124 



NA TURE 



[June i i, 1896 



grow, not even a shruls, and from which animal life is 

 almost completely banished. Only in its valleys and its 

 waters is there any abundance of animal life ; and con- 

 sequently its human inhabitants are confined mainly to 

 the valleys and the coast. Finmark has a population of 

 18,000 Laps and 8000 Fins (the Norsk element is in- 

 significant, being only i in 300) ; but these are actually 

 increasing, the Laps having doubled, and the Fins 

 more than doubled, between i860 and 1887, in spite 

 of the almost chronic condition of poverty in which they, 

 especially the Laps, live, the frequent hunger from 

 which they suffer, and the dirt which characterises 

 their persons and miserable dwellings. They are, never- 

 theless, healthy as a whole, though the infant mortality is 

 high ; and, in spite of their wretched conditions, they are 

 entirely free from those scourges of civilised life — con- 

 sumption, cancer, calculus, dropsy and dysentery. The 

 Laps are contented, honest (except as regards reindeer), 

 unambitious, improvident and very drunken ; their luxuries 

 being brandy, coffee and tobacco. Imprisonment with 

 bread and water is no hardship to a Lap who has 

 been sent to the house of correction for reindeer stealing ; 

 he returns from Trondhjem with the air of a travelled 

 man who has acquired distinction. 



In discussing the question of the amelioration of the 

 condition of the Laps, Dr. Reusch writes like a far-seeing 

 statesman. He wishes to see them Norwegianised and 

 civilised by the State, and by the mildest methods ; he 

 regards the school as the most effective agent, and re- 

 commends free education, free food and lodging for 

 children far distant from their homes, and the com- 

 pensation of the parents by the State for the loss of the 

 services of the children. He admits that there may be 

 individual cases of oppression on the part of Norwegians, 

 which are never heard of, because the Laps cannot or do 

 not write to the papers like the Danes in Schleswig, orthe 

 (jermans in the Baltic provinces of Russia. In addition 

 to his own observations, the author has availed himself 

 of all trustworthy local information regarding ethno- 

 graphy, commerce, fisheries, industries, natural history, 

 natural products, and mentions the Pasvig River as the 

 only locality in Europe where diamonds are to be found. 

 He enters very fully into the social condition of all the 

 races in Finmark — Lap, Fin, Norwegian, and the Russian 

 traders. The book is an exceedingly interesting one, and 

 is well illustrated ; but it is written in Norsk, a language 

 with \\ hich, unfortunately, not many are familiar. 



J-\MES C. Christie. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Weitere Ausfuhrtingen iiber den Bate .licr Cyaiwphvcccn 

 und Bacterien. By Prof. O. Biitschli. (Leipzig: 

 Wilhelm Engelmann, 1896.) 

 Some five years have elapsed since Prof Biitschli first 

 published his investigations on the structure of some of 

 the sulphur bacteria : Chromatium, Ophidoiiionas, and 

 lieggiatoa, and his views on this subject have been 

 circulated and discussed far and wide. In the above 

 work Prof Butschli has restated at greater length, and 

 at the same time more precisely, the position which he 

 has been led to assume with regard to this delicate 

 question. We say " delicate question," because at present 

 an opinion one way or another can only be based upon 



NO. 1389, VOL. 54] 



the degree of staining dexterity possessed by the in- 

 vestigator, and the results obtained are directly de- 

 pendent upon the skill with which such operations are 

 manipulated, whilst their interpretation is also subject 

 to the individual intelligence or originality of the experi- 

 menter. Prof. Butschli's own words will best express 

 the object which he has had in view in the publication 

 of the present pamphlet. "Although 1 ha\e made no 

 fresh investigations in this direction during the years 

 which have elapsed since I first published my views, it 

 has appeared advisable to me for some time past to once 

 more express myself on this question, and to support my 

 opinion by the publication of micro-photographs. . . . 

 I have, therefore, studied afresh during the past winter 

 the greater number of the preparations I made in the 

 years 1889-90, and I can only add that although some 

 preparations have suffered in the interval, I have found 

 everything exactly as 1 described it in 1890. . . . In the 

 following exposition, which I have put together as briefly 

 as possible, I have principally dealt with the doubts 

 which have been thrown at, and attacks which have been 

 made upon, my former statements." In taking up this 

 essay the reader is, therefore, plunged into a keen 

 scientific controversy, and for those who are concerned 

 one way or the other, the subject-matter is replete with 

 interest, and the scientific litterateur will gratefully 

 accept the exhaustive bibliography bearing upon the 

 question ; whilst even the layman, who possibly feels 

 but slender interest in the problems surrounding the 

 structural character of these lowly forms of life, cannot 

 but admire the beautiful plates with which the text is 

 illustrated. 



A Dictionary of the Names of Minerals, ineliidiiii; their 

 History and Etymology. By .A.. H. Chester. Pp. x\-. 

 + 320. (New York : John Wiley and Sons. London : 

 Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1896.) 



The study of mineral names by Prof. Chester was 

 originally begun in the interest of Murray's New English 

 Dictionary ; the results of years of patient work and 

 search are conveniently collected together in the volume 

 now issued. In the case of each name a record is given 

 of the name of its author, the year of the first publication, 

 a reference to the work in which the name was announced, 

 the derivation, the reason for the name, and a description 

 of the mineral sufficient to indicate the one to which the 

 name was intended to be applied. For many names the in- 

 formation has been alreadygiven in Dana's " Mineralogy" ; 

 Prof Chester has gone to much trouble in the attempt to 

 fill up the gaps which remain, but he gives a long list of 

 names relative to which further information is still 

 required. The book will be useful, not only to those 

 who are interested in nomenclature, but to all who wish 

 to have in a single small volume a brief statement of the 

 chemical composition of the minerals to which names 

 have at any time been gixen. It may be added that 

 Prof Chester appends a list of the authors of mineral 

 names with the names for which each author is re- 

 sponsible. L. F. 



Principii delta Teoria Matematica dc Movimento dei 

 Corpi. Gian .Antonio Maggi, Professore ordinariodella 

 R. Universitil di Pisa. Pp. 503. (Milano : Ulrico 

 Hoepli, 1896.) 



By omitting illustrations, examples and exercises, and 

 diagrams, the author has managed to give a very com- 

 pact treatise on all the ordinary formulas of Theoretical 

 Dynamics, including a little Hydrostatics. The author 

 has incorporated into his treatment the most modern 

 ideas of Clifford and Mach ; his analytical treatment is 

 elegant and condensed ; but a little geometrical and 

 pictorial treatment would give some relief to the pro- 

 cession of equations. G. 



