REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 219 



expert in matters meteorological. "La Temperature En China" comes as 

 a work which has been long looked for, and all who are interested in 

 this most important branch of science will extend their gratitude to the 

 Zikawei Observatory for having filled the gap in knowledge. 



Nantungchow, or South Tungchow, so named to distinguish it from 

 Tungchow on the Peiho, is a town situated near the mouth of the 

 Yangtze, a very suitable position for meteorological observations. The 

 whole region is highly developed industrially and agriculturally through 

 the initiative of Chang Chien, the scholar-statesman, to whose efforts 

 the inception of the Observatory of Chen-shan, whose first annual report 

 (for 1917) is the subject of this review. 



Studies are undertaken of temperatures, pressure, dampness, winds, 

 and tides, rain-fall, thunderstorms, and there are besides tables show- 

 ing the temperatures when the various crops sprout and are harvested — 

 a very valuable record for the welfare of the farming community, as 

 Father Moidrey says in his foreword. He suggests also that statistics 

 should be kept concerning noxious insects and plants. The plagues of 

 locusts which from time to time visit Kiangsu could perhaps be anti- 

 cipated and dealt with in advance if knowledge about the conditions 

 favourable to their diffusion were obtained. 



The aims of the Observatory, besides those directly connected with 

 meteorology, are stated in the preface to be investigations in aid of 

 commerce, sanitation, river conservancy and agriculture. Mr. Chang 

 Chien is to be congratulated on his latest work and Mr. W. C. Lew, 

 the principal observer, on the excellent turn-out of this book. The 

 work is purely Chinese, and appears to be one of the best efforts 

 controlled entirely by native skill and industry which has come under 

 our notice. N. S. 



Foreign Financial Control in China. By T. W. Overlach. 

 New York, The Macmillan Co., 1919. 



If there is such a thing as making the science which is dismal in 

 theory interesting in practice, we have an example of it in this book. 

 To one on the spot, at least, the tale of the financial operations of 

 foreigners and particularly of foreign governments in China for the 

 j>ast thirty and more years, related in a straightforward manner and 

 with a minimum of technical economic phraseology, is almost absorbing. 

 And yet so rapidly do events move in this part of the world that a 

 large part of the book must be classed as ancient history, while the 

 collapse of Russia and the twenty-one demands of Japan do not appear 

 at all. It has the interest, therefore, and the instruction, of a past 

 that is very much past indeed. We must be grateful, however, for a 



