Mav 2S, 1908J 



NA TURE 



77 



The book is written foi- the general reader who 

 wishes to know, without too much detail, something 

 substantial about the chief things which go to nourish 

 his kind — "the oil to make him a cheerful counten- 

 ance, and bread to strengthen man's heart." To the 

 English reader, however, there is hardly sufficient 

 novelty, either in the substance of the essays or in 

 their form, to make it worth his while to peruse the 

 book, unless he wishes to give his German an airing. 



C. SiMMONDS. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 



>tiidies in BUnui Pressure: Physiological and Clinical. 

 Second edition, enlarged. By Dr. George Oliver. 

 Pp. xii + 255. (London : H. K. Lewis, 190S.) Price 

 4s. net. 

 In this second edition Dr. Oliver has carried the sub- 

 ject of clinical pulse gauging a distinct step forward. 

 Not only has he greatly improved his compressed-air 

 manometer, but he has made further clinical observa- 

 tions on blood pressure, and he presents the subject in 

 a series of generalisations which cannot fail to be of 

 practical v'alue. The alterations he has eflected in 

 his instrument concern each of the three portions 

 constituting it — the glass tube, the armlet, and the 

 apparatus for regulating the air pressure in the tube. 

 This latter is now closed at the distal end, thereby 

 doing away with the necessity for a tap, and effec- 

 tuallv avoiding leakage. The armlet no longer con- 

 sists of a gutta-percha bag which completely encircles 

 the limb, but of a canvas bag, constructed to encircle 

 the limb partially, and provided with three straps; 

 this is a great improvement on the older contrivance, 

 admitting, as it does, of ready adjustment to the 

 iimb. Finally, instead of regulating the air pressure 

 by a ball-pump, which causes the inde.K to move 

 along the tube in a series of bounds, Dr. Oliver now 

 employs a compressor fashioned concertina-wise, the 

 size of the chamber being controlled by means of a 

 screw passing between the two boards constituting 

 respectively the top and the bottom, an arrangement 

 which enables the air pressure to be regulated witli 

 great evenness and nicety. 



Dr. Russell recently directed attention to the 

 fact that a thickened, sclerosed artery may vitiate the 

 landings obtained with the armlet method. In this 

 Dr. Oliver agrees. He finds that the readings he 

 obtains with the armlet method may be higher than 

 those yielded by his earlier spring instrument (haemo- 

 dynamometer). In the slighter degrees of arterial 

 sclerosis the difference in the readings obtained by 

 the two methods is small — from 10 to 20 mm. Hg. — 

 but in advanced sclerosis this difference may be much 

 greater, reaching to 40, 50, 70, and even 100 mm. 

 Hg. But, as the author points out, this verv differ- 

 ence may be of advantage, affording, as it does, a 

 means of estimating the degree of arterial sclerosis 

 present. He has, moreover, shown that in old 

 people verj' high armlet readings mav be observed in 

 conjunction with low hajmodynamometric readings, 

 without any evidence of cardiac strain — the actual 

 biciod-pressure, i.e., being low, though a high degree 

 of sclerosis is present. Only when the arterial wall 

 i~ normal are the readings furnished bv the two 

 nuthods identical. 



One of the most interesting parts of the book is 

 I hat which deals with the causes of excessive arterial 

 blood pressure. The condition is attributed essen- 

 tially to constriction of the arterioles as the result of 

 chemical irritation, and the sources of the chemical 



NO. 2013, VOL. 78] 



agents capable of bringing this about are discussed. 

 Dr. Oliver is to be congratulated on the production 

 of these valuable studies. 



Dairy Laboratory Guide. By Prof. C. W. Melick. Pp. 



V+129; illustrated. (London: Archibald Constable 



and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price 55. net. 

 In some parts of Great Britain, and in most parts of 

 Ireland, dairving is being gradually transferred from 

 the farm to the factory, and an increasing demand 

 for properly trained managers has to be met. Not 

 only must such managers be experienced in the prac- 

 tical operations of butter- and cheese-malving, but 

 thev must also be able to manipulate the macninery 

 providing power to the dairy, be able to carry out the 

 chemical analvsis of milk and cream, possess a know- 

 ledge of dairv bacteriology, and be business men. At 

 three of the dairv schools in Great Britain the equip- 

 ment should be suflicient for providing the course of 

 training required, but no courses specially intended 

 for dairv managers seem yet to be given. 



In the State agricultural colleges in the dairying 

 parts of North America, short courses of training for 

 dairv managers are regularly given, and it is for 

 such courses that Prof. Melick has prepared this series, 

 of e.Kercises. The book should be useful on this side 

 of the Atlantic by indicating the general lines on which 

 courses can be arranged. In detail, however, the 

 exercises are not entirely suitable for use in this 

 countrv. The use of the hand churn and butter 

 worker is nowhere referred to, but, though skill in 

 making butter by hand is unnecessary to the creamery 

 manager, the process provides a training which can- 

 not be obtained by more mechanical methods. The 

 three exercises given in hard and soft cheese-making 

 are totally insufficient, and if the plea is offered that 

 there is no time for more, it would surely be better 

 to omit the making of " dried milk cocktail," " butter- 

 milk pop," and a dozen other dietetic delicacies and 

 nostrums which are given as exercises to the students. 

 .Again, the economics of dairying should be dealt 

 with far more thoroughly and the bacteriological ex- 

 ercises should be extended beyond the bacteriology of 

 impurities in milk to the bacteriology of the ripening 

 of cheese and cream. 



Nor on literary grounds can the book be recom- 

 mended in this country as a students' text-book. 

 Partlv owing to numerous " printer's " errors, partly 

 to clumsy phraseology, and partly to the use of 

 .American technicalities, the meanings of which are 

 unknown to us, portions of the book become almost 

 unintelligible. For example, the student is directed 

 to " make nutrose by boiling together in any alkaline 

 solution dried casein and caustic acid," and again to 

 " make eulactol by dissolving proteic vegetable sub- 

 stance and adding hydrates of carbon, salts, such as 

 phosphate of calcium, cooking salt, or carbonave of 

 sodium, and allow to vaporize " (pp. 107-8). On 

 the other hand, Gray's method for the determination 

 of moisture in butter is admirably described. 



Discoveries in Hebrew, Gaelic, Gothic, Anglo-Sa.\on, 



Latin, Basque, and other Caucasic Languages, « 



showing Fundamental Kinship of the Aryan 



Toni^ues and of Basque wifli the Semitic Tongues. 



Bv Dr. .\. E. Drake. (Denver : The Herrick Book 



and Stationerv Company; London: Kegan Paul, 



Trench, Trijbiier and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price 255. 



net. 



Just as in the sphere of the natural sciences men 



from time to time arise who believe that they have 



discovered perpetual motion, or that the circle can be 



squared, or tfiat one can demonstrate that the earth 



is flat, so, too, in comparative philology writers are 



