August 22, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



187 



ington, where Mr. Gavett saw it, it must have 

 been nearly 2,500 miles long. 



Wm. a. Conrad 

 TJ. S. Naval Observatory, 

 Washington, D. C. 



monkeys as coconut pickers 



E. W. GuDGER has recently called attention 

 in Science to the use of monkeys as coconut 

 pickers. The Malays and Bataks of Sumatra 

 very commonly use monkeys in this way. The 

 current English name there for the monkeys, 

 Macacus Nemestrinus, is " coconut-monkey." 

 The work of picking the nuts is performed in 

 a way essentially the same as that described 

 by Shelford and quoted by Gudger. 



These monkeys not only work, but have a 

 considerable commercial value as laborers. 

 The price of a trained coconut monkey ranges 

 from about $8.00 to $30.00 ; a price far above 

 that put upon other common sorts of monkeys 

 which are kept only as pets. 



Coconut monkeys grow to a considerable 

 size, and are very strong. They are also, 

 usually savage, and will inflict a nasty bite 

 whenever they have a chance. 



Carl D. La Eue 



Kisaran, Asahan, Sumatra 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Yital Statistics: An Introduction to the Sci- 

 ence of Demography. By George Chand- 

 ler .Whipple. New York, John Wiley and 



• Sons. 1919. Pp. 517. $4.00 net. 



■ Vital statistics have developed slowly in the 

 United States. In spite of much progress in 

 recent years, official records, including fed- 

 eral, state and municipal, still lack much in 

 extent of the field covered and in detail of 

 treatment. A nation-wide registration area 

 for the recording and analysis of the elemen- 

 tary vital phenomena of birth and death is 

 still unattained. A number of states and 

 niany of our cities of good size and of un- 

 doubted prosperity and economic development 

 make no serious effort to collect the facts of 

 their vital resources. It is no wonder then 

 that we, in America, have lacked adequate 

 text-books and competent teachers for the in- 

 struction of those interested in the science of 



vital statistics. Physicians who would profit 

 most from knowledge of the subject receive 

 virtually no instruction in this science. 

 Health officers, in like manner, have only, 

 within the last few years, awakened to the 

 value of vital statistics as a mechanism in 

 their work and only a few are competent to 

 use it effectively. 



Professor Whipple's book will, therefore, 

 help to fill a long felt want. It is, frankly, 

 a book for health officers. It is not intended 

 for advanced students as a contribution to 

 the method of statistics. It is rather a guide 

 to those who would be familiar with the simp- 

 lest methods as applied to the public health 

 field. Only Dr. Newsholme's volume on vital 

 statistics (now out of print) has been avail- 

 able for English readers during the last three 

 decades. The present book, perhaps alto- 

 gether more attractive in its mode of ap- 

 proach, will now serve American students 

 and will present recent, often current, data 

 concerning their own country. 



The book may be divided into two parts ; 

 the first covers the technique of practical 

 statistics, the second discusses the phases of 

 vital phenomena of populations. The appen- 

 dices give a rather incomplete bibliography, 

 the model law for reporting diseases, births 

 and deaths and logarithms of numbers up' 

 to 10,000. 



The first section, pages one to ninety-nine, 

 is a useful first aid to the student of the 

 methods of crude statistical description. The 

 usual devices and methods are described 

 clearly and even pleasingly. This is ob- 

 viously Professor Whipple's forte. He, as a 

 sanitary engineer, has given proper place iii 

 his own writings to the graphic methods and 

 to other attractive means of clear presenta- 

 tion of statistical materials. The student 

 will, however, unless he carries his studies 

 much further than the text, find himself only 

 &t the threshold of statistical method after he 

 has covered this first part. Perhaps this is 

 all that is intended by the author, who as- 

 sumes no special mathematical skill or eqiiip- 

 ment on the part of his students. This sec- 

 tion would ordinarily have given the greatest 



