De 



iS-io] 



NAIURE 



169 



On the Dii^esHve Fenncnts and on the Preparation and 

 Use of 'Artificially Digested Food. By Wm. Roberts, 

 M.D., F.R.S. (London : Smith, Elder, and Co., 

 18S0.) 



This little volume contains the three Lumleian Lectures 

 delivered before the College of Physicians, London, for 

 the present year. The subject is treated in a manner 

 worthy of the reputation of the author. He gives a 

 summary of what is known on the subject of digestion as 

 a function common to animals and plants, treats of the 

 general characters and properties of the digestive juices 

 and their ferments, with an account of the action of 

 each on food material. After many trials the author 

 adopts three solutions for the preservation of his solution 

 of animal ferment, full details of the preparation of 

 which are given. The researches of Musculus and 

 O'Sullivan as to the transformation of starch are given, 

 with the very recent researches on the same subject by 

 Brown and Heron. The subject of the digestion of 

 starch is excellently handled, and any dyspeptic reader 

 would do well to consider the facts and reasonings here 

 so well and clearly given. The second lecture chiefly 

 relates to pepsin and the digestion of proteids ; digestive 

 proteolysis ; the milk-curdling ferment. The third lecture 

 is devoted to the effects of cooking on food, prepara- 

 tion of artificially-digested food, peptonised materials, the 

 cUnical experience of the use of peptonised food, and on 

 the use of pancreatic extract as an addition to food 

 shortly before food is taken. These lectures, though at 

 times technical, may be understood by the ordinary 

 reader, who would often derive advantage from a general 

 knowledge of their contents. As long as man must live 

 on food so long will the proper digestion of that food be 

 of extreme importance to him. 



The Niger and the Bcniieh : Travels in Central jlfric%. 



By Adolphe Burdo. From the French by Mrs. George 



Sturge. (London : Eentley, 18S0.) 

 There is a good deal that is interesting in W. Burdo's 

 lively story of his voyage up the Niger and Benueh, partly 

 in the company of Bishop Crowther. He gives many 

 details of the various towns and villages he visited on the 

 banks of the two rivers, and of the appearance and habits 

 of the people he met with, all welcome information in a 

 region on which our information is even yet comparatively 

 meagre. M. Burdo's journey was made in 1878. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

 {The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his eor7-espondcnts , Neither can he undertake to return^ or 

 to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No 

 notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

 The Editor urgently requests correspondents to hep their letters as 

 short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 

 IS impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 

 munications containing interesting and novel facts.^ 



Smokeless London 



I HAVE read the letter of Mr. Scott MoncriefT in Nature, 

 vol. xxiii. p. 151, with much iuterest, and am satisfied that his 

 data and conclusions are substantially accurate. This conviction 

 is based on some experience in the commercial distillation of 

 coal. 



One difficulty will arise which should at once be foreseen and 

 provided against, or it may be exaggerated into a big bugbear 

 by that class of self-styled "practical" men v.ho oppose to 

 evei7 innovation the inertia of their own self-sufficient stupidity. 

 The semi-coke remaining in the retorts, when only one- third of 

 the volatile constituents of the coal has been run off, will be 

 highly inflammable, and display this property by a great out- 

 burst of lurid flame and dense smoke when the retort doors are 

 opened for discharging, and unless the withdrawn charge is im- 

 mediately quenched there «ill be a veritable Inferno where it 

 falls. This is merely a matter of practical detail admitting of 



easy remedy where there is ability and willingness to grapple 

 with it. 



A more serious difficulty is likely to arise in London from the 

 peculiar position of the gas companies. They are suffering from 

 commercial congestion due to a plethora of prosperity, and 

 receiving no stimulation from wholesome competition, they 

 display very low commercial vitality. The public welfare is no 

 business of theirs. 



It is otherwise in those towns that are sufficiently advanced in 

 civilisation and have abolished the gas and water joint-stock 

 monopolies. There the public are helping themselves, and 

 control the management of tlie Corporation gas works by their 

 election of the members of the Corporation. Many of these 

 towns are foggy and smoky enough for the experiment, and in 

 these such a boon as that offered by Mr. Moncrieff will probably 

 be appreciated, and, being appreciated by those most interested, 

 will be at once practically tested. Birmingham, for instance, is 

 likely to try it. I was there a few weeks ago and saw how they 

 have eclipsed our electric lamps on the Embankment by the gas 

 lamps around their town-hall. 



If it succeeds in any one of these towns our companies will 

 surely follow, or if not, so much the worse for the companies. 



StoneBridge Park, Willesden, \V. M.\ttieu Williams 

 December 17 



I HAVE read with great interest Mr. Scott Moncrieff's scheme 

 for "Smokeless Loudon" propounded in your last issue. I 

 would ask however — Is he satisfied that the coke would be 

 smokeless when only 3333 feet of gas per ton has been extracted 

 from the coal ? E. R. F. 



London, I'ecember 20 



Climates of Vancouver Island and Bournemouth 



I THINK it very probable that your correspondent Capt. Verney 

 is right about the climate of Vancouver's Island. My only sources 

 of information were maps of isothermals in Keith Johnston's and 

 Phillips' Aliases, which show the mcati temperature about the 

 same as that of the south of England, while the winter tempera- 

 ture is shown as being decidedly colder, and it was to this I more 

 especially referred. The mainland of British Columbia is un- 

 doubtedly colder than that of Western Europe, but Vancouver's 

 Island itself and the adjacent sea may be really milder ; and if 

 so it is another proof of the great power of the returning Japan 

 current. 



I shall be very glad of Prof. Ilaughton's criticisms on my 

 hypothesis : and in the mean time will only say ; i. That unless 

 Bournemouth is never cooled by north and north-east winds, any 

 amelioration of the climate of the Polar regions would certainly 

 benefit il. 2. That as by my hypothesis the entrance of two 

 new gulf-streams into the Arctic Ocean would entirely pi-event 

 the formation of ice ; the return currents that would undoubtedly 

 be produced would not be cold currents in the sense in which they 

 are now, as they would probably be always considerably above 

 the freezing point. Alfred R. Wallace 



Geological Climates 



In relation to the discussion as to the importance to be 

 ascribed to the distribution of certain trees and plants in the 

 determination of geological climates, it may interest Prof. 

 Haughton and Mr. Duncan to know that a specimen of the 

 Australian Araucaria Cunninghami is now growing on one of 

 the slopes of the Marlstone Hills near Belvoir Castle, in 

 North Leicestershire, a position it has occupied for upwards of 

 forty years. It has attained a height of about thirty -five feet. 

 Having survived (without other protection than that afforded by 

 the wooded heights about it) the cold of the winters of 1S60 and 

 1879, its capability to withstand a greater degree of cold than is 

 ever experienced in our southern counties may be with confidence 

 asserted. 



Masses of a true and very characteristic bamboo, Bambusa 

 metake, are now growing vigorously and spreading rapidly on 

 the same estate, the long elegant and slender canes and the 

 delicate green foliage of this variety of bamboo not having 

 suffered in the slightest degree from the severe frost of last 

 winter or the early and equally trying severity of this. Arun- 

 dinariafakata, the bamboo found as high as the snow-line in 

 the Himalayas, has also proved hardy at Belvoir, but it has been 

 displaced as an ornamental plant by B. metakt'. Arundo donax 



