NATURE 



[March 25, 1909 



deposits in Western Siberia, but they reappear and 

 form the surface of wide areas in central and eastern 

 Siberia. This northern section of Eurasia forms Prof. 

 Suess's primitive " Scheitel.'-' It forms the foundation 

 of Asia, and is bounded along its southern edge by 

 concurrent mountain chains. The I'ral mountains 

 might be considered the western member of this 

 peripheral series, but Suess regards it as a mountain 

 line lying on this continental block which extends 

 beyond them into western Europe; and he describes 

 the Variscan Mountains of southern Germany and 

 the Armorican Mountains, the worn down fragments 

 of which form the hills of Belgium, Brittany, Devon- 

 shire, Cornwall, and southern Ireland, as the 

 westernmost preserved parts of the marginal chains. 

 It is, therefore, obvious from the broken ends of 

 the .-Armorican Mountains that Eurasia must once 

 have extended far westward into the .Xtlantic. 

 Scotland and Scandinavia, however, are now the 

 westernmost portions of this ancient continent. 

 Prof. Suess briefly re-describes them, in reference 

 to the great overthrusts that have been demonstrated 

 during the past twenty-five years; and he considers 

 why the overthrusting was westward in Scotland and 

 eastward in Scandinavia. This section of the book 

 even now requires revision, since Bjorlvkke's 

 monograph shows that Scandinavian opinion is not 

 as unanimous as to the existence of the overthrusting 

 as is represented, while the trend of opinion in 

 Scotland for some years past has been against the 

 view that the Scottish schists include altered Silurian 

 rocks. 



The second fundamental element in the structure 

 of Eurasia was the long inland sea, the Tethys, that 

 once separated northern Eurasia from the lands to 

 the south. The Tethys is still represented in the 

 western area by the Mediterranean ; but in Asia it 

 has been drained by uplift. 



The third constituent of Eurasia is the fragments 

 of Gondwanaland left in the Asiatic peninsulas. The 

 union of the ancient continent to the north with the 

 southern peninsulas by the disappearance of the 

 eastern Tethys has formed the existing continent of 

 Asia. 



Even more care has been taken over the translation 

 of this volume than of its two predecessors, and 

 the accurate translation by Dr. Hertha Sollas has 

 been revised by a group of distinguished geologists 

 as a tribute of respect for Prof. Suess. The whole 

 was then revised by Prof. Sollas. The French 

 translation of this volume has the advantages of a 

 fuller series of maps and sections which M. de 

 Margerie has added to the rather scanty series supplied 

 with the original ; and the geographical terms in 

 its sections are translated. A student might easily 

 be confused by seeing Wasserschiede, Pass, and 

 place-names in German transliterations all on the 

 same section. It would have been an advantage 

 to English-speaking students if the proper names had 

 been given in English instead of in German forms, 

 as it is sometimes difficult to identify them in British 

 atlases or indexes. With this mass of foreign names 

 occasional misprints are inevitable; thus, on p. :jq-,, 

 Sjorgen appears instead of Sjogren, and the Ekne 

 NO. 2056, VOL. 80] 



schists are said to be possibly of Devonian instead 

 of Caledonian age. 



British geologists will be so grateful for this 

 scholarly translation that they will be little disposed 

 to criticise the rendering of Suess's geological terms; 

 but it would be convenient if the original term 

 were sometimes, as in the French translation, given 

 in a footnote. Thus what Suess calls the " Scheitel " 

 is translated the vertex, a term of doubtful suit- 

 ability for an area extending from Scotland to 

 eastern Siberia and from the Arctic Ocean to the 

 Black Sea. Occasionally we find the other extreme 

 and a German word retained where there appears 

 to be an established English equivalent. Thus we 

 read of a Garbenschist as if that were an accepted 

 English petrological term. 



The translation of the next volume is promised 

 at the same time as the publication of the German 

 and French editions, and as in it we may expect 

 the general summary of Prof. Suess's conclusions, it 

 will be eagerly awaited. J. W. G. 



7iVf4JVT/L/Si\i. 

 On Infantilism from Chronic Intestinal Infection, 

 characterised fey the Overgrowth and Persistence of 

 Flora of the Nursling Period. By Prof. C. A. 

 Herter. Pp. v+n8. (New York: The Macmillan 

 Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 

 1908.) Price 4i\ net. 



IN a monograph of a hundred odd pages, the 

 author presents a detailed study of five cases of 

 severe nutritional disorder occurring in children. He 

 regards them as typical examples of a distinct patho- 

 logical condition, which he calls intestinal infantilism. 

 He claims that this is a definite disease, distinct from, 

 although sometimes associated with, other nutritional 

 disorders, such as rickets, anaemia, marasmus, &c. 



The patients were children between the ages of four 

 and seven. They were all healthy at birth and during 

 infancy, but in the second or third year of life they 

 developed symptoms of intestinal disturbance, accom- 

 panied by failure of nutrition, which culminated in a 

 state of complete arrest of physical growth for periods 

 of months or years. 



When they came under observation, a year or more 

 after the onset of symptoms, these patients exhibited 

 a striking clinical picture. Children of five, seven, or 

 eight years of age weighed less than normal children 

 of two. .\ boy (case i), at the age of eight, weighed 

 31 lb., his development having been arrested since 

 the age of three. ."Xssociated with their physical con- 

 dition, the patients showed a chronic and very 

 marked degree of muscular fatigue, a moderate grade 

 of anaemia, and in some of the cases slight rickets. 

 Their mental powers were retained to a very great 

 extent, although naturally they were backward in 

 comparison with normal children who were able to 

 plav games and to go to school. 



The disturbance of intestinal function was shown by 

 absolute intolerance of carbohydrates and great diffi- 

 culty in the digestion of fats and earthy salts. The 

 appetite remained ravenous, but the patients were 

 unable to digest or assimilate food. The stools were. 



