May 23, 1912] 
NATURE 
291 
EXPERIENCES OF A BUTTERFLY- 
HUNTER. 
Butterfiy-Hunting in Many Lands. Notes 
Field Naturalist. By Dr. G. B. Longstaff. 
which are added translations of papers 
Fritz Miller on the scent-organs of butterflies 
and moths: with a note by Dr. E. B. Poulton, 
F.R.S. Pp. xviiit728. With 16 plates, 
7 coloured. (London: Longmans, Green and 
Go., 191es)peerice 21s. net. 
of a 
To 
N the handsome volume before us, Dr. Long- 
| staff has brought together an account of his 
collecting experiences. The first chapter, “ Early 
Reminiscences,”’ describes his work as a collector 
from 1858 to 1869, chiefly in Britain, and especi- 
ally during a visit to Rannoch. About 1869 he 
relinquished collecting, owing to defective sight 
after the loss of an eye, but from 1903 onward 
he has been collecting specimens abroad for the 
benefit of the Oxford Museum, visiting India, 
Ceylon, China, Japan, Canada, Algeria, South 
Africa, West Indies, South America, Egypt and 
the Sudan, New Zealand, and Australia. 
Although chiefly a collector of butterflies, in- 
sects of all orders attracted more or less of his 
attention, while Mrs. Longstaff, who frequently 
accompanied her husband, paid special attention 
to land and fresh-water Mollusca. He himself 
made a point of noting the habits of the insects, | 
especially their position at rest, and the odours 
which many of them emit. The frontispiece shows 
us the well-known African butterfly, Eronia cleo- | 
dora, on the wing and at rest, and the other 
coloured plates illustrate not butterflies alone, but 
numerous interesting insects of all orders, taken 
by Dr. Longstaff, many of them previously un- 
figured, and a large proportion actually new to 
science. 
The last chapter is devoted to ‘‘ Butterfly Bio- 
nomics,’’ and deals with such subjects as coloured 
juices, tenacity of life, mimicry, flight, altitudes, 
seasonal forms, &c., and the appendix includes 
a series of twelve important papers by the late 
Fritz Miller, from various German and Portu- 
guese periodicals, by no means easy of access, 
even to those acquainted with the original 
languages. These are translated by Mr. 
E. A. Elliott, and are illustrated with nine 
plates. We wish that Porchinsky’s beautifully 
illustrated papers on the colours of larve, &c., 
could also be republished in English from the 
Russian Entomological Transactions. 
Dr. Longstaff’s book is addressed chiefly to 
entomologists, but there are many interesting 
notes on various subjects scattered through the 
book, especially his experiences during the earth- 
NO. 2221, VOL. 89] 
by | 
‘quake in Jamaica on January 14, 1907. There 
are also some amusing travellers’ tales, which 
/ may be found scattered here and there through 
the book. It is exceedingly well printed, and, 
| notwithstanding the enormous amount of technical 
matter, and the scores of scientific names on 
almost every page, we have noticed scarcely any 
| misprints; and, indeed, the only point which ap- 
| pears to be an error which we have noticed is the 
| statement that the mongoose was introduced into 
| Jamaica to kill snakes. We believe that it was 
| really introduced to kill rats, for venomous snakes 
are unknown in Jamaica, and harmless ones are 
not remarkably abundant. Wienke 
SOME TEXT-BOOKS OF CHEMISTRY. 
(1) A Text-book of Inorganic Chemistry. By Dr. 
G. Senter. Pp. xi+583. (London: Methuen 
and Co., Ltd., 1911.) Price 6s. 6d. (Text- 
books of Science.) 
| (2) Chemistry: an Elementary Text-book. By 
Profs. W. C. Morgan and J. A. Lyman. Pp. 
xvi+ 429. (New York: the Macmillan Co. ; 
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1911.) 
Price 5s. 6d. net. 
(3) The Chemistry of the Radio-elements. 
F. Soddy, F.R.S. Pp. v+92+chart. (Lon- 
don: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1911.) Price 
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Physical Chemistry.) 
(4) 4 Text-book of Practical Chemistry for 
Technical Institutes. By Dr. A. E. Dunstan 
and F. B. Thole. Pp. x+ 335. (London: 
Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1911.) Price 3s. 6d. 
(Text-books of Science.) 
(5) Practical Chemistry for Medical Students. 
By Dr. A. C. Cumming. With a preface by 
Prof. James Walker. Pp. 171. (Edinburgh: 
James Thin, 1911.) 
By 
(6) Elementary Experimental Chemistry. By 
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(7) Chemistry Note-book. By E. J. Sumner. 
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(8) An Experimental Course of Physical Chemis- 
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Experiments. Pp. xiv+228. (London: G. Bell 
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(9) Laboratory Exercises in Physical Chemistry. 
By Dr. J. N. Pring. Pp. xiv+163. (Man- 
chester: the University Press, 1911.) Price 
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(1) NTIL recently the problems which are 
now discussed under the heading of 
“Physical Chemistry” were usually relegated to 
the preliminary chapters of a text-book of general 
