ii4 



NA TURE 



[August 6, 1896 



at the southern end of the Loroghi mountains. The inten- 

 tion was to go westward to search for another tribe from 

 which to buy transport animals. .Sayer was reached, and 

 some guides belonging to a tribe designated by a name 

 which is no name — Wanderobbo — were secured. The 

 country was in famine, and the Wanderobbo were starving. 

 They begged Chanler to kill them some food, and he and 

 von Hcihnel spent some days shooting elephant, during 

 which the author had several extraordinary escapes. He 

 was preparing to start westward, when von Hohnel was 

 knocked over by a rhinoceros and seriously injured. He 

 was carried back to Uaitcho, and thence sent to the coast. 

 From this time the story of the expedition is a catalogue 

 of disasters. All the camels had long since been dead, 

 and most of the repeated relays of donkeys had suffered 

 the same fate, (iahvin was sent back to Ukamba to buy 

 more of the latter. The Tana rose in flood, and for 

 months the two halves of the expedition were separated ; 

 meanwhile the remaining donkeys were dying, and the 

 rainy season, during which alone it was possible to cross 

 the northern deserts, was being spent in enforced idle- 

 ness. Then the Zanzibari suddenly mutinied and marched 

 in a body to the coast^ .Soon after this the Soudanese, 

 frightened by some preparations for the arrest of any 

 Zanzibari who might be found, also bolted. The author 

 had to destroy his stores, worth gooo dollars, and return 

 to the coast, which he reached at Mombasa after an 

 absence of sixteen months. 



The last pages of the volume contain the story of 

 •quarrels with the authorities at Zanzibar in regard to the 

 treatment to be given to Chanler's deserters, who had 

 been detained in Zanzibar. The author is very severe in 

 his condemnations of the Zanzibar and British authorities. 

 He declares that they suggested and instigated the 

 mutiny, or at least gave the leader " something stronger 

 than a hint " (p. 466) ; and on Mr. Chanler's return to 

 Zanzibar, he was unable to obtain any assistance from 

 them in securing the punishment of his men. The Prime 

 Minister of Zanzibar, Sir Lloyd Matthews, held that the 

 porters were justified in their desertion, and instead of 

 punishing them, demanded from Mr. Chanler the full 

 amount of pay due to them — a demand with which the 

 author refused to comply. The question is an important 

 one, but it is unnecessary to discuss it here. Mr. Chanler 

 is naturally angry with the men whose desertion ruined 

 his plans, and with the authorities w^ho subsequently 

 believed their story and took their part. Mr. Chanler 

 admits that he has no very satisfactorytheory of his men's 

 desertion, which took him quite by surprise ; or why the 

 Zanzibar authorities should have urged his headman, 

 Hamidi, to organise the revolt. But no one who knows 

 General Matthews, and his readiness to help the traveller 

 of any nationality who applies to him, will credit the 

 charges made against him. 



It is a pleasure to turn from the sad story of foiled 

 plans, wasted chances, and angry accusations, to consider 

 the value of Mr. Chanler's work, which represents a 

 substantial addition to our knowledge of British East 

 African geography. The author's text and Lieut, von 

 Hohnel's magnificent map (which unfortunately often 

 differ greatly in the spelling of the place-names) are 

 contributions to the knowledge of British territories for 

 which English naturalists and administrators must be 

 NO. 1397, VOL. 54] 



grateful. Mr. Chanler has given us a map of an unknown 

 region, discovered a most remarkable and interesting 

 tribe, solved an important geographical problem, and 

 made valuable scientific collections. He achieved these 

 results by a generous expenditure of time and money, 

 and at the cost of great personal hazard and hardship ; 

 and if he did not carry out the whole of the ambitious 

 scheme at which he aimed, he displayed magnificent 

 perseverance and courage in trying time after tinie, 

 by route after route, to traverse the barren desert 

 before him. 



We cannot, however, but regret that Mr. Chanler's 

 journey involved considerable bloodshed, and that the 

 spirit with which he regarded this, may be gauged by 

 his remark (p. 329), " I could not permit myself to 

 indulge in the pleasure of an attack," although " the 

 temptation to yield [to the entreaties of his men to seize 

 the rich herds of a tribe with whom he had contracted 

 the rite of blood-brotherhood] was, I must admit, next 

 to impossible." J. W. C.RECORY. 



APOLLONIUS OF PERGA. 

 Apollonius of Per^a : Treatise on Conic Sections. 

 Edited in Modern Notation, with Introductions, in- 

 cluding an Essay on the Earlier History of the Subject, 

 by T. L.Heath, M.A. Pp. ckx + 254. (Cambridge: 

 at the University Press, 1896). 



I^HE assertion made in the opening lines of the preface 

 to the book now before us, that " to the great 

 majority of mathematicians at the present time, Apollo- 

 nius is nothing more than a name and his " Conies," for 

 all practical purposes, a book unknown," is probably well 

 within the truth. That this should be so is a pity, because 

 the work of the great geometer is not only valuable and 

 interesting in itself, but affords an excellent example of 

 the methods of Greek geometry at its best period. 



Nevertheless it must be admitted that this state of 

 things is not altogether surprising. To read through the 

 "Conies," say in Halley's folio edition, requires not a little 

 courage and perseverance. .\ modern geometrician, 

 approaching the text for the first time, cannot fail to be 

 struck, and is in most cases repelled, by the curious com- 

 bination of crabbedness and diffuseness which it appears 

 to present. On the one hand the nomenclature is really 

 very concise, almost as much so, in fact, as the quasi- 

 algebraical notation at present in vogue ; on the other, 

 there is an elaborate array of general enunciation, par- 

 ticular enunciation, distinction of cases, construction 

 analysis, synthesis, and conclusion— all in strict accordance 

 with the logical scheme which had become orthodox long 

 before Apollonius's time. Formal demonstrations are 

 given of propositions which we should be apt to dismiss 

 as intuitively e\ident, and a preference is shown for 

 indirect methods of proof which, in some cases, almost 

 amounts to perversity. 



Besides this, the reader who wishes to appreciate the 

 " Conies " has to overcome a real and serious difticulty 

 arising from the peculiar form in which the argument is 

 presented. The Greeks elaborated the methods of geo- 

 metrical proportion and the application of areas until they 

 possessed an engine which, in capable hands, is, up to 

 a certain point, as eff"ective as the methods of modern 



