May 30, 1907] 



NA TURE 



utility. The more elementary drawings reproduce 

 the laurel, snowdrop, tulip, and oak ; the butter- 

 cup, poppy, and wild rose are considered suit- 

 able for a higher standard, and the blackberry, 

 narcissus, and marguerite daisy are selected for the 

 most difficult studies. The representations of the 

 plants are botanically satisfactory, except the beech- 

 fruits, that fail in colour and shape. In a few of the 

 adapted designs, while making allowance for con- 

 ventional treatment, there is unnecessary departure 

 from the natural arrangement. For instance, the 

 opposite insertion of the leaves in the privet is natural 

 and characteristic, and should be maintained ; 

 similarly with regard to the pinnate leaves of the 

 rose. It would have been useful to include in the 

 explanatory booklet a short account of such botanical 

 facts as the forms and insertion of leaves, the parts 

 of a flower, their cyclic and acylic arrangements, and 

 similar details. For the most part, however, the 

 designs do maintain and emphasise the natural 

 characteristics, thereby fulfilling the purpose of train- 

 ing students to derive their artistic conceptions direct 

 from nature. The production of the charts is highly 

 creditable, the drawings are bold, and the colour 

 contrasts effective. 



Problems in Surveying, Railroad Surveying, and 

 Geodesy, with an Appendix on the Adjustments of 

 the Engineer's Transit and Level. By Howard 

 Chapin Ives and Harold Ezra Hilts. Pp. ix+136. 

 (New York : John Wiley and Sons ; London : 

 Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1906.) Price 6^. 6rf. net. 

 With such a full title-page this book fairly well 

 describes itself. The authors have been engaged in 

 leaching engineering and surveying, and have found 

 (his graduated series of simple problems useful for 

 sustaining the interest of their students in their 

 work and for covering the course required by the 

 faculty. The book is addressed to those who are 

 professionally interested in such matters, or who wish 

 to acquire the capacity to carry out certain operations 

 in the field with facility, and with that amount of 

 .-'ccuracy which the nature of the work demands. 

 Consequently, there is little reference to theory. Wc 

 have the ordinary methods of measuring by chain 

 and problems connected with levellin.T. The com- 

 pass, theodolite, and sextant come under review, and 

 the mechanical adjustments of these instruments are 

 described, but with no great minuteness. Greater care 

 might have been bestowed on some of the formult-e 

 given ; those on p. 36 have apparently been mis- 

 printed. The railroad surveying problems are more 

 satisfactory, and seein to be of practical utility. 



A chapter on astronomical problems of a most 

 elementary character has been added. In the pre- 

 paration of this chapter the authors acknowledee the 

 assistance they have received from a third authority. 

 It must strike anyone with surprise that the authors 

 should consider themselves comoetent to produce a 

 book of this type, and yet fee! it necessary to invite 

 or to accept outside aid. W. E. P. 



The Sense of Touch in Mammals and Birds, with 

 Sfyccial Reference to the Papillary Ridi^es. By Dr. 

 Walter Kidd. Pp. viii-l-ive; illustrated. (London: 

 -A. and C. Black, 1907.) Price 55. net. 

 Having in a companion volume treated of the direc- 

 tion of the hair in animals. Dr. Kidd. in the one now 

 before us, turns his attention to the kindred subject of 

 the structure and function of the papillary ridges on 

 the tactile surface of their hands and feet. Although 

 the subject is by no means new, the author has 

 studied it in a fuller manner than at least most of 

 _his predecessors, and has a new theory with regard 



NO. iq6i. vol. 76] 



to the function of the ridges in the Primates, in which 

 alone these structures attain full development. In 

 monkeys, at any rate, it has been generally considered 

 that the main purpose of the rough surface produced 

 by the papillary ridges is to ensure firm hold in grasp- 

 ing. Without denying that this may be a part of their 

 function, Dr. Kidd is, however, of opinion that there 

 are other important uses, which vary in different 

 groups. In man, for instance, the papillary ridges in 

 the hand alone exercise the function of discriminative 

 sensibility, and those in the foot that of maintaining 

 the equilibrium of the body, whereas in the lower 

 Primates both functions are discharged by the ridges 

 of the two pairs of limbs, although sensibility is less 

 marked in the front pair than in the human hand. 

 The most interesting part of the author's conclusion 

 relates, however, to the papillary ridges of lemurs, 

 which are much more complicated than those of apes 

 and man, and are accordingly believed to be subser- 

 vient to the necessity for special means of preserving 

 the equilibrium in the case of nocturnal creatures. 



R. L. 



Zur Wirtschafts- imd Siedlungs-Geographie von 

 Oher-Burma und den Nordlichen Shan-Staaten. 

 By Dr. H. J. Wehrli. Pp. 130. (Zurich : 

 Lohbauer, n.d.) 

 Though in completeness and fulness of illustration this 

 popular handbook of the British province of Burma 

 bears, of course, no comparison with Sir J. G. Scott's 

 recent monograph, it contains in a short space all 

 that a merchant or a traveller intending to visit the 

 country needs. The physical geography, climate, 

 ethnology, natural productions, and industries^ are 

 clearly described in a series of chapters illus- 

 trated by four maps and twelve photographic 

 plates. The book is frankly a compilation from 

 the best authorities, of which a full biblio- 

 graphy is appended. The maps, like all German 

 work 'of the kind, are good, but the political map 

 would be more useful if the boundaries were marked 

 in colours. Except some of the handbooks for 

 einigrants issued by our more important colonial 

 Governments, we have no geographical series in 

 English which corresponds with this. The organ- 

 isation which has just been started to spread a know- 

 Icdce of the Empire among British schoolboys might 

 well provide a scries of handbooks of this class. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond -wiih the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



International Investigation of the Upper Air. 



The International Commission for Scientific Aeronautics 

 has for some years past arranged that observations in the 

 upper air by means of kites and balloons should be made 

 on certain pre-arranged days, generally the first Thursday 

 in each month. At the conference held at Milan m 

 October last, M. Teisserenc de Bort suggested that better 

 results would be obtained if a series of observations could 

 be made on several successive days instead of on isolated 

 days as hitherto. 



it has accordingly been arranged that while the observ- 

 ations on the first Thursday in each month should be 

 continued, some further days should be arranged for a 

 more extended series of observations. The first of these 

 series is to take place in the fourth week in July, and it 

 is hoped that, besides the ordinary observatories that take 

 part in the monthly ascents, as many meteorologists as 

 possible should assist in order that observatioris may be 

 obtained from a number of widely extended stations 



