July 29, 1909] 



NA TURE 



\2- 



value has been done for the advancement of otology, 

 one expects to find mention at least of that ^vhich 

 fairly may be described as epoch-making. Yet the 

 pioneer work of Lake, Marriage, Armour, and 

 Vearsley in operations upon the labyrinth for the relief 

 of distressing and incurable vertigo and tinnitus 

 receives no attention, whilst the still more recent re- 

 searches of Bdrany are barely noticed, and those of 

 West, Scott, Crum-Brown, and Alexander are passed 

 over in silence. 



For the work as a text-book we can speak witli 

 moderate approbation. There is no dissertation upon 

 anatomy to swell the book, but the author plunges 

 straightway into methods of examination and diag- 

 nosis. This portion is not too much padded with 

 unnecessary pictures of instruments, and the diagrams 

 are adequate, with the exception of Fig. 13, which is 

 exaggerated and wholly unnatural. A considerable 

 number of pages is devoted to the functional testing 

 of the ears, and this appears to be treated very fully 

 and exhaustively. In dealing with anomalies of the 

 hearing, a series of useful charts is given from actual 

 cases. In treating of the various diseases of and 

 operations upon the ear, we can find no mention of the 

 use of the hand-gouge in place of the chisel and mallet 

 in performing operations upon the mastoid, an im- 

 provement in technique which we owe to British 

 surgery. We fully approve of the classification of 

 otosclerosis with diseases of the bony labyrinthine 

 capsule. This is a distinct advance upon those text- 

 books which continue to describe it as a middle-ear 

 condition. 



An excellent section deals with the effects of general 

 diseases upon the ear, and another is devoted to the 

 toxic effects of quinine, the salicylates, iodide of potass- 

 ium, arsenic, aspirin, chloroform, tobacco, alcohol, 

 mercury, silver, carbon dioxide, and phosphorus. .Sec- 

 tions such as these are so rarely met with in the 

 works of specialists that they deserve unstinted praise. 



It is disappointing to find so important a subject as 

 deaf-mutism dismissed in four pages. 



The volume is an average text-book, and deals with 

 its subject in an average manner, but it does not add 

 markedly to the now voluminous literature of otology. 

 As a guide for the student and junior practitioner, it 

 will, no doubt, find a useful place. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 



Zeiiographical Fragments, II. The Motions and 

 Changes of tlie Markings on Jupiter in 1888. By 

 A. Stanley Williams. Pp. xiii4-io4; 9 plates. ^^ 

 (London : Taylor and Francis, 1909.) ^^-5 



Mk. Willlwis has been known for about thirty years 

 as a very painstaking planetary observer, and, con- 

 sidering the small sizes of his telescopes (5j-inch and 

 tjj-inch reflectors), his results have been remarkable 

 in their comprehensiveness and importance. To 

 Jupiter especially Mr. Williams has devoted attention, 

 and, as a continuation or supplement to the " Zeno- 

 graphic Fragments " which he published twenty years 

 ago, and dealing witli his observations in 1887, has 

 now issued a similar contribution for 1888. The in- 

 dividually observed transits of the various spots are 

 given, and the periods of rotation are derived and 

 compared with the results of 1887 and subsequent 



NO. 2074, VOL. 81] 



years. In 1888 the number of spots followed wkh 

 sufficient fulness and accuracy to enable their rota- 

 tion period to be well determined was 76. Of these, 

 48 were equatorial markings, and 15 were north 

 tropical spots. The power used on the telescope was 

 150, and consisted of a single plano-convex lens. The 

 planet was badly situated for observation, its meridian 

 altitude only slightly exceeding 20° even in the south 

 of England. 



Notwithstanding the difficulties encountered, how- 

 ever, Mr. Williams succeeded in securing a mass of 

 useful observations, the number of spot-transits re- 

 corded being 888. These are carefully discussed, and 

 the results presented in a series of tables. The rota- 

 tion periods deduced during the opposition of 1888 are 

 included with many others by Mr. Williams and 

 Other observers in later years in summaries exhibit- 

 ing the changes of relative velocity from year_ to year. 

 It is by comparisons of this character extending over 

 a long period of time that we may hope finally to 

 unravel the problem offered by the changing scenery 

 of Jupiter's vaporous envelope and by the remarkable 

 .■series of different currents circul.-iting in various 

 latitudes. A number of painstaking observers, in- 

 cluding Mr. Williams, Prof. Hough, Major Moles- 

 worth, Rev. T. E. R. Phillips, Mr. Bolton, aiid 

 others, have accumulated extensive materials, to this 

 end, during the past quarter of a century, but much 

 more remains to be done. 



The comparisons which Mr. Williams has insti- 

 tuted at the end of his volume are not so valuable 

 as they might have been in consequence of omissions 

 in quoting the results of various observers. Thus, in 

 the table of rotations of spots in the south equatorial 

 current, Mr. Phillips's values for 1898 and 1906-7 

 are given, but similar figures for the intervening 

 years are not mentioned at all. Similarly the 

 writer's rotation periods for 1905-6 (Monthly 

 Notices, vol. Ixvi., p. 434) are altogether omitted. 

 On the whole, however, Mr. Williams's new contri- 

 bution to zenographic study is very valuable and ably 

 executed. There are few typographical errors, and 

 the volume is well got up, while the illustrations are 

 excellent, though the differences between the light and 

 dark markings are intensified, perhaps purposely, to 

 assist the eye in noting the details more readilv. 



W. F. D. 



Introduzioni Teoriche ad .ilciini Escrcizi Pratici di 

 Fisica. Bv Alfonso Sella. Edited by A. Pochettino 

 and F. Plola. Pp. viii-l-133. (Firenze : Successori 

 Le Monnier, 1909.) Price 2.50 lire. 

 This is a short treatise on a few selected subjects of 

 practical physics. They comprise the testing of a 

 balance and calibration of a thermometer tube, the 

 measurement of specific heat by the method of mix- 

 tures, the determination of the constants of a ruled 

 grating, the measurement of magnetic field-intensity 

 and its horizontal component, and the use of the 

 Wheatstone bridge and the quadrant electrometer. 

 The various problems involved are treated very fully, 

 but in a purely theoretical manner, evidently intended 

 to point out to the instructor the difficulties and limita- 

 tions likely to be encountered. Thus, in the deter- 

 mination of a magnetic field, the lack of uniformity 

 is dealt with at exceptional length, and the mathe- 

 matical reasoning is given in full at every step. In 

 the measurement of the magnetic quantities M and H, 

 account is taken of such sources of error as the rigidity 

 of the suspending fibre, and the variation of the mag- 

 netic moment and the moment of inertia with the tem- 

 perature. In adding the dimensional equations, the 

 author unfortunately adheres to the old practice of 

 expressing them in terms of M, L, and T only. That 

 M/H = L= (recte L') implies that it has something to 



