June 25, 1908J 



NATURE 



171 



(0 have been made, for several reasons. These gentle- 

 men had no right to risk their lives or health without 

 sLilTicient reason while in the public service. It was 

 unnecessary to carry luit I lie experiments on man, as 

 liiwer .animals were available. Even if one or both 

 li.id taken the disease, the experiments would have 

 l)fen useless, as they were living in the endemic zone 

 .iiid liable to take the disease naturally. What was 

 Ihc use, for cxaniplo, of two non-immunes drinking 

 urine Irnin .a case of Malta fever if they neglected in 

 ihe first place to demonstrate that the urine contained 

 I he Micrococcus mcUlensis? As only one sample of 

 urine in ten contains the cocci, it was ten to one 

 against their taking the disease. Such thoughtless 

 experiments ought not to be encouraged by being re- 

 corded in text-books as praiseworthy actions or serious 

 allempis in Ihe investigation of disease. With Ihe excep- 

 tion of slight blemishes such as these, which, indeed, 

 arc insc|)arable from text-books, the descriptions of the 

 v.irious tropical diseases are good, and some arc excel- 

 lent. Especially is the description of the symi)toms 

 and treatment of these tropical ni.il.idies quile pr.ic- 

 tical and useful. 



The fourth seclion is l.aken up wilh pr.uiic.-il hiiils 

 in microsco[)y, photogr.aphy, disinfection, examinalitJU 

 of blood, &c. This part of the book contains much 

 sound advice on the best microscopes and cameras for 

 tropical work, on stains, staining methods, modes of 

 ])reparing blood and tissues for examination, and 

 should prove very useful to medical men in out-of-the- 

 way places out of touch with books and laboratories. 



The book concludes with several appendices on 

 sanitary conventions, vegetable poisons of the tropics, 

 how to collect flies, ticks, &c. 



This text-book on tropical mcdicijie can be con- 

 fidently recommended to colonial surgeons and 

 medical oflicers of the Hritish and Indian .Services as 

 cont.aining a vast amount of data from various sources, 

 with practical hints from the author's personal cx- 

 jjerience and observation, which makes it an admirable 

 vadc mcciim when the exigencies of travel render the 

 carriage of several books impossible. 



David Bruce. 



A MONOGRAPH OF BRISTLE-WORMS. 

 1 Monof;raph of the Brilish Atiiiclids. Vol. ii., p.-irt i. 



Tolycha-ta, Nephthydida; to .Syllidae. Ry Prof. W. C. 



Mcintosh, F.K.S. Pp. viii + 232 + lxx plates. 



(London: Dul.iii .and Co., 190S.) Price 25s. 



net. 

 Tl J'HEN Huxley was .appointed professor in the 

 VV Jermyn .Street School of Mines, his first great 

 scheme was the publication by Government of a zoo- 

 logical coast survey of Great Britain, and one of the 

 lirsl groups to be selected was this one of the Annelids. 

 L'nfortunately for biology, that scheme was never 

 carried out, and the opportunity that presented itself 

 some fifty years ago of obtaining State assistance 

 for what was truly a .State work has not recurred. 

 Not only has the publication of systematic coastal 

 work been left to isolated ventures, but many groups, 

 and the Annelids among them, have been so 

 little studied on our own coasts that the work ol 

 NO. 2017. VOL. :°l 



naming any of the most common littoral species (ex- 

 cept perhaps the lugworm) is out of all proportion to 

 the value of its determination. Yet these Annelids 

 are not only of great interest to the zoologist, but, as 

 forming one of the chief foods for fish, they arc 

 among the most import.ant factors in tlir welfare of 

 our fisheries. The Kay Society and the Carnegie 

 Trust are therefore to be congratulated on the issue 

 of .another section of this great monograph, which 

 they have sidjsidised. Prof. Mcintosh is known and 

 read of all students of biology, and his unwearied 

 devotion to this work, his vvidc^ knowledge, and long 

 experience of these Annelids constitute him a master. 

 He, perhaps of all men, was the only one who could 

 write this work, .and the completion of his monograph 

 begun so many years ago is indeed a consumm.ation 

 devoutly to be wished. May he have the h<-;ilili .md 

 assistance necessary to that end. 



The present instalment contains a systematic 

 account of six families. Its most striking feature 

 lies in the coloured plates drawn by the author's 

 sister. Ihe l;ilc Mrs. (iiinlher, and the artist Miss 

 A. 11. Walker. These presentations of Phyllodocids, 

 llesionids, Nephthyds, and Syllids are most beautiful, 

 .and suggest many problems of coloration and of 

 movement that arc not referred to in the text. The 

 fine green colour of many Phyllodocids tingeing even 

 their egg-masses, the prevalence of segmental spots 

 in most families, and the significance of varietal 

 colorations, arc subjects on which we possess very 

 little organis(;d knowledge, for if the systematic 

 study of Polychffit Annelids has been neglected in this 

 country, the bionomics and physiology of the groups 

 have been left to a few Continental observers. It is 

 to be hoped that the issue of this work will stimulate 

 the study of the group in these directions. 



There are two serious drawbacks to Hie value of 

 this work which a little trouble could easily have 

 obviated. If one wishes to find out what families, 

 genera, and species arc described in this part, there- 

 is no means of doing so except by wading through Ihe 

 text. A table of contents is not much to ask for, but 

 it has been omitted, and as there is no index the labour 

 of finding out what there is in the work is quite need- 

 lessly enhanced. The headings of the left-hand pages 

 might well have given the family name under con- 

 sideration instead of the species as at present. The 

 second drawback is the fjinding of six extraneous 

 pl.ales right in amongst those proper to th(! part, sand- 

 wiched in between those illustr.iting two other fami- 

 lies. These intrusive plates evidently belong to a later 

 section of the work ; yet we find no reference to their 

 presence, .and the confusion that is likely to arise 

 ought to induce Ihe council of the Ray .Society to 

 take some steps in (jrdcr lo .ivoid the repetition of, 

 and if possible rectify, what we presume must be 

 an oversight. 



To turn from matters of editorial criticism, we are 

 glad to see that Mr. Goodrich h;is given his .skilled 

 assistance and expert knowledge of the nephridia of 

 these animals, so that these organs are adequately 

 referred to and figured in the text. The references 

 (o other recent work on this subject show that not 



