March 27, 1835.] 



SCIENCE. 



261 



practising American engineers if in a more 

 familiar language. 



As stated in the preface, " cler ingenieur muss 

 geologische kenntnisse besitzen, aber braucht 

 kein specialist zu sein." His eye should be 

 trained to observe those phenomena which are 

 of importance in determining the structure of 

 rocks ; but in special problems he must expect 

 to consult the expert geologist, who will be 

 able to deduce conclusions from data given 

 him by the engineer. 



MARTIN'S ELEMENTARY HUMAN 

 PHYSIOLOGY. 



Among the numerous recently published 

 works of its class, the volume before us easily 

 takes a very high rank. From the pen of a 

 thoroughly trained instructor in biology, it is 

 characterized b}- great clearness and precision 

 of statement, and, being prepared with the co- 

 operation of an experienced teacher of young 

 pupils, the subject is presented in a simple and 

 attractive way that cannot fail to interest the 

 youthful reader. As an example of the wa} 7 

 in which difficult points in anatomy and physi- 

 ology are elucidated b}^ reference to familiar 

 facts, the following illustration of the protec- 

 tion which the skull affords the brain may be 

 quoted : — 



"If you turned upside down a thin china teacup, 

 wrapped round it a covering of raw cotton, and over 

 this put a thin casing of tough wood, any thing placed 

 under the cup would be protected from blows, jars, 

 and piercing, much as your brain is protected inside 

 the skull." 



The enactment in several states, of laws 

 providing that the teaching of t^giene in the 

 public schools shall include instruction in re- 

 gard to the action of stimulants and narcotics, 

 makes it incumbent upon all authors of text- 

 books of Irygiene to devote several chapters to 

 this subject. Professor Martin has, upon the 

 whole, accomplished this portion of his task in 

 a very satisfactory manner, though some of 

 his remarks will probably be read with surprise 

 by practitioners of medicine. Thus we are 

 told that c the bromide is just as dangerous as 

 the opiate,' — a statement which, however well 

 adapted to accomplish the object of the author 

 in discouraging the use of the drug without a 

 physician's prescription, can hardly be regard- 

 ed as a strictly accurate therapeutic guide. 



The human body: a beginner* a text-book of anatomy, physi- 

 ology, and hygiene. By H. Newell Martin, D. Be, M.A., 

 M.D., professor of biology in the Johns Hopkins university, and 

 Hetty Cary Martin. New York, Holt, 1884. 4+261 p., illustr. 

 8*. 



The long list of diseases which may affect 

 every organ and tissue of the body as the re- 

 sult of alcoholic indulgence is well calculated 

 to strike terror to the heart of the toper, and 

 rather tends to give this portion of the book 

 the character of a temperance tract. 



The illustrations are taken from Professor 

 Martin's larger text-book of physiology, also 

 entitled 'The human body,' and are therefore 

 not always perfectly in harmony with the ele- 

 mentary character of the smaller work. 



This defect is not, however, of any great 

 importance, and does not prevent the work 

 from being, upon the whole, the best English 

 text-book for beginners in the sciences of which 

 it treats. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The annual stated session of the National acad- 

 emy of sciences will be held at the national museum 

 in Washington, commencing Tuesday, April 21, 1885, 

 at eleven a.m. 



— The island of Formosa, which has recently been 

 the scene of Franco-Chinese conflict, is stated, in Dr. 

 S. Wells Williams's valuable work on China, to have 

 been unknown to the Chinese before the year 1403, 

 about the beginning of the Ming dynasty. As the 

 mountains of Formosa are visible from the Chinese 

 mainland in favorable weather, this appears due to 

 some misconception, which is explained by Rene Al- 

 lain. It appears, according to this author, who has 

 recently published a work on Formosa, that, before 

 the conquest of China by the Mongols (202 B.C.-226 

 A.D.), Formosa was already known, but under an- 

 other name, to the Chinese historians, who counted 

 its people among the ' Manti,' or southern barbarians. 

 It was visited by the Chinese in the year 602, and was 

 known as Lieu-Kieu, or the Great Loo-Choo. Chi- 

 nese colonies were established there in the fourteenth 

 century. For two hundred years it took the name 

 of Tai-wan, which it still bears in Chinese literature. 

 In 1624 it was ceded by China to the Dutch, who 

 were driven out in 1662 by a celebrated Chinese pirate 

 known to Europeans as Koxinga, who maintained 

 himself there for some twenty years. His successors 

 made submission to the Chinese government, which 

 subsequently made permanent colonies on the island. 

 Formosa is about two hundred and forty-five miles 

 long, with a greatest width of seventy-six miles. It 

 has an area of some fifteen thousand square miles, 

 and is separated from the mainland by a strait 

 nowhere less than sixty miles wide. It is char- 

 acterized by possessing a range of mountains of re- 

 markable uniformity in height, and attaining a very 

 exceptional altitude, the peaks ranging between 

 eleven thousand and thirteen thousand feet. There 

 are no good harbors, except for vessels of light 

 draught, as far as known; and the land appears to 

 be rising at a remarkable rate. The Dutch fort of 

 1624, originally built on an islet at some distance 



