May 24, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



581 



Steam Power and MiUwork : By Geo. W. Sut- 

 CLiFFE. Wliittaker& Co., London; Mac- 

 millan & Co., New York. 12mo, pp. xv. 

 8S«. 1895. $4.50. 



This book is one of the excellent series 

 for specialists published recentlj' bj' this 

 firm, and is a very good example of tlie 

 kind of work now coming to be so common 

 in technical departments. It is written for 

 those who are interested in the design, man- 

 ufacture and use of steam engines, mill ma- 

 chinery and similar apparatus, and pre- 

 sumably represents the condensed experi- 

 ence of its author. The book gives valu- 

 able information relative to the most mod- 

 em systems of production and transmission 

 of power, and the latest forms of engine 

 boilers and transmitting mechanisms, and 

 their details, including also instructions re- 

 garding their proportions and for their 

 maintenance. The 157 illustrations are 

 numerous and good, representing everj' es- 

 sential detail of which description is given. 

 Numerous tables are distributed through 

 the pages of text, and afford a condensed 

 presentation of facts and data required in 

 the comj)utation of designs. The discussion 

 relates principally to the steam engine ; 

 but considerable space is given to rope and 

 other transmissions, and the customary 

 forms of power-transmission by the older 

 methods. Eeforcnces are freely given, and 

 the book is thus made, not only intrinsically 

 valuable, but a key to the extensive litera- 

 ture of its subject and field. The book will 

 prove an excellent contribution to the 

 library, especially of the young engineer. 

 R. H. T. 



NOTES AXn XEWS. 

 JOINTS IX THE VERTEBRATE SKELETON. 



In the last number of the Archiv fiir Ent- 

 xcickelungsmechanik der Organismen is the 

 completion of Gustav Tornier's elaborate 

 investigation upon ' The Origin of the Forms 

 of the Joints in the Vertebrate Skeleton.' 



The writer is apparently unaware of the 

 work which has been done upon the same 

 subject by Ryder, Cope and others in this 

 country, and his conclusions are therefore 

 of all the greater interest since, while inde- 

 pendently reached, the3' are in accord with 

 the American Neo-Lamarckians so far as 

 the adaptive power of individual reaction 

 is concerned. He concludes as follows : 

 The forms of the joints arise by the adapta- 

 tion of the organism to external conditions 

 of life, and are the results of mechanical in- 

 fluences which are directed upon the joint 

 apparatus by the action of the muscular 

 system. These mechanical stimuli act 

 directly upon the joints, and lead not 

 through the reproductive cells, but directlj' 

 through the transformation of those parts 

 of the body which are under these changing 

 influences. Joints, therefore, arise accord- 

 ing to the principle announced by Wilhelm 

 Roux of ' functional adaptation,' and of the 

 ' self formation of the useful,' ' of adaptiition 

 of the organism to functions through the 

 exercise of these functions.' Since com- 

 parative anatomj' aflbrds the surest tests of 

 the truth of these principles, proofs which 

 have not had their inspiration in Roux's 

 declarations, but have led a long way to- 

 ward them and are still showing the appli- 

 cation of these principles in (juestions of 

 theoretical evolution, how useful it would 

 be were these principles also extended into 

 other fields of research ! At the same time 

 these proofs indicate that comparative an- 

 atomj' united with pathology present two 

 of the routes by which this goal can and 

 will be reached. This number also con- 

 tains the experimental studies in teratogeny 

 Ijy Mitrophanow, and a continuation of 

 Driesch's experimental work. 



This journal has become the medium of 

 jniblication of the new school in Germanj^ 

 which revolts against the extreme to which 

 AVeismann has carried the theory of selec- 

 tion, and represents partly the thought 



