September 23, 1909] 



NATURE 



565 



chapter dealing with the extraction of alkaloids from 

 the various crude drugs — seeds, leaves, roots — in which 

 they occur, and the determination of the proportion 

 present. This is followed by sections which treat of the 

 individual drugs and the galenical preparations con- 

 taining them. The alkaloids of gelsemium, hyoscy- 

 amus, stramonium, coca, colchicum, conium, 

 hydrastis, ipecacuanha, physostigma, pilocarpus, 

 tobacco, strophanthus, and veratrum are included, as 

 well as the commoner alkaloids, and this part of the 

 work should be a boon to chemists or students in- 

 terested in the examination of these products. 



The space allotted to the analysis of water and 

 food-stuffs does not allow of the articles being dis- 

 cussed at any length. Milk, butter, oils and fats, 

 starch, and sugar are dealt with, and the outlines 

 of principles and processes given are trustworthy as 

 far as they go. 



For the sake of the numerous references which 

 the author supplies, one can readilv forgive him his 

 occasional lapses into slipshod English. The- book 

 contains a wealth of information, and considered as 

 a whole is an e.xcellent production. C. S. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 



Ccologischer Fuhrcr dutch Dahnaticn. Bv Dr. R. 



Schubert. Pp. xxiv+176. (Berlin: Borntraeger, 



1909.) Price 5.60 marks. 

 There are few portions of the map of Europe more 

 attractive to the eye of the geographer and the geolo- 

 gist than the coast of the northern .\driatic. On the 

 one hand we have the coast of deposition, starting 

 from the .A.pennine foothills north of Pesaro, and more 

 and more emphasised in the swampy fiats of Ravenna 

 and \'enice, until we reach the jungle-like woods of 

 Monfalcone. Beyond this we come against steeplv 

 descending limestone hills, with a " karst " character 

 already manifest. The blue water at Trieste speaks 

 of the coast of subsidence that stretches to the south- 

 east, with chains of islands parallel with the tec- 

 tonic features of the land. 



Dr. Schubert sums up the geological features of 

 Dalmatia in a work intended for the instructed 

 traveller. Cretaceous limestones play a large part in 

 the country, but are concealed over much of the north 

 by fresh-water and marine Eocene strata. The marine 

 limestones of Middle Eocene age are here overlapped 

 by the brackish-water marls and fluviatile con- 

 glomerates of the Promina series, which were laid 

 down in Upper Eocene, and possiblv finallv in Oligo- 

 cene, times, after a general uplift of the area (p. 

 xvii). The Eocene sea itself had represented a return 

 to marine conditions after a terrestrial and lagoon 

 ■stage which closed the local Cretaceous system. The 

 folding from north-east to south-west, which has 

 determined the salient features of modern Dalmatia, 

 took place in Oligocene times (p. 173). 



While the corresponding depression of the .\driatic 

 may have begun, through the production of faults, 

 soon after the Oligocene period, the sea did not in- 

 vade the northern part of its present basin until what 

 we may call human times. The Po and its tribu- 

 taries, dependent on the growth of the Alpine chain, 

 carried detritus across this area, and the sinking- that 

 has separated the alluvial Italian region from the 

 rocky shore of Istria began in the Glacial and con- 

 tinued into the Roman epoch. The chains of islands 

 off the Dalmatian coast have thus a very modern 

 origin. 



NO. 2082, VOL. Si] 



Dr. Schubert guides the traveller on a series of 

 excursions, with useful notes as to the accommoda- 

 tion on the wav. He wisely points out that a know- 

 ledge of either Italian or Croatian, preferably the 

 latter, is essential for those who go beyond the tourist 

 routes. The price of his compact volume, with its 

 numerous references to other literature, will not seem 

 high, when one considers how long it will be before 

 any large number of visitors will venture far from 

 the conifortable steamers on the coast. The desire for 

 luxury during travel fortunately leaves many European 

 districts, like Dalmatia, free for ' those who prefer 

 to studv and observe at their own leisure. 



G. A. J. C. 



Eiitwickchiug tnid Untergnug des Kopernikanischen 

 Wcltsystcms be: den Alten. By O. T. Schulz. 

 Pp. 143. (Stuttgart, Verlag : Neue Weltanschau- 

 ung, 1909.) 

 This essay is the first of a series entitled " Weltan- 

 schauungs-Fragen." It deals with the ideas of the 

 Greeks about the construction of the world, but, not- 

 withstanding the title, the standpoint of the author is 

 that of an "historian of geography, and not that of 

 an historian of astronomy. He is evidently quite at 

 liome when sketching the gradual rise of geographi- 

 cal knowledge and illustrating it by maps. But when 

 he comes to" the astronomical part of his subject he 

 has apparently only Zeller's " Philosophic der 

 Griechen '' and Schiaparelli's memoir on the pre- 

 cursors of Copernicus to build on, while Schiaparelli's 

 later paper on the very subject indicated by the title 

 of the present essay, ' as well as the writings _ of 

 Tannerv, Hultsch, and others, are unknown to him. 

 The author makes no attempt to point out how 

 .•\ristarchus mav have been led to the idea of the 

 earth's motion 'round the sun, and tells the reader 

 nothing about the systems of movable excentrics or 

 epicycles. He states' that .Aristarchus at first believed 

 in the motion of the sun round the earth, and that 

 he says so in his little book on the distances^ of the 

 sun and moon. But there is not a word in this book 

 as to whether the sun or the earth is in motion. 

 As regards the failure of the heliocentric idea to 

 secure" acceptance, the only reason given by the 

 author is that Hipparchus considered it not to be 

 based on sufficiently lengthy observations. We cannot 

 imagine where the "author got this piece of informa- 

 tion" from, as there is no allusion to the system of 

 .Aristarchus in the preserved writings of Hipparchus 

 and Ptolemv. What Hipparchus did say was that 

 he did not 'himself possess sufficient observations to 

 work out the theorv of the orbital inequalities of the 

 f^ve planets. But these have nothing to do with the 

 motion of the earth. The author adds that there is 

 nj original research in the .Mmagest ! 



When dealing with the views of Plato, the author 

 repeats the statements current sixty years ago about 

 Plato's doctrine respecting the rotation of the earth 

 and about his change of opinion in his old age as 

 to which body was in the centre of the world. One 

 cannot help wondering whether it really is of any 

 use to trv to kill historical errors. They seem to be 

 immortal'. -At least, popular writers on the history 

 of science are generally not aware that they are dead 

 and buried long ago. J- L. E. D. 



Excnrsioiisbuch zmn Stiidiiim dcr Vdgelstiinmcii. By 

 Prof, ^'oigt. Pp. 326. (Leipzig: Quelle und 

 Meyer, n.d.) Price 3 marks. 

 This is the fifth edition of an excellent manual of the 

 songs and other notes of birds, suitable for carrying in 

 thepocket during walks and excursions. .'\s a matter 

 of fact, it is better for the learner to find out for himself 



