lOO 



NATURE 



[June 4, 1908 



must have definite solutions. But M. Bloch does not 

 adequately discuss the postulates involved, or con- 

 sider how, from a modern point of view, one could 

 justify practically a procedure such as Newton's. He 

 seems more or less unaware of the gulf which noA'a- 

 days separates the pure mathematician's account of 

 the calculus from the physicist's use of it, and there- 

 fore cannot deal thoroughly with the very interesting 

 question as to how this gulf is to be bridged. To 

 take another illustration ; he gives an account of 

 Newton's views on absolute space, time, and motion, 

 and quotes the experiment of the rotating bucket of 

 water, by which absolute rotations are to be dis- 

 covered. But instead of endeavouring, after the ex- 

 ample of many previous writers, to refute in detail 

 the inferences drawn by Newton from this experiment, 

 he contents himself with pointing out the dynamical 

 irrelevance of absolute translation, and extending this 

 by means of generalities to absolute rotation. The 

 truth seems to be that he, in common with many 

 moderns, is here indulging in an hypothesis of just 

 that kind which Newton endeavoured to avoid : abso- 

 lute rotation is impossible a priori; therefore, if the 

 facts require it, so much the worse for the facts. 



There are an unusual number of misprints, and 

 some of them seem to be among the references. In 

 spite of blemishes, however, the book is careful and 

 erudite, and on the historical side very useful. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



The Common Bacterial Infections of the Digestive 

 Tract and the Intoxications arising from Them. 

 By Prof. C. A. Herter. Pp. xii + 360. (New York : 



■ The Macmillan Company ; London : Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price bs. bd. net. 



This book forms a valuable summary of our know- 

 ledge of many of the bacterial infections of the diges- 

 tive tract, and of the conditions resulting therefrom — 

 valuable alike to the bacteriologist, the chemist, and 

 the clinician. It commences with a review of the 

 normal bacterial flora of the digestive tract, and the 

 significance of the presence of bacteria is first dis- 

 cussed. It is shown that the intestinal bacteria are 

 not required to carry on the ordinary digestive pro- 

 cesses and normal nutrition, and the conclusion is 

 formulated that the chief significance of the obligatorv 

 intestinal bacteria lies in their potential capacity for 

 checking the development of other types of organisms 

 capable of doing injury. 



An interesting section deals with the differences in 

 the bacterial flora of the intestine in nurslings and 

 in bottle-fed infants; the number of bacteria is found 

 to be considerably greater in the latter, and a majority 

 of the organisms present are Gram-negative instead 

 of Gram-positive, as is the case in nurslings. Another 

 feature of interest which is well brought out is that in 

 old age a greater number of putrefactive becteria are 

 present than in youth. The origin and precise signi- 

 ficance of this difference is not yet clear, but it sug- 

 gests that intestinal infections stand in a causative 

 relation to old age, an hypothesis recently advanced by 

 Metchnikoff, and the author confidently states that 

 the onset of senility may be distinctly accelerated 

 through the development of intestinal infections in 

 which putrefactive anaerobes are prominently repre- 

 sented. A number of details are given for the analysis 



NO. 2014, VOL. 78I 



of the intestinal contents, and of the significance of 

 the data derived therefrom, together with hints as to 

 treatment. R. T. Hewlett. 



National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-4. " The Charts 



of the Discovery Antarctic Expedition." By Lieut. 



G. F. A. Mulock. (London : Royal Geographical 



Society, 1908.) 

 The charts illustrating the work of the National 

 Antarctic Expedition, compiled by Lieut. G. F. A. 

 Mulock, R.N., surveyor and cartographer to the 

 e.\pedition, have now been issued by the Geographical 

 Society in the form of one of its supplementary publi- 

 cations. The series consists of a general chart of the 

 Ross Sea and its coasts, and five on a larger scale 

 showing the detailed geographical work of the ex- 

 pedition. The maps are clearly printed in three 

 colours, the ice-coloured regions being shown in blue, 

 the bare rocks in brown, and routes and altitudes 

 in red; they are folded, and issued in a convenient 

 cloth case, 10 inches high by bf inches wide. They 

 are accompanied by a short statement of eight pages 

 recording the methods of survey and chief determina- 

 tions, in which Lieut. Mulock gives credit to his 

 colleagues for their contributions to the work, refer- 

 ring especially to Ferrar's survey of the Ferrar 

 glacier, Bernacchi's determination of the longitude of 

 the winter quarters. Dr. Wilson's sketches of the 

 coast, and Lieut. Skelton's photographs. 



The three charts of most interest are those including 

 the Great Ice Barrier and the route of Captain Scott's 

 remarkable sledge journey on to the plateau of 

 southern Victoria Land. Lieut. Mulock retains the 

 name the Great Ice Barrier, and adopts it for the 

 whole ice sheet of which Ross discovered the northern 

 face. Notes on the chart direct attention to the con- 

 vincing evidence that the edge of this ice sheet is 

 floating, and also of its recession at one place for 

 twenty-three miles since it was discovered by Ross. 

 Confidence in the latter fact is strengthened by Lieut. 

 Mulock's testimony to the remarkable accuracy of 

 Ross's positions. On a second chart the author 

 shows the extension of Ross's Great Ice Barrier to 

 the south, with the route of Scott and his two com- 

 panions to their farthest south at the entrance to 

 Shackleton Inlet, and of the face of the mountains 

 on the Vestern coast of that part of -Antarctica. 

 • Lieut. Mulock is to be congratulated on the skill 

 and care with which he has incorporated all the 

 observations of the expedition into this important 

 series of charts, which are a most valuable addition 

 to Antarctic cartography. J. W. G. 



.Archhelcnis iind Archinotis. Gcsammeltc Beitrdge zur 

 Geschichte der ncoiropischcn Region. By Herman 

 von Ihering. Pp. iv+350. (Leipzig: W. Engel- 

 mann, 1907.) Price 6 marks. 

 Few and far between are the naturalists in South 

 .America. But there are exceptions even to this rule. 

 Good work has been done of late years in Buenos 

 .Avres and Para, and the author of the present volume 

 has not failed to avail himself of the abundant oppor- 

 tunities offered to him for research by the luxuriant 

 fauna and flora of his adopted country. Dr. Her- 

 man von Ihering, the energetic director of the Museu 

 Paulista at Siio Paulo, is well known to us in Europe 

 by his essays on various subjects connected with the 

 distribution of life in different parts of the world, 

 particularly as regards the neotropical region. He 

 has now collected these essays and reprinted thenT 

 with additions in a uniform shape under the curious 

 title which we give above. " .Archhelenis " and 

 " .Archinotis " are names invented to designate the 

 two principal continents which the author believes to 



