September 5, 1907] 



NA TURE 



469 



the fifty-four plates of surgical instruments have been 

 reproduced. 



The book has grown out of a thesis written by 

 Dr. Milne for the degree of doctor of medicine at the 

 University of Aberdeen. It shows him to be a scholar 

 of no mean capacity, and a fit member of a profession 

 which used to be a great deal more learned and much 

 less practical than it is at the present time. Know- 

 ledge about ancient surgical instruments is singularly 

 scattered. There are descriptions of them in the medi- 

 cal and surgical writers of classical times, and there 

 are remains of the instruments themselves in most of 

 the national museums of Europe and America. But 

 in modern times very little attention has been devoted 

 either to the instruments or to their descriptions, and 

 those w-ho still read descriptions of the operations in 

 the classical authors have either been contented to 

 imagine the instruments with which they were per- 

 formed or have had to draw upon their recollection of 

 what they saw at Naples. Dr. Milne has now re- 

 moved this reproach, and any intelligent surgeon, even 

 though he be ignorant of Greek and should know but 

 little Latin, can follow easily the manipulations of the 

 older surgeons. Some day, perhaps, a surgeon with 

 an archaeological bias will do for Egyptian surgerv 

 what Dr. Milne has accomplished for Greece and 

 Rome. Dr. Milne describes the instruments under the 

 general headings of knives, probes, forceps, bleeding 

 cups and clysters, cauteries, bone and tooth instru- 

 ments, bladder and gynaecological instruments, sutures, 

 and the portable outfit which was necessary for the 

 surgery of so migratory a race as the Romans. In 

 an appt.i^i.x is an inventory of the chief instruments 

 which Dr. Milne has seen in the various European 

 museums, and a bibliography of the subject, short but 

 apparently complete. There are no less than three 

 Indices, the first an inde.K of subjects, the second a 

 Latin index, and the third in Greek. Dr. Milne has 

 done his work so well and so accurately that as this 

 monograph is the first dealing with the subject it must 

 remain for a long time the standard authority until 

 further finds prove or disprove some of the disputable 

 conclusions drawn by the author. The monograph 

 presupposes a considerable amount of knowledge on 

 the part of the reader. He must in the first place be 

 skilled in the practice of his profession, he must be 

 interested in its antiquities, and he must be a fair 

 classic. These qualifications being granted, the book 

 is most excellent reading, and throws abundant light, 

 not only on the subject of which it treats, but also on 

 many collateral points. 



Diptcra Danica. Genera and Species of Flies Iiitherto 

 foKitd in Denmark. Part I. By William Lundbeck. 

 (Copenhagen : G. E. C. Gad ; London : William 

 U'esley and Son, 1907.) Price 4^. 6d. net. 



This work is expected to be completed in about ten 

 parts; and the first part is accompanied by a portrait 

 of R. C. Staeger, an eminent Danish dipterist. The 

 book is written in English, and as it appears to be 

 very carefully done will prove very useful to English 

 entomologists who take up the study of Diptera, which 

 has been more neglected In England than any other 

 order of insects, and respecting which we possess no 

 complete work at present ; tliough most European coun- 

 tries possess good monographs of Diptera in their own 

 languages. The introduction relates chiefly to struc- 

 ture, illustrated by figures of structure and neuration. 

 The other text-illustrations represent details of struc- 

 ture, such as heads, wings, palpi, &c. One term is 

 new to us — the " yowls," which from the context seems 

 to apply to the lower part of the face. The English is 

 very good, but somewhat stilted, and occasionally 



NO. 1975, VOL. 76] 



rather unfamiliar words are used, such as " kinks " 

 and " kneeformed. " 



There is no general table of families, which we 

 regret; but detailed tables are given of subfamilies, 

 genera and species. The descriptive part of the book 

 appears to be very good, as well as the accounts of 

 habits, transformations, and localities. There is even 

 a table of the larvas of the genera of Stratvomiidse, 

 the first family included in part i., the others being 

 Xylophazidse, CoenomyiidEe, Tabanida, Leptididje, 

 and .Acroceridae. 



It appears that the last estimate of the number of 

 Danish Diptera was given by Zetterstedt in 1855 as 

 1439, to which Prof. Lundbeck will doubtless be able 

 to add considerably by the time that his work is com- 

 pleted. The number of British species is probably 

 somewhere between 2500 and 3000 ; and a considerable 

 proportion of the Danish species probably also occur in 

 the British islands, though the latter may be ex- 

 pected, when the Diptera of both countries are fully 

 known, to possess a richer fauna than Denmark, 

 owing to the greater extent and more varied character 

 of the country. 



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 with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is talien of anonymous communications. \ 



Radiation of Meteors. 



The shower of November .Andromedids which occurred 

 in 1885 exhibited a very large area of radiation, the 

 flights being directed from a region variously estimated 

 from 7° to_ 15° diameter. The Draconids of August, 

 with a radiant near Draconis and centre at about 

 2qo° + 6o°, appears to exhibit a similar feature, for the 

 rich shower this system presented in 1879 had a very ill- 

 defined radiant. An active shower of Taurids seen on 

 November 2, 1886, also formed a very dispersed or 

 scattered radiant. 



The Draconids alluded to above returned rather plenti- 

 fully this year between .August 15 and 28, and they 

 e.xhibited the same indefiniteness of radiation as in 1879. 

 The feature is an interesting one, but it is very difficult 

 to investigate it properly because of the errors of observ- 

 ation and mistakes in attributing meteors to their correct 

 systems. 



As a rule, it may be accepted as a general fact that 

 showers of slow meteors have more diffused radiants than 

 the swift meteors. I have often found the radiant points 

 of the Perseids, Orionids, and Leonids very contracted 

 and exact centres, while certain displays of slow meteors 

 have proved rather puzzling to me in fixing their correct 

 positions owing to the evident diffuseness in the inter- 

 sections of the paths. \V. F. Desxing. 



Bishopslon, Bristol, .August ;,n. 



Experiment on the Rusting of Iron. 



In view of recent work on the rusting of iron, the 

 following simple experiment will be of interest. It is the 

 result of a number of attempts to devise a simple method 

 — for class-demonstration purposes — of showing that 

 carbon dioxide is necessary for the rusting of iron. 



A 500 c.c. flask was talcen, and into it were put about 

 100 c.c. of 15 per cent, caustic potash solution. A partially 

 bored sound cork was inserted in the neck, and the flask 

 shaken occasionally for two days. Then a piece of bright 

 iron wire (a long nail is suitable) was, after boiling in 

 distilled water, pushed through the unbored portion of 

 cork, leaving about an inch outside. .After four months 

 the iron inside shows no sign of rust, whilst that outside 

 was rusted in as many days. Geo. A. Watson. 



Grammar .School, Cork. 



