May 2, 1907] 



NA TURE 



consulted in this connection. The treatment of the 

 families is necessaril}' brief, but a good working 

 basis for amplification is provided, and the last four 

 sections, dealing with the anomalous order of 

 Deutcromycetes, will be particularly useful to 

 economic botanists. 



The author claims to have provided an introduction 

 to new lines of research. This is modestly e.\- 

 pressed, for it will be found that, besides furnishing 

 such an introduction, he has performed the additional 

 service of discussing in a broad spirit their signifi- 

 cance and interpretation ; further, he has touched on 

 most aspects of fungology, although not on the 

 association of fungi in lichens, and has outlined the 

 taxonomy of the group with a view to practical 

 utility. In fact, Mr. Massee has supplied a service- 

 able and much required text-book on the present state 

 of fungology which is embellished with numerous 

 artistic and practical illustrations. 



Douglas English Nature Books. No. i, One 

 Hundred Photographs from Life of the Shrcv.'- 

 mouse, the Dormouse, the House-mouse, the Field- 

 mouse, the Meadow-mouse, and the Harvest-mouse. 

 Bv Douglas English. Pp. q3. No. 2, One 

 Hundred Photographs of Bird Life. By R. B. 

 Lodge. Pp. 05. Illustrated (London : ' S. H. 

 Bousfield and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price is. each. 

 SiNXE no less than sixty-four out of the ninety odd 

 pages which go to foriri each of these volumes are 

 devoted to reproductions of photographs of mammals 

 and birds in their native haunts, the lover of animal 

 life has a rich entertainment at a very small cost. 

 As we learn from the introduction to the first, this 

 series of books is intended for the pocket of the 

 field-naturalist, and it is hoped that while the 

 illustrations (which arc almost bevond praise) will 

 aid in the recognition of species, the letterpress will 

 be of service alike in confirming previous observ- 

 ations and in suggesting new lines of inquiry. The 

 series is intended to be comprehensive in scope. 

 In the first part, which is devoted to some of 

 the smaller British mammals, it is satisfactory to 

 find a reversion to the use of popular names like 

 water-rat, field-mouse, and shrew-mouse, in place of 

 the spurious terms water-vole, field-vole, and shrew. 

 In the second number Mr. R. B. Lodge gives one 

 hundred photographs of bird-life, with appropriate 

 notes. Since, however, the illustrations include 

 species like the glossy ibis, little egret, and spoon- 

 bill, it is rather difficult to see what thev have to 

 do with the ordinrry field-naturalist. R. L. 



Gold Mining Machinery : its Selection, .Arrangement, 

 and Installation. By W. H. Tinney. Pp. xii + 3oS. 

 (London : Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1906.) 

 This book professes to be " a practical handbook for 

 the use of mine-managers and engineers " to assist 

 them in the " selection, arrangement and installa- 

 tion " of gold-mining machinery. Such a work 

 properly executed would doubtless perform a useful 

 function ; but Mr. Tinney's production fails in its 

 purpose, for it is out of date and superficial. For 

 example, winding machinery, which should surely 

 be one of the most important sections of a work 

 such as this purports to be, is dealt with in seven 

 pages of letterpress, and, as mav well be imagined, 

 the modern high-class winding engine finds no place 

 in it. Deep winding, the greatest problem at present 

 engaging the attention of the mechanical engineers 

 of the Witwatersrand goldfields, is passed over in 

 silence. ."Vgain, the electrical transmission of power, 

 a subject of vast and ever-growing importance to the 

 miner, is dismissed in four pages of letterpress. 



NO. 1957. VOL. 76] 



It may well be asked, of what are the 300 pages- 

 of this book made up? The work appears to consist 

 of a juirible of extracts from the note-book of the 

 author (whose experience of the gold mines of the 

 world would seem to have been somewhat limited), 

 together with specifications of machinerv makers, 

 illustrated by a selection of photographs from their 

 catalogues. To this olla podrida has been added a 

 number of workshop receipts and various elementary 

 tables, such as " the sizes of drawing paper," and 

 formute for calculating the areas of a circle, a 

 triangle, a square, &c., and the volume of a cube, a 

 sphere, a cylinder, &-c. One of the tables gives the 

 "names, common and chemical," of a list of sub- 

 stances, beginning with " aqua fortis " and ending 

 with oil of vitriol, and including such rare materials 

 as chalk, iron pyrites, rust, slaked lime, salt, and 

 soda. 



Memories of the Months. Fourth Series. By the 

 Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., F.R.S. 

 Pp. .X + 319. (London : Edward Arnold, 1907.) 

 Price ys. 6d. 

 Sir Herhert Maxwell's new volume will be 

 welcomed by the many readers of his previous series 

 of "memories." The ability to combine literary 

 grace with scientific accuracy, and the power to 

 interest and at the same time to impart useful in- 

 formation, is unfortunately rare, and we are grateful 

 to Sir Herbert Maxwell for placing his gifts at the 

 disposal of a large audience by means of these pages. 

 Readers will be able to share with the author of the 

 memories his " delight in the open field, the wood- 

 land, and the riverside," and if they prove willing 

 disciples thev may in time experience the joy of 

 original observation for themselves — at least they 

 will learn to studv and appreciate the boundless 

 beauties of nature. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[Tile Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscript.': intended for this or any other part of NATURE. 

 No notice is taizen of anonymous communications.] 



On the Relationship of Lemurs and Apes. 



.\ccoRDiNG to the report published in Nature (."^pril 11, 

 p. 574), Mr. H. F. .Standing recently presented a memoir 

 to the Zoological Society in which he described certain 

 extinct lemuroids from Madagascar as being, " in many 

 respects, intermediate between existing lemurs and 

 monkeys," and, as the result of this interpretation of 

 the anatomy of these animals, he expressed the view 

 " that it was not possible to separate the Primates, as 

 hitherto, into the two suborders Lemuroidea and 

 .Anthropoidea." 



.\t the suggestion of Dr. A. Smith Woodward, Mr. 

 Standing kindly sent me casts of the cranial cavities of 

 three of the Prosimiae found by him, and in January last 

 I sent him a report in which their outstanding features 

 and the inferences to be drawn from them were set forth. 

 My conclusions not only lent no support to the above- 

 quoted summary of Mr. Standing's opinions, but are in 

 direct conflict w'ith them. But I would not have deemed 

 it necessary to repeat these statements, already made in 

 my report (which I presume will be published along with 

 Mr. Standing's memoir), had it not been for the fact 

 that, since my report was written, further investigations 

 (chiefly histological studies in the structure of the 

 neopallium of Tarsius, Loris, Kycticebus, Perodicticus, 

 Lemur, Propithecus, Hapale, Cebus, and Cercopithecus) 

 have revealed important facts that enable me to speak 

 more emphatically on the old problem once more raised 



