July i, 1909] 



NA TURE 



serious misconceptions on the part of the critics bv 

 distinguishing it from and relating it to the theories 

 of " dillerential sensibility " and " associative 

 memory," respectively, which were adumbrated by 

 Loeb himself, and are equally necessary to the ex- 

 planation of many forms of behaviour of lower 

 organisms. From this general standpoint he finds 

 himself in a position to criticise, on the one hand, the 

 modern mechanistic school of the Germans (Beer, 

 Bethe, Uexkiill, &c.), who deny sensations to animals 

 only to be forced, later on in the argument, to at- 

 tribute intellect to them, and, on the other hand, 

 Jennings and his American supporters, whose theory 

 of " trial and error " is accused (somewhat unjustly, 

 we think) of an anthropomorphic taint. Other inter- 

 esting points in the book are discussions on the vital 

 rhythms of marine animals, on the criteria of 

 psychism (where the author rejects Yerkes's various 

 criteria — discrimination, docility, initiative — in favour 

 of that suggested by Loeb, viz. associative memory), 

 on the laws of associative phenomena, and on in- 

 stinct, a term which the author scornfully expels from 

 comparative psychology as being " metaphysical " and 

 useless. Such a method of getting rid of difficulties 

 should not be encouraged. W. B. 



The Dyeing and Cleaning of Textile fabrics. A 

 Handbook for the Amatenr and the Professional. By 

 F. A. Owen. Based partly on notes of H. C. 

 Standage. Pp. vi + 253. (New York: Wiley and 

 Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1909.) 

 Price 8s. 6d. net. 

 A HANDBOOK was published some time ago under some 

 such title as " Every Man His Own Lawyer." To 

 what particular class of people such a book is useful 

 it is not easy to say, but it is fairly safe to assume 

 that the work of the legal profession was not mate- 

 rially lessened by its publication. The book above 

 mentioned might with equal aptness have been termed 

 "Every Man His Own Dyer," but the probability is 

 that the people w-ho are successful in dveing their own 

 clothes will be even smaller in number than those who 

 are satisfied with the result of their own legal efforts. 

 The first portion of the book is taken up with such 

 general matters as solution, maceration, &-c., and here 

 the author drifts into pharmacy. " The ordinary dose 

 of such infusions is i to 2 02s., three or four times 

 per day." He does not explain, however, the connec- 

 tion between the internal application of infusions and 

 the renovation of garments. His remarks on macera- 

 tion are equally illuminating. " Its object is usually to 

 impregnate alcohol with the principles of a substance 

 which would be but slowly extracted without the aid 

 of heat, such as the sun or other warm situation." 



It is a matter for regret that the book should 

 have been published in its present form. It contains 

 many trustworthy and useful recipes for the removal 

 of stains, the cleaning of gloves, &c., but these are 

 associated with so much useless and even misleading 

 matter that their value is greatlv discounted. 



Walter 1\L Gardner. 



Codex of Resolutions adopted at International 

 Meteorological Meetings, 1872-1907. Prepared at 

 the request of the International Meteorolocicnl 

 Committee by H. H. Hildebrandsson and G. Hell- 

 mann. Pp. 80. (London : H.M.'s Stationery 

 Office, iqog.) Price is. T,d. 

 Progress in the observational sciences depends to a 

 great extent on cooperation among those engaged in 

 collecting and making generally available the observa- 

 tional data, and in no subject is this more true than 

 in meteorology, in which the number of individuals 

 who have to be brought within the meshes of the 

 N'O. 2070, VOL. 81] 



general organisation is exceptionally great. Much 

 has been accomplished in the direction of drawing up 

 rules for general guidance, but the lack of a satis- 

 factory index to the various reports in which these 

 are embodied has hitherto made it difficult to find the 

 information bearing on any given point. Recognising 

 this difliculty, the International Meteorological Com- 

 mittee, at its meeting at Southport in 1903, requested 

 the authors to prepare a summary of what had been 

 already accomplished. 



The manuscript: of the " Codex," which takes the 

 form of a reprint from the minutes of the meetings of 

 all important resolutions, with short explanatory para- 

 graphs interspersed, was submitted for approval at 

 the International Conference of Directors of Observa- 

 tories and Otfices, held at Innsbruck in 1905. Sub- 

 sequently Dr. Hellmann incorporated the decisions 

 adopted at that meeting, and the German edition of 

 the work was issued by the Royal Prussian Meteor- 

 ological Institute in 1907. In the English edition. Dr. 

 Shaw has incorporated the resolutions adopted by the 

 International Committee at Paris in 1907, and we 

 have thus a complete summary of the work accom- 

 plished by the seventeen international meetings which 

 have been held since 1872, the date of the first con- 

 ference, held at Leipzig. In view of the large area 

 over which the English-speaking peoples hold sway, 

 the publication of an English edition of the work is 

 very welcome, and should prove of great service to all 

 engaged in meteorological or magnetic work. A full 

 index to the " reports on progress " in particular 

 branches, and to the scientific papers which have 

 appeared as appendices to the minutes of the meet- 

 ings, is not the least valuable part of the book. 



The Balance of Nature, and Modern Conditions of 

 Cultivation : A Practical Manual of .Animal Foes and 

 Friends, for the Country Gentleman, the Farmer, 

 the Forester, the Gardener, and the Sportsman. 

 By George Abbey. Pp. xlvii + 278. (London : 

 Routledge and Sons, Ltd. ; New York : E. P. Dutton 

 and Co., 1909.) Price 7.?. 6d. net. 

 In his preface the author, who appears to have had a 

 very large experience in trapping vermin, states that 

 the only natural-history works he has consulted are 

 " Wood's Natural History " and " The Popular 

 Encycloptedia." All we can say is the more's the 

 pity, for had he undertaken a somewhat wider and 

 more modern course of reading we might have been 

 spared such out-of-date statements as that the hedge- 

 hog is a member of the same family as the one w-hicfi 

 includes the mole and the shrewmouse, or that there 

 are two British species of dormice and also of water- 

 shrews. Such errors are possibly excusable in a writer 

 who is not a zoologist; but what can be said of a 

 so-called sportsman or outdoor naturalist who states 

 that only tame red deer are hunted in England, and 

 that wild roebuck are unknown south of Scotland? 



But if the text be bad the illustrations, which the 

 author declares to be diagrammatic, are ten times 

 worse, the climax being reached in the figure of the 

 roebuck, which is represented with a long tail ! 



As regards the economic portions of the work, the 

 author appears to know more of his subject, and we 

 trust his observations will be found of use to the 

 country gentlemen and farmers for whom the volume 

 is specially intended. We must, however, express sur- 

 prise at the merciless manner in which he advocates 

 trapping and other methods of destruction ; and we 

 are still more concerned at the statement on p. 201 

 that fish-preservation societies scruple not to destroy 

 the kingfisher, especially if they countenance the use 

 of the cruel pole-trap depicted on the same page. 



R. L. 



