302 Reviews and Book Notices. 



minerals coming under the respective sub-headings. The Preface and 

 Introduction explain the scope of the work, and when these have been 

 mastered, there is no doubt the book will be of service to the practical 

 worker. Nine and sixpence seems sufficient for 166 pages, but no doubt 

 a fair proportion goes to the person who has had to cut so many pages in 

 so many different ways. 



A Pocket Handbook of Minerals, by G. M. Butler. 2nd edition. New 

 York and London: (Chapman & Hall), 311 pp. 11/6. This handbook is 

 by the ' Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology and Dean' at the University 

 of Arizona, and is ' designed for use in the field or class room with little 

 reference to chemical tests.' It deals with the various minerals under the 

 heads of Name, Composition, Hardness, Lustre, Colour, Streak, Cleavage, 

 etc. ; there is a good index and elaborate tables at the end. Illustrations 

 are given of typical crystals and minerals, one being of ' Arazonite, Cum- 

 berland, England.' The volume is printed on very thin paper, on small- 

 sized pages with rounded corners, evidently to fit into the pocket. The 

 price however, seem rather ' stiff " even for these times, but as a ' second 

 thousand ' has been issued, the book evidently fills a want. 



Studies in Insect Life, by Dr. A. E. Shipley. London : T. Fisher 

 Unwin, 338 pp., 10s. 6d. net. Dr. Shipley's charming style is so well 

 known that a book of his needs no recommendation from us. We merely 

 chronicle its appearance. The ' Studies ' just issued contain eleven clever 

 essays, not necessarily confined to insects. The subjects are ' Insects 

 and War, the Honey-Bee, The Humble Bee, Moths and Bees, Ocean 

 Depths, Sea fisheries, Sir John Murray, Grouse Disease, Shakespearean 

 Zoology, Science in the Seventh Century, Hate.' Though the subjects 

 dealt with are varied, all are interesting and up-to-date. Some of the 

 essays we had previously read elsewhere, but they are welcome in their 

 present permanent form. Personally we don't like to see a specimen of 

 Homo sapiens as a frontispiece to a book on insects, albeit that the portrait 

 is a very nice one, and of the author. 



The Biology of Dragonflies, by R. J. Tillyard. Cambridge Uni- 

 versity Press, 396 pp., 15/- net. The author tells us that during the 

 past three years he has been able to undertake a considerable amount of 

 work on the internal anatomy of Dragonflies, adding some new discoveries, 

 and here and there rectifying errors. Most of the work is as yet unpub- 

 lished, but a summary appears in the present volume, which is for the 

 biologist rather than the systematist. More than ninety per cent, of the 

 papers so far published, dealing with the Odonata, have been systematic 

 in their aim. ' It is hoped that the method of treatment followed in this 

 book, by which the morphological, phylogenetic and physiological view- 

 points have been correlated, in so far as our present knowledge allows, 

 will enable students of the Odonata to take up any line of research in 

 this interesting order with a full knowledge of what has already been 

 achieved.' Besides dealing with the various parts of the Dragon fly, the 

 author refers to embryology, classification, distribution, the geological 

 record, bionomics, and collecting and rearing. One chapter is devoted 

 to British species. There is a Bibliography, a Glossary, map and plates. 



On Growth and Form, by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. Cambridge 

 University Press, pp. xvi. + 793, 21/- net. The author tells us that 

 this volume of over 800 closely printed pages is ' all preface ' from beginning 

 to end. He has ' written it as an easy introduction to the study of organic 

 form, by methods which are the common-places of physical science, 

 which are by no means novel in their application to natural history, but 

 which nevertheless naturalists are little accustomed to employ.' He shows 

 that a certain mathematical aspect of morphology, to which as yet the 

 morphologist gives little heed, is interwoven with his problems, comple- 

 mentary to his descriptive task, and helpful, nay essential, to his proper 



Naturalist, 



