I50 



NATURE 



[June i8, 1908 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Soils: their Nature and Management. By Primrose 



McConnell. Pp. xii + 104. {I.ondon : Cassell and 



Co., Ltd., 1908.) P^-jce li. net. 

 In this little book the working- farmer or gardener 

 will find set out clearly and from his own point of 

 view just that basis of the scientific knowledge of 

 the soil that he ought to possess for the intelligent 

 management of his land. The author, Mr. Primrose 

 McConnell, is well known as a practical farmer, who 

 has been trained in science and has shown a special 

 interest in the application of scientific principles to 

 the implements used for cultivating the land. 



Mr. McConnell begins with an account of the 

 origin of soils, their composition, classification, and 

 distribution on the different formations of Great 

 Britain, in which he gives some indication of where 

 good and bad soils occur, and of their characteristic 

 trees and weeds. The more valuable part of the 

 book is, however, that which deals with soil physics 

 and the effect of cultivation and management upon 

 the all-important factor of the texture of the soil. 

 The author is, as might be expected from a man 

 accustomed to tillage operations, free from the temp- 

 tation to regard the soil purely from the chemical 

 point of view as a medium for the supply of the 

 plant with certain salts ; again and again he lays 

 stress on the importance of tilth and the way it can 

 be affected by the operations, both manurial and 

 mechanical, of the farmer. In this direction it is very 

 desirable that more experimental work should be 

 done ; the basis of the statements usuallv made as to 

 the effect of various acts of husbandrv upon the water 

 content and temperature of the soil is astonishingly 

 slight. For example, we should doubt a statement on 

 p. 97 that rolled soil ij inches below the surface may 

 be 10° F. warmer than the same soil not rolled, as 

 also the explanation whicli follows — but the experi- 

 mental evidence we could bring against it is not so 

 strong as the importance of the question would 

 warrant. 



Here and there throughout the book there are small 

 mistakes and misreadings in dealing with scientific 

 matters, but they are of small account, and do not 

 touch the general course of the argument, so that 

 we can cordially recommend the book to the class of 

 readers for whom it was designed. 



The Life and Work of George William Stozv, South 



.African Geologist and Ethnologist. By R. B. 



Young. Pp. vii+123. (London : Longmans, 



Green and Co., 1908.) Price 3s. 6d. 

 South .African geology has yielded many results of 

 world-wide interest, including the extinct fauna of the 

 Karroo and the Palffiozoic glaciation of South .Africa. 

 The debt due to George William Stow, the pioneer 

 in the discovery of both subjects, will now be paid 

 more easily owing to the admirable sketch of his 

 career by Prof. R. B. Young. Geologists would, 

 however, have been still more grateful for this bio- 

 graphy if it had included a table of contents, an 

 index, and a bibliography. 



Stow was born at Nuneaton in 1822, and educated 

 at a school on the Isle of Dogs. Though anxious to 

 be an engineer, he was trained for medicine ; but 

 he did not qualify for practice, emigrated to South 

 .Africa in 1843, and lived there until his death in 

 1S82. Considering the time and place in which his 

 life was spent, it was apparently not rich in striliing 

 incidents or adventures. It was, however, during a 

 trelc to dodge the rebellious Kafirs in 1S50 that he found 

 in the Rhenosterbergen the first of the extinct reptiles 

 of the Karroo. He fortunately reported his discovery 

 to Prof. Rupert Jones, to whose help and cncourage- 



NO. 2016, VOL. 78] 



ment Stow's services to geology are largely due. 

 Stow's life was unsettled; he was thrice married, and 

 in the search for a livelihood he was at different times 

 teacher in the schools of the Colonial Church, book- 

 keeper, trader at Queenstown, wine merchant at 

 Kimberley, diamond merchant, geologist to the 

 Orange Free State, and manager of the South 

 .African Free State Coal and Mineral Mining .Associa- 

 tion. His main scientific achievements were his dis- 

 covery of the fossil reptiles of the Karroo, his recog- 

 nition and proof of the glacial origin of the Dwvka 

 conglomerate, his collection of Bushman drawings, 

 his valuable memoir on the geology of Griqualand 

 West, published by the Geological Society, and his 

 two reports on the geology of parts of the Orange 

 Free State, in which he described the geology of the 

 area on the southern border of the Rand basin and 

 part of the A'ereeniging coalfield. Unfortunatelv, 

 Stow's detailed account of the geology of Griqua-. 

 land was never published, and the manuscript is now 

 in the library of the Geological Society of South 

 -Africa. 



Stow claimed the discovery of a second Cainozoic 

 glaciation of South Africa, and in his glacial 

 enthusiasm he described the diamond pipes of 

 Kimberley as due to the action of ice. His view of 

 a late Cainozoic glacial action in South .Africa was 

 at one time accepted in Europe, but is now discredited. 

 His discovery, however, of the Upper Palseozoic 

 glaciation has been confirmed, and will alwavs give 

 Stow's name an honoured place in the list of South 

 African geologists. J. W. G. 



Le-isons in Hygienic Physiology. By W. M. Coleman. 



Pp. ix + 270. (New York : The Mncmillan Company; 



London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price 35. 

 Of the many school physiologies, this is one of the 

 best written, best arranged, and best proportioned. 

 Since Huxley set the fashion more than a generation 

 ago, the range of school physiology has remained pretty 

 much the same; but there have been improvements 

 in method. The method of this book is specificallv 

 adapted to the needs of teacher and pupil. .All through, 

 there are suggestions for making the teaching con- 

 crete, for " founding the study on facts and not mere 

 words " (preface to the teacher). The illustrations are 

 very varied, and set forth with manv small original 

 touches. The " review " and " thought questions " 

 are obviously the careful work of an experienced 

 teacher. Principles are never lost sight of, and the 

 exposition never becomes mechanical or irrelevant, as 

 so often happens when written examinations are the 

 objective. But the book is admirably suited even for 

 examinations. Taught as it may and should be 

 taught, this little book should yield excellent results. 

 Food and stimulants are .specially discussed. The 

 volume is one of a graded series. 



L'.Aerohisation des Microbes Ana^rohies. By Georges 

 Rosenthal. Pp. 107. (Paris : Felix Alcan, 190S.) 

 .inleitung zur Kidtiir dcr Mikroorganismen. By Dr. 

 Ernst Kiister. Pp. v-l-201. (Leipzig : B. G. 

 Teubner, 1907.) Price 7 marks. 

 In his interesting essay, Mr. Rosenthal first de- 

 scribes the methods by which anaerobic microbes may 

 be isolated and cultivated, then methods for measur- 

 ing the degree of anaerobiosis, either by a pressure 

 gauge fitted to an exhausted chamber or by the 

 degree of growth occurring from above downwards 

 in a tube containing a deep layer of culture medium, 

 and, finally, the technique whereby different anaerobic 

 organisms may ultimately be transformed into aerobic 

 ones. This, according to the author, may be accom- 

 plished by simultaneously gradually admitting . ir 



