126 



NA TURE 



[December 2, 1909 



(5) Mr. Webb's "Systematic Geography of the 

 British Isles " forms a complete contrast to Mr. Wil- 

 mot-Buxton's book just noticed. The two might ad- 

 vantageously be used together, Mr. Wilmot-Buxton 

 providing lighter reading to alleviate the hard facts 

 which Mr. Webb makes little attempt to soften by 

 picturesque writing. The study of geography in the 

 skeletonic form in which Mr. Webb presents it is no 

 doubt a necessity, and his book is a model of careful 

 arrangement. He lays a greater stress than usual on 

 geological formation, tabulating and explaining the 

 different rocks found in these islands as simply as 

 possible. A point open to criticism is found in the 

 historical notes sometimes attached to the names of 

 chief towns. Some of these remarks, in order to be 

 understood, would either presuppose detailed historical 

 knowledge, or necessitate so long an explanation that 

 thoy had better have been omitted. 



(6) The volume on Middlesex in that favourite 

 series, " Highways and Byways," takes a high place 

 among its companions. Mr. Hugh Thomson's illus- 

 trations are charming ; we could almost blame them 

 because they even beautify some of their subjects, 

 when the artist shows us picturesque fragments 

 divorced from the unlovely surroundings character- 

 istic of suburban villages. The author admirably 

 practises the style best suited to these volumes, a blend 

 of pleasant description and historical gossip. It is 

 well that such history should be preserved in accessible 

 shape, when so much of the external evidence for it 

 has been effaced. 



(7) We cannot pretend to find much value in 

 "Growls from Uganda." It is true that the author 

 gives us some impressions, conveyed by a very ready 

 pen, of his life in Uganda and his travels in British 

 Columbia, and in these two countries he presents us 

 with a perfect contrast, if nothing else. But the essays 

 in which he offers views on various features of social 

 life in England, even though they touch upoij genuine 

 abuses, seem generally to show little more than a 

 mastery of the obvious, or to provide (as in the case 

 of the tirade against motor cars) little else than a pro- 

 test against the inevitable. Frankly, we should not 

 have supposed these parts of the book worth printing, 

 from whatever quarter of the globe they had been 

 addressed. O. J. R. H. 



OVn BOOK SHELF. 

 Weather Indicator. Compiled and designed by 

 Wm. Ballance. (London : G. Philip and Son, Ltd.', 

 n.d.) Price, in sheet form, 2^. 6d. ; mounted, 

 &c., 35. 6d. 

 This is an issue in map form of what the publishers 

 term a "weather indicator," to be obtained either in 

 a sheet or mounted on rollers. The notes, tables, &c., 

 have been compiled by Mr. W. Ballance, and the 

 publishers suggest that the "weather indicator" will 

 be found useful for schools, clubs, public libraries, 

 hotels, boys' brigades, and boy scouts. The informa- 

 tion given seems too elaborate, and might easily have 

 been rendered more simple; it is not very scientific, but 

 it probably aims to be chiefly of a popular character. 

 Many of the so-called weather signs which are collated, 

 especially those relating to the movements of animals, 

 birds, and insects, have been handed down to us from 

 NO. 2092, VOL. 8i] 



the ancients, and are somewhat amusing. For 

 country life, some quoted should undoubtedly receive 

 attention, but the general belief in all would tend to 

 much confusion. For town life many are altogether 

 inapplicable. Such statements as "A white frost 

 never lasts more than three days," "Quick thaw fore- 

 tells long frost," " Hoar frost predicts rain," are bold, 

 but probably incorrect. The wind scale given is not 

 in accordance with recent knowledge; the equivalent 

 velocity in miles per hour, and equivalent wind 

 pressure in pounds per square foot for the several units 

 of the wind scale, are very different from those now 

 generally accepted. To be told as a sign for fair 

 weather the barometer should be steady, or rising 

 about o'oo4 inch per hour; for rain falling slowly 

 about o'oo4 inch per hour ; for wind falling gradually 

 about o'oii inch per hour; for wind and ram falling 

 moderately about o'oi5 inch per hdur; and for stormy 

 weather falling or rising rapidly about o'o2i inch per 

 hour is precision which meteorologists have no know- 

 ledge of, especially when most of our barometers only 

 read to hundredths of an inch. 



Science and Singing. A Consideration of the Capa- 

 bilities of the Vocal Cords and their Work in the 

 Art of Tone Production. By Ernest G. White. 

 Pp. 72. (London: The Vincent Music Co., Ltd., 

 n.d. ; Boston, Mass. : Thomas J. Donlan, igog.) 

 Price 45. 6d. net. 

 The writer of this book endeavours to show that the 

 tones of the human voice are not produced by the 

 vibrations of the vocal cords, but by means of 

 movements or pressures of the air in the sinuses 

 found in the frontal, supermaxillary, sphenoid and 

 ethmoid bones, and which all communicate with the 

 cavities of the nose ; in short, his theory may be 

 called sinus tone production. In our opinion the 

 author has not succeeded in establishing his position. 

 The facts of anatomy and physiology, and the data 

 of experiment, are entirely against him. Nothing 

 is more certain than that the vocal cords vibrate, and, 

 on the other hand, one cannot conceive how vocal 

 tones could possibly be produced by the cavities we 

 term sinuses. These, no doubt, have their effect in 

 modifying the qualities of vocal tones by resonance, 

 and the quality of a so-called head voice may be so 

 explained. The merit of the little book is that it is 

 written in an interesting, breezy style by one who is 

 obsessed by an idea, and that it is illustrated by a 

 number of beautiful diagrams, evidently from actual 

 photographs, showing the anatomical position of the 

 various sinuses. The various pictures are admirable. 



J. G. M. 



Butterflies and Moths of the United Kingdom. By 

 Dr. W. Egmont Kirby. Pp. lii + 468. (London: 

 Geo. Routledge and Sons, Ltd. ; New York : E. P. 

 Button and Co., n.d.) Price ys. 6d. net. 

 This is a book comprising descriptions of the larger 

 British lepidoptera (macro-lepidoptera), with coloured 

 figures of them all in their perfect state, and many in 

 the larval stage. There are also a few pages given to 

 the micro-lepidoptera, with coloured illustrations of 

 their characteristic species. It is a book of the 

 popular rather than the scientific order, one for 

 information and reference useful to collectors who 

 wish to know where and when to find the obiects 

 of their pursuit. The coloured plates, of which 

 there are no fewer than seventy, each compris- 

 ing usuallv some twenty or thirty figures, are, as 

 might be expected from the price of the work, not of 

 a high order, but are often good, and probably always 

 sufficient for the purpose of recognition, which is the 

 main value of a work of this kind. 



