APRIL 4, 1912] 
NATURE 
109 
ningham. Its great value is that it contains a 
detailed summary of an enormous mass of data 
{with a full bibliography), including all that relates 
to left-handedness, asymmetry of the human body | 
and especially of the brain, both as regards struc- 
ture and function. 
Dr. Stier gives the results of an attempt to 
discover evidence of Mendelian phenomena in the 
inheritance of left-handedness. 
A great deal of curious statistical information 
is given regarding the frequency of the incidence 
of left-handedness in men and women, and also in 
different localities in Germany—sexual and racial 
distinctions—as well as to the psychology of left- 
handed persons. Left-handed children are said to 
be not only slower in learning to read and write, 
but are much more prone than right-handed chil- 
dren to stigmata of degeneration, as well as to 
functional disorders. 
He protests, not perhaps without considerable 
justification, against what he calls the fanaticism 
of ambidextral enthusiasts. 
Like many of his predecessors in this field of 
investigation, Dr. Stier attempts to institute large 
generalisations concerning the incidence of left- 
handedness in prehistoric peoples on the evidence 
of the forms of flint implements, but he does not 
seem to realise that in the asymmetry of the occi- 
pital region of the cranium (as I pointed out in 
the Anatomischer Anzeiger in 1907), more definite 
and trustworthy personal indications are to be 
found than any weapons or other handiwork can 
give. 
The book can be recommended as a useful work 
of reference, provided the reader bears in mind 
that there is another way of looking at the facts. 
G. Exrior Smit. 
TECHNICAL CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. 
Traité Complet d’Analyse Chimique appliquée aux 
Essais Industriels By Prof. J. Post and Prof. 
B. Neumann. Deuxiéme é¢dition francaise 
entiérement refondue. Tome Premier, Quatri¢me 
Fascicule. Pp. iv+861-1352. (Paris: A. 
Hermann et Fils, 1911.) Price 18 frs. 
HE most striking novel feature of this new 
French edition of Post-Neumann’s_ well- 
known handbook of technical chemical analysis is 
probably the inclusion in the present volume of a 
section, covering some 220 pages of text and 30 
plates, dealing with the whole subject of Metallo- 
graphy. The inclusion of such a section is typical 
of the importance which this mew science has 
already attained in France, but it is a little dis- 
appointing to find that the section in question is 
NO. 2214, VOL. 89] 
| little more than a translation of an elementary 
text-book of metallography issued by Goerens in 
| German a few years ago. 
The text as now printed in French has been 
considerably extended, and to some extent modi- 
fied, by the editorship of M. F. Robin—himself one 
of the most active of the younger French workers 
in metallographic research—but the whole plan 
_and type of treatment remain the same, and thus 
| retain the inherent defects of the original. One 
_of the more serious of these defects is the almost 
| total neglect of the work done and the results 
achieved by British workers in this field; in the 
original German edition French and English 
workers were .almost equally ignored, but the 
French translator and editor have remedied this 
as far as French workers are concerned. One 
consequence of this narrow attitude of mind on 
the part of the author is that the book in its 
present form contains many statements which 
have been shown to be inaccurate. 
In the present edition a special feature has 
|/been made of the inclusion of “equilibrium 
diagrams” of as large a number of systems of 
alloys as possible; a considerable amount of space 
is therefore taken up by diagrams of this kind, 
many of which are known to be erroneous, while 
| it is now admitted that the majority of them 
| require substantial modification. The diagrams 
reproduced in this book have most of them been 
drawn up by research-students at G6ttingen, using 
rough approximate methods of investigation which 
Prof. Tammann regarded as adequate for the 
special purpose which he had in view, viz., the 
determination of the number of well-defined inter- 
metallic compounds. These methods, however, 
have been shown to be far too rough and in- 
accurate for fixing the less obvious portions of 
| these diagrams, so that it is scarcely right to 
| present the reader with many pages filled with 
these figures without warning of their proximate 
nature. In some cases, indeed, the diagrams as 
quoted have long been superseded by _better- 
established results. This applies particularly to 
those dealing with the alloys of aluminium and 
copper, and of lead and tin. 
A similar criticism might fairly be levelled at 
the account which is given of the methods of 
metallographic investigation and of the instru- 
ments employed. Thus, no mention is made of 
the use of the potentiometer for measuring the 
E.M.F. of a thermo-couple, and while the metal- 
lurgical microscopes of Martens-Heyn and Le 
Chatelier are fully described, equally well-known 
_ metallurgical microscopes of British design are 
| not mentioned. 
