68 



NA TURE 



[July 15, 1909 



are disposed of and some errors criticised, it does not 

 incorporate that earlier work. 



In tlie descriptive part 'of the memoir thirtv-nine 

 species are enumerated, of which thirty are regarded 

 as new, and are exhaustively described. The jjeneral 

 remarlis refer to eighty-eight species — the thirty-nine 

 species treated by the author, and forty-nine species 

 dealt with in the earlier reports — and furnish the evi- 

 dence of the author's main conclusions. These con- 

 clusions are that the deep-sea starfish of the Bay of 

 Bengal and Arabian Sea are much more Phanerozonia 

 than Cryptozonia, and that their geographical affini- 

 ties, so far as they can be discerned at all, are ex- 

 clusively Indo-Pacific, with a slight Hawaiian touch. 



Of the new species described by Prof. Koehler, five 

 are separated as types of new genera. These are 

 Johannaster, which is placed with very justifiable hesi- 

 tation among the Plutonasteridae, for some of its char- 

 acters suggest a pentagonasterid connection ; Phidi- 

 aster, which seems scarcely distinct from Psilaster ; 

 Sidonaster, which agrees in all points with Porcel- 

 lanaster, except that, as in other porcellanasterid 

 genera, the elements of the cribriform organs are 

 papillar instead of lamellar; and Circeaster and Lydi- 

 aster, both of which are Antheneids having the abac- 

 tinal plates of the disk much smaller than those of 

 the rays. 



It may be thought that the limits of some at least 

 of these genera are cut too tine to last ; and of the 

 descriptions of species it may almost be said that 

 they are accurate expositions of specimens rather than 

 impressive definitions of nature's products; but such 

 is the way of systematic zoology nowadays. 



The memoir is most bountifully and most beautifully 

 illustrated by the author's own hand ; the plates, which 

 are thirteen in number, are quite above criticism. 



Antimony : its History, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geo- 

 logy, Metallurgy, Uses, Preparations, Anah'sis, 

 Production, and ]'aluation ; with complete Biblio- 

 graphies for Studcnis, Manufacturers, and Users of 

 Antimony. By Chung Yu Wang. Pp. x + 217; 

 illustrated. (London : C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1909.) 

 Price 12s. 6d. net. 

 Mr. W.\ng observes in his preface that a metallurgical 

 work in English by a Chinese author is unusual. 

 After reading the book, the conclusion is irresistible 

 that English metallurgists w'ould gain if Chinese 

 authors were more numerous. Mr. Wang has treated 

 his subject with the greatest respect, and has drawn 

 up with methodical care a complete treatise which will 

 be very useful to all students of the subject. The 

 long and apparently exhaustive bibliographv at the 

 end of each chapter would alone give the book a right 

 to a place on metallurgists' shelves, but in many cases 

 the facts are sufficiently set forth in the present work. 



The author carried out some practical tests of the 

 latest volatilisation process of extracting antimony from 

 its ores, which was patented last year by M. Herren- 

 schmidt, and seems to have been much impressed bv 

 its merits. The account of these tests is, however, 

 almost the only original matter in the book, which is 

 mainly a compilation of previously published material, 

 printed without comment. Its merits lie chiefly in the 

 logical sequence and the accuracy of the extracts. 



Etirage, Trefilage. Dressage des Prodiiits metallur- 



giques. By M. Georges Soliman. Pp. 164. (Paris : 



Gauthier-Villars and Masson et Cie., n.d.) Price 



3 francs. 



This interesting little work, one of the well-known 



" Aide-Memoire " series, deals with its subject from 



a practical point of view. It is divided into five 



chapters, the first considering shortly the general 



mechanical properties of metals and alloys such as 



NO. 2072, VOL. 81] 



tensile, shock, bending, hardness, and torsion tests. 

 Chapter ii. shows the influence of annealing and of 

 cold work. Chapter iii. is devoted to " etirage," or 

 drawing, defined as " an operation which has for its 

 object the completing of work done by rolling and 

 giving to the metal a cross-section which cannot be 

 obtained by rolling," after the manner of wire-drawing 

 ("trefilage," chapter iv.), which is a special case of 

 drawing where the cross-section is circular. Chapter v. 

 gives a short account of methods of straightening 

 (" dressage "). A. McW. 



Nutrition and Evolution. By Hermann Reinheimer. 



Pp. xii + 284. (London: John M. Watkins, 1909.) 



Price 6x. net. 

 This is an essay on the importance of nutrition as a 

 factor in evolution, and the author is in good com- 

 pany. For was it not Claude Bernard who said, 

 " revolution, c'est I'ensemble constant de ces alterna- 

 tives de la nutrition; c'est la nutrition consider^e dans 

 sa rdalitd, embrass^e d'un coup d'oeil k travers le 

 temps "? To have had this thesis worked out in a 

 methodical manner would have been great gain, but 

 the author is not strong in scientific method. He has 

 gleaned far and wide to illustrate " the evolutionary 

 aspects of nutrition," and while he has a crow to pick 

 with most of his authorities, who have not the 

 " central key of a uniform analysis," he uses them 

 when they suit him to back up his conclusion " that in 

 its silent effects nutrition is one of the most formid- 

 able factors in the shaping of individual and racial 

 destinies." The conclusion is sound, but we cannot 

 say this of many of the arguments. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can lie undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part o/Natijre. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



Bessel's Functions. 



I ON'CE Stated that a good style of writing' English is 

 not a strong point amongst British mathematicians, and 

 the justice of this remark is exemplified by Prof. Hill's 

 letter on this subject (Nature, July S), since it contains 

 the phrases Meissel's tables, Smith's tables, .\ldis' tables, 

 Isherwood's tables, which are correct; and Bessel functions, 

 British Association tables, which are wrong. It is not in 

 general permissible in English to employ a proper noun 

 as an adjective, for the rules of grammar require either the 

 use of the genitive case, or the conversion of the noun into 

 an adjective, as in the words Newtonian, Lagrangean. 



The British Association is one of the most important 

 societies in the British Empire ; it long ago discarded 

 the insularity of our ancestors, and has become cosmo- 

 politan in its operations. It is therefore not too much to 

 expect that it will conform to the rules of grammar in its 

 publications, and employ its influence in encouraging a 

 good literary style. 



I do not understand what Prof. Hill means by Neumann's 

 functions. I believe that Neumann was the first mathe- 

 matician who studied the properties of zonal harmonics and 

 allied functions of degree k-(-s, where n is zero or a positive 1 1 

 integer ; but the subject was afterwards taken up and • ] 

 greatly extended by Prof. W. M. Hicks in connection with 

 circular vortex motion. Hicks calls these harmonics 

 toroidal functions, which is a much better phrase, since it 

 puts in evidence the fact that these functions are connected 

 with the potentials of anchor rings or tores. 



There is also another class of functions which are zonal 

 harmonics of complex degree m — 2. These have been 

 studied by Hobson (Trans. Camb. Phil. See, vol. xiv., 

 p. 211), who calls them conal harmonics. 



A. B. Basset. 



Fledborough Hall, Holyport, Berks, July 9. 



