902 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 388. 



nati\e ma.nmals. Hence it is hardly surpris- 

 ing that in the structure of its body this ani- 

 mal exhibits marked differences from all the 

 other habitants of the forest." Like the ele- 

 phant, it forces its way through the thickets. 

 It is consequently equipped with (1) a conical 

 head ; (2) short, powerful legs ; (3) tough skin ; 

 (4) coat of bristles; (5) deep-set eyes. It 

 lives in the marsh. The separating toes pre- 

 vent sinking; the body is kept from cooling in 

 the water by the thick layer of fat. The 

 bristles dry quickly so that little heat is lost. 

 The boar is omnivorous, hence such and such 

 teeth, hearing, sight. It burrows, hence shape 

 of head, snout, canine teeth, muscles of neck, 

 spinous processes of cervical vertebrae, distri- 

 bution. Finally the boar has certain relations 

 to man. 



This method is followed throughout the 

 book. It is very illuminating. The great 

 difficulty is that in the attempt to explain 

 everything one cannot but feel that the au- 

 thor sometimes resorts to explanations that 

 are merely possible and plausible. 



On the whole, however, the book is to be 

 strongly commended to the general reader and 

 to the consideration of the teacher of zoology 

 in secondary schools and colleges. This is the 

 sort of zoology that is to be preferred to pure 

 morphology as an introduction to the science. 

 The selection of such heavy paper and large 

 size of pages seems unfortunate for a text- 

 book,, for, because adding to the price of the 

 book, they must restrict its use. 



C. B. Davenport. 



Handhook on Sanitation. A Manual of 

 Theoretical and Practical Sanitation. By 

 George M. Price, M.D. New York, John 

 Wiley & Sons; London, Chapman & Hall, 

 Ltd. 1901. 12mo. Pp. xii + 31Y; figs. 

 31. Cloth, $1.50 tiet. 



The book is of four parts, 'Sanitary Sci- 

 ence,' 'Sanitary Practice,' 'Sanitary Inspec- 

 tion' and 'Sanitary Law.' 



Part one is stated to be a 'condensed but 

 comprehensive resume of the best text-books.' 

 It is vastly too condensed to be of use to 

 'students and physicians.' Thus the question 

 of 'water and water-supply' is disposed of in 



seven and a half pages, and nine and a half 

 are given to 'sewage and sewage disposal.' 



Carbon dioxide should not be classed as a 

 'virulent poison,' and the statement that car- 

 bon monoxide 'may produce death when in- 

 haled in large amounts' does not do justice 

 to the highly poisonous qualities of that gas. 



On page 21 it is written that 'as a rule 

 the height of a room ought to be about on& 

 third of the cubic space.' 



The error of such an expression is apparent. 

 Possibly the author had in mind the 'cube- 

 root' rather than 'one third.' 



The chapters on plumbing are good and well 

 illustrated. 



Considerable information of value, such as- 

 tables of measurements, elementary mensura- 

 tion, extracts from civil service rules, and 

 tenement-house law, is included in the last 

 half of the volume. As a whole, the book 

 contains material useful to a certain class of 

 inspectors, but it is an error to entitle it 'a 

 manual of theoretical and practical sanita- 

 tion.' 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The Botanical Gazette for May contains, 

 the following articles: The third and last 

 part of the paper by Frederick C. Newcombe- 

 on 'The Kheotropism of Roots' appears, and 

 the paper as a whole embodies important re- 

 sults from several years of experimentation. 

 Mr. Newcombe's first paper upon the subject 

 was read before the American Association in 

 1896. The detailed results of the numerous 

 well-devised experiments cannot be given, but 

 the conclusion of the whole matter may be- 

 summed up as follows: Rheotropism is an 

 obscure phenomenon manifested in the curv- 

 ing of roots against a stream of water. The 

 author finds the response not general among 

 plants, there being but twenty sensitive spe- 

 cies out of thirty-four tested. Velocities of 

 flow causing a response may range from 0.1 

 cm. to 500 cm. per minute, though the strong- 

 est curves are formed in velocities between- 

 100 cm. and 500 cm. per minute. A remark- 

 able discovery was made in finding the roots 

 sensitive not only at the apex and throughout 

 the elongating zone, but for some distance 



