374 
NATURE 
[JUNE 13, 1912 
soil, micro-organisms, range, and idiosyncrasy. 
Although the author describes plant geography as 
a young science, the great catalogue of references 
to literature appended to his article gives one quite 
a different impression. Prof. H. MKlaatsch, 
Breslau, gives the first of a series of articles on 
the genesis and acquisition of human characteris- 
tics, dealing in the first instance with the develop- 
ment of the human hand. He answers the ques- 
tion as to why the ape did not evolve into a man 
by saying: Because he lost his thumb. 
In vol. iv. we find Prof. London, of St. Peters- 
burg, discoursing on the development of operative 
method in the study of digestion and resorption. 
The treatment is of great practical interest, but 
the article is illustrated in a manner provocative 
of fierce attacks from anti-vivisectionist quarters. 
Dr. H. Zickendraht, Bale, treats of experimental 
aerodynamics, with interesting sidelights on 
voluntary and automatic stabilisation. F. 
Zschokke, Bale, deals with the zoobiological 
significance of the Ice Age, pointing out how the 
fauna characteristic of low temperatures must 
have been gradually restricted as the ice receded 
from Europe, and that the isolated survivors in 
special districts cannot have got into their refuges 
by recent migration, having been caught in a mesh 
of higher temperatures and high-temperature 
organisms. K. Heilbronner’s article on aphasia 
exhibits at once the theoretical limitations and 
the great practical attainments of specialists 
dealing with aphasia, alexia, agraphia, and 
apraxia. He denies that a special area of the 
brain can be called the “speech area.” 
Dr. W. Pauli’s essay on the colloid changes of 
state of albuminous bodies is a summary of recent 
work on substances of steadily increasing import- 
ance. The volume is concluded by an admirable 
and timely contribution by Dr. G. Eichhorn on 
automatic telephony, in which it is explained how, 
by a suitable subdivision and decentralisation of 
exchanges, it is possible to set up an automatic 
system for some 100,000 subscribers, which offers 
advantages both in trustworthiness and economy 
of time. 
OUR BOOKSHELF. 
Spices. By Henry N. Ridley, C.M.G., F.R.S. 
Pp. ix+449. (London: Macmillan and Co., 
Lid-; xor2)))) Pricerssaiod.. net. 
Iv is difficult to realise now the important position 
which spices occupied in the Middle Ages, when | 
the great commercial cities of central Europe owed 
no small part of their wealth to commerce in these 
products, and the desire to share in this lucrative 
trade led the Portuguese to seek a sea-route to 
India. In this volume Mr. Ridley does not neg- 
NO. 2224, VOL. 89| 
fully into the effects of heat, moisture, light, wind, | lect this peculiarly interesting part of his subject, 
but gives, in each of the series of monographs of 
which his book is composed, a short account of 
the commercial history of the spice dealt with. 
In the technical portion of each monograph the 
mode of treatment adopted is to give a descrip- 
tion of the plant and of its varieties in cultivation, 
followed by an account of the soil and climate 
suited to it, the modes of cultivation, the pests and 
diseases which attack it, and the methods of pre- 
paring the spice for export. Lastly, an account 
is given of the industry as carried on in the chief 
producing countries, with notes on the uses of the 
spice locally and in Europe. The statistics of 
trade given are in most cases not very recent. 
It may also be suggested that it would have been 
worth while to state that clove-leaves yield a valu- 
able essential oil, which has been exported in 
small quantity from Seychelles. 
The chemistry of spices has been adequately 
dealt with elsewhere, and Mr. Ridley properly 
refers very briefly to the nature of the volatile 
oils and other constituents to which spices owe 
their aromatic or pungent properties. These notes 
on the chemistry of the spices are, however, occa- 
sionally so compressed as to be somewhat mis- 
leading to the inexpert. 
A book of this kind must appeal mainly to 
planters in the tropics, and Mr. Ridley’s extensive 
experience of the needs of this class of readers has 
enabled him to produce a volume which is a valu- 
able addition to the rather scanty literature of 
tropical agriculture. Thy) Abad 
Catalogue of the Noctuidae in the Collection of 
the British Museum. By Sir George F. Hamp- 
son, Bart. Pp. xvii+68g9. (Catalogue of the 
Lepidoptera Phalenz in the British Museum. 
Volume xi.) Accompanied by a volume of 
plates (clxxiv—cxci). (London: Printed by order 
of the Trustees. Sold by Longmans and Co., 
B. Quaritch, Dulau and Co., Ltd., and at the 
British Museum (Natural History), 1912.) 
Price: text, 20s.; plates, 17s. 6d. 
In the fourth volume of the present work the 
Noctuide were commenced, and fifteen  sub- 
families were defined. Four of these have now 
been monographed, and vol. xi., which has just 
appeared, includes four more: the Euteliane, 
with 12 genera and 175 species; the Stictopterine, 
with ro genera and 112 species; the Sarrothripina, 
with 58 genera and 330 species; and the Acontiane, 
with 70 genera and 324 species. In the series of 
species of Noctuide, the numbers in vol. xi. extend 
from 6198 to 7127. ‘The four subfamilies are 
modifications of the great Quadrifid section of 
the Noctuide, and are almost confined to the 
tropical and warmer temperate regions, few 
genera and species extending to the colder zones, 
and none to the arctic and alpine zones.” 
We have no special remarks to make on the 
present volume, except that it appears to be fully 
up to the standard of former ones. In addition 
to the plates, there are 275 figures in the text, 
and at the end of the volume we find some 
“addenda and corrigenda.”’ 
