114 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1179 



Shokabo, Nihonbaslii, Tokyo, June, 1917, 



3.50 yen. 



Dr. T. Miyake, of the Imperial Agricultural 

 Experiment Station at Nishigahara, Tokyo, 

 has just brought out an excellent book which 

 will serve as the fii-st part of a handbook of 

 entomology. It is beautifully printed in Ja- 

 panese, fiilly illustrated, and handsomely 

 bound. It deals with the morphology, physiol- 

 ogy and embryology of insects, a field to which, 

 the author states, Japanese entomologists have 

 hitherto made very few contributions. The 

 book is therefore largely a compilation, though 

 here and there the researches of Japanese ento- 

 mologists are quoted. The work is a pioneer 

 of its kind, and the most detailed book that has 

 ever appeared in Japan. It covers 347 pages 

 and contains 227 figures. The majority of the 

 figures are borrowed from German, American, 

 English and other writers, and are fully 

 credited. Some of the line drawings are ap- 

 parently original and are very well done. 



Dr. Miyake proposes, in his second volume, 

 to publish a brief history of entomology in 

 Japan. He expects to publish four volumes 

 in all, the entire work to be used as a text-book 

 for colleges and universities. It is a pity that 

 European and American entomologists have 

 such a slight knowledge of the Japanese lan- 

 guage, for the book has a very attractive ap- 

 pearance and many would like to consult it. 

 L. O. Howard 



HERB-GROWING IN THE BRITISH 

 EMPIRE 



The British Medical Journal states that at 

 the meeting of the Eoyal Society of Arts on 

 May 2nd Mr. J. C. Shenstone, F.L.S., read a 

 paper on herb-growing in the British empire. 

 At the present time, he said, herbal remedies 

 occupied a more important place in the med- 

 ical and domestic practise in most European 

 countries than they did with us. When the war 

 broke out the discovery was made that we had 

 become dependent upon the Central Empires 

 not only for synthetic chemicals, but for the 

 supply of herbal medicines formerly grown 

 by us. Some of these plants, such as bella- 

 donna, henbane, foxglove, eolchicum, and per- 



haps valerian and male fern, were indispen- 

 sable, but although they had belonged to our 

 native flora, or at least had been cultivated 

 in this country from very early times, their 

 cultivation had fallen into neglect. The same 

 was true of less valuable plants such as the 

 dandelion, poppy capsules, and camomile 

 flowers. As to belladonna and henbane, it 

 was pretty certain that their alkaloidal value 

 could be raised considerably without increas- 

 ing the cost of production, but for this pur- 

 pose the cooperation of the chemist would be 

 required. It has also been stated that the 

 wild foxglove of this country could supply the 

 market for digitalis. A medical friend who 

 collected his own digitalis and prepared his 

 own tincture had told him that he found that 

 foxglove growing on a hot sandy bank pro- 

 tected by a wood gave him the best results. Ex- 

 periments in producing the most active dan- 

 delion juice would be worth consideration. 

 Liquorice, most of which came from Spain 

 and Italy, could be cultivated in Essex and 

 Surry, and was already grown in Yorkshire. 

 Many valuable drugs imported from the 

 American continent were not unsuited to our 

 climate; Podophyllum peltatum, Linn., im- 

 ported from America, had figured in. our gar- 

 den catalogues as a decorative plant. He 

 begged medical men to give some attention, 

 in conjunction with pharmacists and botan- 

 ists, to investigating likely plants, for there 

 could be no doubt that the varied and numer- 

 ous flora of the British Empire would yield 

 medicines of even greater value than those 

 imported from foreign countries. Sir Robert 

 Armstrong-Jones, who occupied the chair, 

 said that there were eighty or one hundred 

 medicinal herbs and plants of medicinal 

 value; Mr. Shenstone had referred to about 

 forty of them, but the remainder could also 

 be grown practically within our empire. 

 There were many reasons for the decay in 

 the use of the medicinal herbs, but the chief 

 was the insinuating tablet. If herb-growing 

 were taken in hand, it should be done at once, 

 for belladonna only paid in the second year 

 and aconite in the third. He understood that 

 the shortage of digitalis had now been just 



