 expansion in its old armour. Messrs. Webb and 

 Sillem explain that this is just what happens with our 

 garden shrimps, there being an interval of three days 

 or so between the two strippings. Their authority on 

 this point, Mr. J. B. Casserley, has also observed that 

 the thrifty creature eats the skin which it has shed. 

 What fortunes there are to be made out of waste 

 products ! The habit is no doubt widely diffused 

 among crustaceans, otherwise their innumerable cast 

 skins would be more frequently met with. 



The well-drawn plates of this commendable volume 

 are not coloured, but the student whom it inspires to 

 take up the subject may find exceptional attraction in 

 the specific names of Armadillidimn pulebellum, the 

 beautiful little Armadillo, Porcellio pictus, the painted 

 Porcellio, and above all Trichoniscus roseus, the rose- 

 tinted Trichoniscus. T. R. R. S. 



AUSTRALIAN ETHNOLOGY. 

 Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New 

 South Wales and Victoria. By R. H. Mathews. 

 Pp. xiv-(-i83. (Sydney: F. W. White, 1905.) 



THE author of this work has published numerous 

 articles on Australian anthropological subjects 

 during the past ten years, but they have either been 

 ignored or dismissed in a footnote by experts such as 

 Dr. Howitt and Prof. Baldwin Spencer. A careful ex- 

 amination of his contributions does not give a high 

 opinion of the author's qualifications for his task. 

 The present volume contains a bibliography of the 

 author's articles and some assertions as to the import- 

 ance of this new contribution, of which the following 

 sentences are specimens : — " Those portions of my 

 book dealing with sociology," at pp. 5-15 and 84- 

 103, will completely revolutionise all the old school 

 notions respecting the organisation of .Australian 

 tribes " which have been published up to this date " 

 (p. 4). " I have adopted none of the opinions nor 

 followed any of the methods of other Australian 

 authors, but have struck out on my own lines " 

 (p. 2). " Since the time of Mr. Ridley and Mr. 

 Bridgeman down to the present day, nothing im- 

 portant has been added to our knowledge of the 

 Kamilaroi organisation " (p. 13). 



It requires self-assurance to make the last of these 

 three assertions, for Mr. Mathews can hardly expect 

 his readers to be so ignorant as never to have heard 

 of Dr. Howitt, whose " Native Tribes," published 

 the year before last, contains much information on 

 the subject, even if we neglect " Kamilaroi and 

 Kurnai," published by him nearly five-and-twenty 

 years ago in collaboration with Dr. Fison. In the 

 work before us the main novelty in the way of 

 sociological information appears to be the statement 



