ArRin Li, £912’ 
NATURE 
137 
intravenously, according to circumstances, are 
regarded as potent remedial measures, but still 
better is the similar use of a hypertonic salt solu- 
tion, introduced by Dr. Rogers, and minute details 
care given for its proper administration. 
Dr. Rogers also advocates the administration of 
permanganates, either in solution or in pill form, 
their action being to oxidise and destroy the toxin. 
By the adoption of the hypertonic salt injections 
plus permanganates the mortality in the Calcutta 
Hospital was about 23 per cent. in 1909-1910, a 
‘reduction of more than half the rate obtaining | 
among cases treated with physiological saline 
solution given intravenously (mortality 51°9 per 
cent. in 1907). This is a splendid record, and we 
can only hope that Dr. Rogers’s interesting book 
will be widely read and his methods adopted by all 
those who have to deal with cholera. 
IRs Ws Jel 
OUR BOOKSHELF. 
A Monograph of the Mycetozoa: a Descriptive 
Catalogue of the Species in the Herbarium of 
the British Museum. By Arthur Lister, F.R.S. 
Second edition, revised by Gulielma Lister. 
Pp. v+ 302+201 plates (120 coloured). (Lon- 
don: printed by order of the Trustees of the 
British Museum, and sold by Longmans and 
Co., B. Quaritch, and Dulau and Co., Ltd., and 
at the British Museum (Natural History), 1911.) 
Price 30s. 
‘Tue Mycetozoa are miscroscopical organisms 
possessing some of the attributes of both animal 
and vegetable life, as commonly understood, but | 
they are now generally referred to the vegetable 
kingdom. They differ from the lower fungi inas- 
much as the spores give birth to swarm-cells or 
moving cells, instead of a mycelium. The swarm- 
cells coalesce to form a wandering plasmodium, 
which ultimately develops sporangia, bearing 
spores inside, or sporophores, bearing spores on 
the outside. Further, the Mycetozoa feed on 
bacteria. The first edition of the late A. Lister’s 
monograph was published in 1894, and the second 
edition, now before us, is a revision and aug 
mentation by his daughter, Gulielma Lister. 
This work is an official publication of the 
Botanical Department of the British Museum, and 
Dr. A. B. Rendle, the keeper, says, in his pre- 
face: “A special feature of this edition is the 
‘replacement of the collotype plates by a new and 
more complete series. A large proportion has 
been reproduced by the three-colour process, and 
greater justice has thus been done to the original 
drawings by Mr. and Miss Lister. . . . That so 
large a proportion are reproduced in colour is due 
to Miss Lister’s generosity. A bibliography has 
been added, and also a short glossary.” The 
most important alteration is in the nomenclature : 
the earliest specific name, under whatever genus 
it may have been published, has now been 
NO. 2215, VOL. 89] 
adopted, and the starting-point for those names, 
as well as those for the genera, is the “Species 
Plantarum ” of Linneeus, published in 1753. This 
has necessitated very numerous changes. 
Miss Lister deserves the congratulations and 
thanks of students for the admirable and authori- 
tative work she has completed. Letterpress and 
illustrations alike are good, and it should give an 
impulse to the study of some of the most elegant 
organisms in nature, open to everyone who can 
afford a microscope—organisms that abound 
wherever there is other vegetation, and a collec- 
tion of which might be contained in a match-box. 
Wi. B. Hi: 
Evolution in the Past. By Henry R. Knipe. 
Pp. xv+242. (London: Herbert and Daniel, 
1912.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 
Just as the researches of Arthur Evans in Greece, 
and Flinders Petrie in Egypt, have added whole 
chapters to the history of those countries, so 
the labours of Cope, Marsh, Osborn, and others 
in America, Dollo in Belgium, Andrews in the 
Faytm, and elsewhere, have contributed so 
largely to the past records of our earth that we 
are now almost as well acquainted with its 
ancient denizens as if they formed a part of its 
living fauna. 
In this happy condition of time and circum- 
stance Mr. H. R. Knipe has brought out his 
new book, “Evoluticn in the Past,” and having 
gathered together, from every available source, 
the latest information on the life history of our 
planet—from the earliest traces of living things 
up to the coming of man—and being furthermore 
| aided by the spirited restorations of animals by 
Alice B. Woodward, and of plant life by E. 
Bucknall, he has produced one of the most 
fascinating and readable books of the year. 
As a guarantee for the accuracy of the restora- 
tions made, the author and the artist have both 
received valuable help from Dr. Arthur Smith 
Woodward, Dr. Andrews, Drs. Calman and 
Bather, and other eminent authorities in the 
Natural History Museum, who have given them 
the benefit of their up-to-date knowledge, and 
carefully criticised the work throughout. 
Fifty full-sized plates of animals and six of land- 
scapes in the past render the book attractive to 
the veriest tyro, whilst the avoidance of technical 
terms makes the text more agreeable to the 
general reader, and an excellent holiday com- 
panion. 
By E. P. Larken. 
Fisher Unwin, 
Leisure Hours with Nature. 
Pp. xv+263. (London: T. 
ned.) Price 2s: 
Mr. Larken here provides interesting reading- 
matter and a profusion of well-reproduced photo- 
graphs relating to various objects and scenes in 
nature. The rapid increase in the number of 
books dealing with nature-study indicates, it may 
be hoped, not only a growing interest in animate 
nature, but the development of keener observation 
of plants and animals among young people. 
