232 
good purpose in illustrating their descriptions 
of the larynx by photographs taken from the 
reflected images in the laryngoscopic mirror. 
Thus, the chink of the glottis is shown in the 
act of forming sound. Photographs are also 
given of the interior of the mouth, showing the 
positions of the soft palate during the singing 
of certain notes. These and other illustrations 
greatly add to the interest of the elaborate 
descriptions of the processes of phonation. 
The book commences with a plea for the 
study of vocal physiology. The importance 
of a knowledge of the principles of vocal 
physiology to singers and speakers, no one will 
dispute ; but it may be doubted whether any 
practical benefit can be derived by voice-users 
from the anatomical detail of the structure of 
the vocalizing-apparatus, which is here so 
copiously exhibited. This part of the treatise 
might have been much condensed with advan- 
tage, so far as its practical applications to 
speaking and singing are concerned. ‘This 
portion of the book may, perhaps, have its 
utility to voice-trainers, who ought fully to 
understand the mechanism which they under- 
take to direct; but voice-users could not 
‘govern the ventages’ in speech or song with 
any better effect from knowing the shape and 
name of the individual cartilages which they 
set in motion. 
In the chapter on defects and impediments 
of speech, both stammering and stuttering — 
very indefinitely distinguished — are traced to 
one common source: ‘‘ A fault in respiration 
is at the root of all the mischief.’’ No system 
is presented or advocated for the relief of 
stammerers, for the specified reason that 
‘‘there is none that is honestly applicable to 
all cases.’’ Something more definite might 
have been expected under this head. For 
facts relating to the vocal registers, and to the 
anatomy of the larynx and the chest, this book 
will be useful as a work of reference in the 
libraries of scientific teachers of speech or 
song; but it will not add much to their knowl- 
edge of practical vocal physiology. 
MALPINE’S BOTANICAL ATLAS. 
The botanical atlas: a guide to the practical study of 
plants, containing representatives of the leading 
JSorms of plant-life, with explanatory letterpress. 
By D. M‘Atring, F.C.S. 2 v. New York, 
Century Company. 1883. 52 pl. 4°. 
Ir is difficult to see why this work should be 
entitled ‘ The botanical atlas’ (except to distin- 
guish it from the other atlases compiled by the 
author), since many of its best plates are from 
* 
SCIENCE, 
an entirely different treatise, which may as 
fairly lay claim to being called ‘ The atlas ;” 
namely, that of Dodel. Judging by its size, 
it is apparently designed to be used in class 
demonstrations; but its sumptuous binding 
somewhat unfits it for the laboratory table, 
while, on the other hand, the figures are not 
large enough to be used in place of lecture 
diagrams. ‘The work is in two volumes, one 
of which is devoted to phanerogams, the other 
to cryptogams. 
The drawings in the volume on flowering- 
plants are, for the most part, very good, some 
of them possessing remarkable clearness of 
outline ; and the coloring is above the average 
in delicacy of effect. The impression made by 
this volume as a whole is, that it has received 
an amount of care which could have been more 
usefully expended in a slightly different direc- 
tion. With the exception of the words ‘ mag- 
nified ’ and ‘ highly magnified,’ there is nothing 
to serve as a guide to the relative size of the 
figures of corresponding parts. Every prac- 
tical teacher of botany would have suggested 
to the compiler the desirability of furnishing 
what is never out of place in an atlas of any 
kind, to wit, a scale of parts. This is always 
serviceable in the treatment of microscopic or 
of any minute figures: in fact, without it they 
are often misleading to the beginner. It may 
be said, that it is impracticable to state in every 
case the approximate amount of enlargement 
or reduction; but certainly in most cases it is 
not impossible to give a hint as to the relative 
sizes of the figures. 
Drawings of the size given in this atlas are 
chiefly useful for individual and not class study. 
With a greater enlargement, the plates would 
have proved useful in classes of ordinary size. 
A few attempts have been made to provide 
plates of suitable size for class use ; but the sub- 
jects have not always been so well chosen, nor 
so successfully treated, as those in this volume. 
The well-known series made by Professor Hen- 
slow is so crowded that the effect of the ex- 
quisite drawing is obscured. In the lack of 
good wall-plates, we have a want which ought 
to be supplied. If the plates in the present 
volume were larger, so that they could be em- 
ployed for demonstration before classes of 
moderate size, they would go far to meet this 
need. Their size now restricts their employ- 
ment to the individual student, and this neces- — 
sarily lessens their utility ; but this is a matter 
for publishers to consider. 
The volume relating to cryptogams contains a 
twenty-six plates, some of which include a ~ 
large number of figures copied from standard — 
[Vor. IIL, No. 5. © 
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