October 2 i, 1909] 



NA TURE 



48: 



regions and subregions of the world as defined by 

 Wallace, Sclater, and others, with some reference to 

 the views of other zoologists and botanists on the 

 subject. After this, the various regions and districts 

 of the world are discussed, first with regard to 

 their climatic conditions, and secondly with reference 

 to the species of Lepidoptera known to inhabit them, 

 of which, in many instances, very full lists are given. 

 This portion of the worlc contains an enormous 

 amount of valuable detail, and much scattered inform- 

 ation is brought together which it would be very 

 difficult to utilise in its original form. This portion 

 of the work is the most extensive, but cannot here 

 be discussed in detail. 



The concluding section deals with the geographical 

 distribution of Lepidoptera under their families and 

 genera, and this also is very completely set forth. 

 The book is illustrated by two outline maps, one 

 (facing p. 62) indicating the regions and subregions 

 of the world, as mapped out by Wallace and Sclater, 

 .and the other (facing p. 217) representing the Mala\ 

 .\rchipelago from the Nicobars and Malacca to the 

 Philippines, New Guinea, and North Australia. 



Dr. Pagenstecher has not indulged in mucli 

 theorising, but his book forms a great quarry from 

 which philosophical speculators will be able to ex- 

 tract a vast amount of material. It is not a book 

 that either systematic lepidopterists or philosophical 

 naturalists can afford to ignore, and they will have 

 reason to be very grateful to the author for the con- 

 scientious care that he has devoted to this most 

 laborious and useful book. W. F. K. 



AGRICULTURAL FERTILISERS. 

 Fertilisers and Manures. By A. D. Hall, F.R.S. 

 Pp. xvi + 3S4. (London : John Murray, 1909.) Price 

 5i-. net. 



MR. H.\LL has again succeeded in producing a 

 worlv which will appeal with equal force to the 

 practical and to the scientific agriculturist, and will do 

 much to overcome that innate prejudice of the ordinary 

 practical farmer against science by showing him the 

 enormous influence science has had in determining a 

 rational system of manuring, and in giving him the 

 knowledge of a variety of substances of use to him in 

 his business of food production, as well as in securing 

 for him a safeguard against adulteration by un- 

 scrupulous traders. In the history and evolution of 

 the practice of keeping up the crop-producing power 

 of the soil Mr. Hall examines critically the various 

 theories of manuring adduced from time to time, and 

 the experiments upon which they are based, and the 

 study of merely this part of the work will be of 

 supreme importance to the practical man and to the 

 student in showing how experiments may be miscon- 

 strued and conclusions of the most erroneous descrip- 

 tion drawn. 



The recommendations as to the manuring of farm 

 crops are tempered with sound advice, and the im- 

 possibility of prescribing more than a generally suit- 

 able method of manuring without a careful study of 

 soil and climatic conditions extending over some years 

 NO. 2086, VOL. 81] 



is well demonstrated. Mr. Hall gives some timely 

 warnings as to deductions from field experiments, of 

 which there has been such a plethora in recent years, 

 with their unscientific methods both of carrying out 

 and of deduction. The importance of taking into 

 account the experimental error, which is estimated at 

 ±10 per cent., and of neglecting results within these 

 limits should be taken to heart by all who carry on 

 these so-called "experiments." 



The chapter on farmyard manure is eminently 

 practical and useful, and recent work on such subjects 

 as root excretions, effect of fertilisers on tilth, and on 

 residual values of manures, brings the book well up 

 to date. It is sought to distinguish between manures 

 and fertilisers, the former designating more or less 

 complete plant foods, the latter those materials which 

 supply one element in the plant food, nitrogen, potash, 

 or phosphoric acid. The perversion of the meaning 

 of the word manure from its original significance, 

 hand work, is no less curious than the use of the 

 word tillage to mean artificial manures, which use still 

 persists in the eastern Midlands. The part of the 

 work relating to lime is worthy of serious attention 

 from all agriculturists, as it is probable that the lack 

 of carbonate of lime in a soil is more often than any 

 other cause an explanation of the comparative infer- 

 tility or absence of satisfactory results from manuring. 

 A chapter on the valuation and purchase of fertilisers 

 puts this important method of calculation simply and 

 accurately, and a concise statement of the Fertilisers 

 and Feeding Stuffs Act will be useful to all users 

 of manures. 



Mr. Hall's remarks on the soil-inoculation question 

 supplement and strengthen the advice he gave in his 

 work on the soil, and the experiments on the new- 

 nitrogenous fertilisers, cyanamide and nitrate of lime, 

 show the values of these fertilisers in terms of theii 

 competitors, nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia. 

 The Rothamsted experiments are, of course, freely 

 drawn upon to provide data, and in the hands of 

 the present director of that station these results are 

 being endowed with fresh life and excellently prac- 

 tical' applications. The tables of results are concise 

 and well arranged, so that the reader is not faced 

 with an immense array of figures and tables, and be- 

 wildered without being enlightened. To sum up, this 

 is a sound and scientific book which should be in the 

 hands of' every practical agriculturist as well as in 

 those of the student, the teacher, and the manufac- 

 turer. M. J. R. D. 



THE NATURE OF ATTENTION. 



Attention. By Prof. W. B. Pillsbury. Pp. x-(-346. 

 (London : Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd., 1908.) 

 Price 10s. 6d. net. 



IN 1906 Prof. Pillsbury published a book on atten- 

 tion in the " Bibliotheque Internationale de 

 Psychologic exp^rimentale." This work, w^ith sub- 

 stantial additions, now appears in English as the latest 

 volume of Prof. Muirhead's Library of Philosophy. It 

 may be welcomed as a usefui member of the series,. 



