658 
NATURE 
[AUGUST 29, I912 
OUR BOOKSHELF. 
Handbook and Guide to Dundee and District. 
Prepared for the Members of the “ British ’ 
Association for the Advancement of Science,” 
on the occasion of their visit to Dundee, under 
the direction of the Local Publications Com- 
mittee. Section i. Edited by A. W. Paton. 
Section ii. Edited by Dr. A. H. Millar: | Pp. 
xiv +683. (Dundee: Printed by David Winter 
and Son.) 
AmonG the various publications obtained by 
members and associates at the meetings of the 
British Association one of the most valuable is 
always the handbook which serves as a history of 
the place in which the annual assembly is held 
and a guide to matters of interest in the district. 
The “Handbook and Guide to Dundee and 
District,” which has been prepared for the 
meeting to be opened on September 4, is one 
of the best arranged and most comprehensive we 
have had in recent years, The first section, which 
has been edited by Mr. A. W. Paton, the con- 
vener of committee, includes a history of Dundee, 
a forecast of its future, an account of its social 
service and city problems, its public services, its 
industrial and commercial life, and its importance 
as an educational centre. The second section, 
edited by Dr. A. H. Millar, includes seven scien- 
tific contributions dealing with the geology, the 
flora, ornithology, and so on, of Dundee and 
district; biographies of some distinguished men of 
science born in Forfarshire, and interesting in- 
formation as to local architecture, ancient trades 
and incorporations of the district ; and Dundee art, 
music and drama. 
The biographical articles are of particular inter- 
est. Sir Archibald Geikie writes on Lyell and 
Forfarshire geology, Sir David Prain on Robert 
Brown and other botanists, Dr. Millar on James 
Bowman Lindsay, whose experimental researches 
in electricity were a generation in advance of his 
time; and there are many other biographies of 
scientific celebrities in whom Dundee has pride. 
The volume runs to 683 pages, and in addition 
to a large number of illustrations and diagrams 
in the text, it includes a coloured botanical survey 
map of Fife and Forfarshire, a coloured geological 
map of Dundee and district, and a general plan 
of the docks and river wharves of Dundee. 
The Testing of Wood Pulp: a Practical Handbook 
for the Pulp and Paper Trades. By Sindall and 
Bacon. Pp. 148. (London: Marchant Singer 
and Co., 47 St. Mary Axe, 1912.) 
Tuis is a practical handbook dealing with 
secondary features of value of papermakers’ 
staple raw materials. The home production of 
the wood pulps representing only a small fraction 
of the consumption, there is necessarily a large 
trade with foreign products, chiefly Scandinavian, 
German, and American, involving close control on 
both sides. The primary factor of value is 
“cellulose quality ”—a somewhat elusive and com- 
plex term, and largely dependent upon empirical 
NO. 2235, VOL. 89] 
judgment; next in order, but of inverse import- 
ance, is the incidental moisture which for obvious 
reasons requires exact adjustment. 
The authors devote the first and larger section 
of their handbook to practical methods of esti- 
mating moisture in commercial deliveries. The 
important element in this operation is the 
sampling. This requires the expert. The authors 
are particularly qualified by long experience, forti- 
fied by full inquiry into the scientific basis of the 
operation of reducing, say, 100 tons to a repre- 
sentative 100 grammes to be actually subjected to 
the quantitative drying in the laboratory, and the 
volume reflects both qualifications. 
Details of manipulation are adequately set forth, 
and the mathematics of the several schemes of 
drawing average samples are analytically 
enunciated. 
The second section deals with the laboratory 
control of the bleaching of pulps. This is a ques- 
tion of bleach consumption and standard of colour 
in relation to that of cost. Here, again, it is a 
question of a plus-minus margin of value, and 
those few shillings per ton which in this highly 
competitive industry can by no means be left to 
“chance.” 
This little work is a useful contribution to the 
education of technologists, and the information of 
all business men who handle wood pulp as 
merchants or as manufacturers. : 
Fhe Grouse in Health and in Disease. Being the 
Popular Edition of the Report of the Committee 
of Inquiry on Grouse Disease. Edited by A. S. 
Leslie. Assisted by A. E. Shipley, F.R.S. 
Pp. xx+472+plates. (London: Smith, Elder 
and Co., 1912.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 
Tue limited number of copies in the original 
edition of this work rendered it practically certain 
that a new one would soon be called for; in 
issuing this in a condensed and more popular 
form, at a much lower price, the publisher and 
editor have been well advised, for it will now be 
within the reach of head-gamekeepers and other 
persons to whom it ought to be of special interest. 
The editor and his staff of experts are, moreover, 
to be congratulated on the fact that no material 
alteration has had to be made (so far as can be 
gathered from the preface) in respect to the cause 
and diagnosis of the disease, thereby demonstrat- 
ing the admirable and thorough manner in which 
the original investigation was conducted. 
In the present edition much of the purely 
technical part of the original report has been 
omitted, only such pathological conclusions as are 
essential to a right understanding of the subject 
being retained. Most of the original plates had 
been cleaned from the stones, but the loss of these 
is compensated by the reproduction from the Zoo- 
logical Society’s Proceedings of a series of 
coloured plates illustrating the seasonal and other 
variations in the grouse’s plumage. The wide 
circulation which this edition can scarcely fail to 
attain may lead to additional information on the 
subject. Revie 
