510 



NATURE 



\Oct. 2 2, 1874 



geon and Lecturef On Anatomy at St. Thomas's 

 Hospital. — The StudciWs Guide to the Diseases of 

 the Eye, with engravings, by Henry Power, M.B., 

 F.R.C.S., Senior Ophthalmic Surgeon to St. Bartholo- 

 mew's Hospital. — Report on the Issue of a Spirit Ration 

 diirine; the March to Coomassie, by E. A. Parkes, M.D., 

 F.R.S., Member of the General Medical Council. — 

 The Student's Guide to the Practice of Midioifery, with 

 engravings, by D. Lloyd Roberts, M.D., Vice-President 

 of the Obstetrical Society of London, Physician to St. 

 Mary's Hospital, Manchester. — Clinical Studies of Disease 

 in Children, by Eustace Smith, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physi- 

 cian to the King of the Belgians, Physician to the East 

 London Hospital for Children. 



Messrs. Charles Griffin have nearly ready A Dictionary 

 of Hygiene and Public Health (with illustrations), com- 

 prising Sanitary Chemistry, Engineering, and Legislation, 

 the Dietetic Value of Foods, and the Detection of 

 Adulterations, based on the " Dictionnaire d'Hygiene 

 Publique" of Prof. Ambroise Tardieu, by Alexander 

 Wynter Blyth, M.R.C.S., L.S.A., A.R.C., Medical Officer 

 of Health, and Analyst to the County of Devon. 



Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co. also promise us a work On 

 the Curative Effects of Baths and Waters, being a Hand- 

 book to the Spas of Europe, by Dr. J. Braun, with a 

 Sketch on the Balneotherapeutic and Climatic Treatment 

 of Pulmonary Consumption, by Dr. L. Rohden, an 

 abridged translation from the third German edition, with 

 Notes, by Hermann Weber, M.D., F.R.C.P., London 

 Physician to the German Hospital. 



The following Bot,\NI<jal Books are advertised as 

 coming out this season : — Medicinal Plants, by Robert 

 Bentley, F.L.S., Professor of Botany in King's College, 

 London, and Henry Trimen, M.B., F.L.S., of the British 

 Museum, and Lecturer on Botany at St. Mary's Hospital 

 Medical School. This work will include full botanical de- 

 scriptions and an account of the properties and uses of the 

 principal plants employed in medicine, especial attention 

 being paid to those which are officinal in the British and 

 United States Pharmacopceias. The plants which supply 

 food and substances required by the sick and conva- 

 lescent will be also included. Each species will be illus- 

 trated by a coloured plate drawn from nature. This will 

 be published in monthly parts, and Part I. will be ready 

 very soon {C\\\xxc\i\\\.)—Pharniacographia, a History 

 of the Principal Drugs of Vegetable Origin found in 

 Commerce in Great Britain and British India, by F. A. 

 Fliickiger and D. Hanbury, F.R.S. (MacmilUn.)— 7//t' 

 Primeval World of Switzerland, by Prof. Oswald Heer, 

 of the University of Zurich, translated by W. S. Dallas, 

 F.L.S., and edited by James Heywood, M.A, F.R.S. , 

 with numerous illustrations. (Longmans.) 



In the Sciences of Geology and Miner.\logy, &c., 

 we are promised Geology, for Students and General 

 Readers, embodying the most Recent Theories and Dis- 

 coveries, by A. H. Green, M.A., Professor of Geology 

 and Mining in the Yorkshire College of Science. Part I. 

 The Elements of Physical Geology, with upwards of 

 100 illustrations by the author. Part II. The Ele- 

 ments of Stratigraphical Geology, with upwards of 

 100 illustrations by the author. (Daldy, Isbister, & Co.) 

 The same publishers also have Geological Climate and 

 Time, a Theory of Secular Changes of the Earth's 

 Climate, by James Croll, of H.M. Geological Survey; 

 A Treatise on Mining, by Lottner and Serlo, of the 

 Berlin Academy of Mining, translated from the German 

 by Prof. Le Neve Foster and Mr. GaUoway, with 26S 

 illustrations and diagrams; and The Cieation, or 

 Dynamical System of the Earth's Formation, in ac- 

 cordance with the Mosaic Record and the latest Disco- 

 veries of Science, by Archibald T. Ritchie. — The Origin 

 of Creation, or the Science of Matter and Force, a New 

 System of Natural Philosophy, by Thomas Roderick 

 Fraser, M.D., and Andrew Dcwar. (Longmans.) — 7'/v 



Dawn of Life upon the Earth, by J. W. Dawson, LL.D., 

 F.R.S., F.G.S., Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill 

 University, Montreal, with illustrations. (Hodder and 

 Stoughton.) 



Finally, among MisCELLANEOtJS BOOKS the following 

 will probably interest the majority of our readers : — A 

 new edition is nearly ready of The Origin of Civilisation 

 and the Primitive Condition of Man, Mental and .Social 

 Condition of Savages, by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., 

 F.R.S. (Longmans.) — Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, 

 based on the Doctrine of Evolution, luitlt Criticisms on tlie 

 Positive Philosophy, by John Fiske, M.A., LL.8., formerly 

 Lecturer on Philosophy at Harvard University. (Mac- 

 millan.) — On the Sensations of To?ic, as a Physiological 

 Basis for the Theory of Music, by Prof. H. Helmholtz, 

 translated (with the author's sanction) from the third 

 German edition by Alexander J. Ellis, F.R.S., F.S.A. 

 (Longmans.) — Out of Doors, a selection of original 

 articles on Practical Natural History, by the Rev. J. G. 

 Wood, M.A., F.L.S., author of "Homes without Hands," 

 &c., with six illustrations, from original designs engraved 

 on wood by G. Pearson. (Longmans.) — Insects Abroad, 

 being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, 

 habits, and transformations, by the Rev. J. G. Wood, 

 M.A., F.L.S., illustrated with 600 figures by E. A. Smith 

 and J. B. Zwecker. (Longmans.) — The Aerial World, 

 by Dr. George Hartwig. (Longmans.) — Memoir of 

 iir Roderick Murchison, including extracts from his 

 journals and letters, with notices of his scientific contem- 

 poraries, and a sketch of the rise and progress, for half 

 a century, of PaUeozoic Geology in Britain, by Archi- 

 bald Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S., Murchison Professor of 

 Geology and Mineralogy in the L'niversity of Edinburgh, 

 and Director of the Geological Survey of .Scotland. 

 (.Murray.) — Tlie Pliysics and Pliilosophy of the Senses, or 

 the Mental and the Physical in their Mutual Rela- 

 tions, by R. S. Wyld, F.R.S.E., illustrated. (King 

 and Co.) — TIte Elements of tlie Psychology of Cog- 

 nition, by Robert Jardine, B.D., D.Sc, Principal of 

 the General Assembly College, Calcutta. (Macmillan.) — 

 0)i Parasites in the Animal Kingdom, by M. Van 

 Beneden. (King and Co.) — The Doctrine of Descent and 

 Darw-nism, by Prof Oscar Schmidt. (King and Co.) 

 — Optics, by Prof. Lommel, profusely illustrated. (King 

 and Co.)— Eu/igi, their Nature, Inlluences, and Uses, by 

 the Rev. M. J. Berkeley and Dr. M. Cooke, profusely 

 illustrated. (King and Qo.) —Scientijic London, an 

 account of the History and present scope of the principal 

 Scientific Societies and Institutions of London, by Bernard 

 H. Becker. (King and Co.) 



THE NEW REPTILE-HOUSE IN THE JARDIN 



DES PLANTES 

 '"pHE new house for Reptiles and Bitrachians in the 

 -'■ Jardin des Plantes at Paris was opened to the public 

 last week. It contains four divisions : two larger central, 

 and two smaller end compartments, all connected by 

 folding doors. Tfle front larger compartment is fitted up 

 in the middle with large shallow tanks for the Crocoddia, 

 of which there are five examples of Crocodilus 7'ulgaris, 

 C.fronlatus. Alligator mississippiensis, and two species of 

 Jacare. In front is a row of glass cages for Snakes- 

 Boas, Pythons, and various Colubrines. The second larger 

 compartment is devoted chielly to Batrachians, and con* 

 tains various .Salamanders {Triton, Sec], and a large 

 number of Axolotls [Siredon). In one tank are the two 

 celebrated specimens of this most abnormal of creatures 

 which have got rid of their external gills and converted 

 themselves into the .Salamandroid form, Anddystoma. In 

 one of the end compartments are the venomous snakes ; 

 in the other, Lacertilia of various kinds. 

 The cages for the Snakes are fitted up with moss, earth, 



