28o 



NA TURE 



\Feb. 12, 1874 



but as showing a certain geographical weakness in the 

 writer, who did not know that the Ladrone and the 

 Marian Islands are the same. E. B. T. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Typhoid Fever : its Nature, Mode of Spreadiiii^, and 



Prevention. By William Budd, M.D., F.R.S. Pp. 193. 



Three plain and one coloured lithograph. (Longmans, 



1873-) 

 This handsome volume is a thesis on the question of 

 how typhoid or enteric fever is propagated. Dr. Budd 

 adopts what is known as the contagion theory, and be- 

 lieves that every case of the disease is the result of direct 

 poison, conveyed either by the air or more frequently in 

 water, from the intestine of one patient to that of another. 

 This theory is generally disbelieved by the best medical 

 authorities in London and Paris ; but, as Dr. Budd points 

 out, it is not in large towns that the transmission of 

 disease can best be traced. He describes with minute 

 exactness as to time, place, and other important condi- 

 tions, outbreaks of this terrible disease in secluded country 

 villages, in schools, and other isolated institutions, where 

 he was able to trace the steps of the epidemic from house 

 to house or from room to room. We believe that a candid 

 iperusal of these cases will bring the conviction that the 

 theory of contagion is fairly proved. Many of them are 

 at all events almost decisive against the theory that this 

 enteric (ever is " pythogenic," i.e. is the result of a poison 

 which may be produced by any decomposing sewage 

 under favourable circumstances, without previous conta- 

 mination from a diseased person. The practical import- 

 ance of the question is, that if enteric fever only spreads 

 as Dr. Budd and other contagionists maintain, it is pos- 

 sible, and therefore of the utmost importance, to check 

 its propagation. A great part of the book is devoted to 

 this point, and the mode of destroying diseased products 

 is carefully detailed. 



One obvious objection to the contagion theory is that 

 it only accounts for the spread, and not for the origin, of 

 the fever. But, as Dr. Budd argues, the same applies to 

 small-pox and every other undoubtedly contagious disease. 

 However the first case came about, no one supposes that 

 fresh ones now arise spontaneously, any more than 

 naturalists who believe that worms and buttercups once 

 came into being for the first time, expect to find a worm 

 appear in a drop of water without an egg, or a buttercup 

 in a meadow without a seed. 



The comparison of typhoid disease to the eruption of 

 small-po.\, which is revived by Dr. Budd, has been long 

 and deservedly abandoned : indeed the strictly pathological 

 part of this book is the least sati^factory. Notwith- 

 standing a somewhat "drawing-room" appearance, it is 

 no doubt intended for pathologists and physicians to 

 study ; and for them we cannot see the advantage of the 

 four illustrations, one of which forms an elaborately 

 coloured frontispiece ; they show nothing but what has 

 often been figured before, and is now universally familiar. 

 The style also is now and then too ambitious, suggesting 

 rivalry with the wretched newspaper writing quoted on 

 p. 1 10 as " lively and facile." On the whole, however, the 

 book is as solid as it is earnest, and may be compared 

 without detriment with Dr. Macnamara's well-known work 

 defending an almost identical theory and practice with 

 regard to the propagation and prevention of Asiatic 

 cholera. 



The facts and arguments contained in it will no doubt 

 be duly weit'hed by the medical profession, and the public 

 will benefit by the result. P. S. 



Inorganic Chemistry., Elementary. By Raphael Meldola. 



F.C.S. (London : Thomas Murby, 1873.) 

 The present little volume constitutes one of a series pro- 

 duced by the same publishers as "Science and Art De- 



partment Text-books." We must congratulate Mr. Mel- 

 dola on having produced in a small compass a thoroughly 

 good and sound introduction to the science of chemistry, 

 and it is all the more welcome in these days of " Science 

 Series," when so many badly done "Text-books" are 

 being produced. The information is well and clearly 

 stated, and is sufficiently free from technicalities to be 

 easily understood by the beginner. The book is plainly 

 and well printed, but we cannot congratulate the pub- 

 lishers on the execution of the few and simple woodcuts, 

 every one of which has been spoiled in the cutting. 

 We hope that in a future edition the work will receive 

 better treatment, as a well-done woodcut is a great aid to 

 the beginner in understanding his author's descriptions of 

 various experiments. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor Joes not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken oj anonymous 

 communications. ] 



The Photographic Society 



The sweeping condemnation of the Photographic Society 

 conveyed in an article in Nature, vol. ix. p. 263, can only have 

 been written under a want of knowledge or misrepresentation ot 

 facts. I will not say one word about any dissension which may 

 e.\ist in the Society, but as the statements you have published 

 are calculated to injure the Society very materially, I will ask 

 you, in common justice, to make public the transactions of the 

 Society for the past year, so that the readers of N.\ture may 

 judge for themselves whether in a body which does not profess 

 to be a purely scientific one, science is altogether ignored, 

 whether "no man of eminent scientific capacity takes part," and 

 whether the society is altogether beneath contempt as at present 

 conducted. This I ask you to do not only in justice to the 

 society, but to the gentlemen whose names are mentioned below. 



1873. January meeting. "The Photographic Operations at 

 the Royal Observatory in connection with Magnetical and other 

 records," by James Glaisher, F.R.S. ; " Instantaneous Micro- 

 photography," by E.J. Gayer, IVI.D. 



February. — "On the Principles of the Chemical Correction 

 of Object-Glasses," by Prof G. G. Stokes, D.C.L., Sec. R.S. 



March. — " A Contribution to the Early History of Photo- 

 graphy," by H. Baden Pritchard, F.C.S. 



April. — " Uranium Printing," by John Spiller, F.C.S. ; " The 

 Chemical Theory of the Latent Image," by Capt. Abney, R. E., 

 F.C.S., F.R.A.S. 



May. — " Improvements in Carbon Printing," by Mens. A. 

 Marion. 



June. — "Remarks on three Wet Processes," by Jabez Hughes ; 

 "Photo-collotype Printing," by Capt. Watcrhouse, B.S.C. 



December — " Photography in the Arctic Regions," by Lieut. 

 Chermaide, R.E. 



So far as investigations are concerned, I can mention two, at 

 least, now being undertaken by members of the society, touching 

 the process and nature of film best suited for the Transit ot 

 Venus observations. 



Baden Pritchard, Hon. Sec. 



9, Conduit Street, W., Feb. 7 



Animal Locomotion 



There are two or three points in Dr. Pettlgrew's new book 

 as to which, perhaps, many of your readers in common with my- 

 self would be glad of a little light First, in speaking of the 

 gannet, he says : " Each wing, when carelully measured and 

 squared, gave an area of 19.^ square inches." But how is such 

 an area obtained from the dimensions given ? They are : " girth 

 of trunk, 18 inches," i.e., about 5 inches for its width; "ex- 

 panse of wing irom tip to tip across the body, 5 feet," so that 

 each wing would stretch about 33! inches from root to tip ; 

 "across secondaries, 7 inches," and this we may take as about 

 the average width of the wing. Multiplying length of wing by 

 width (33.^ X 7), we get therelore an area of 234J square inches. 

 Similarly Dr. Pettigrew assigns the heron's wing an area of 26 

 square inches, although the dimensions he gives yield an area of 

 about 311 square inches. A friend of mine has the temerity to 

 suggest that for some reason or unreason Dr. Pettigrew has 



