428 
Analyses of Books . 
[July, 
A F.R.S., in a batch of somewhat singular queries, asks, “ Is 
it as wicked to sell starch for food, and to say that it contains all 
the elements of food, as it is to put water into milk ? ” We 
should say that it is much more wicked, since the watered milk 
still contains its nutritive elements, though in a reduced propor- 
tion, whilst the starch is entirely devoid of albumenoids and 
fatty matters, and is absolutely incapable of assimilation by 
young children. But the law of libel throws its shield over 
quacks of every grade, and until it is mowed down a good many 
stages it is a hazardous task to look after public health. 
“ A Manchester Pythagorean ” writes on the coming and 
going of the swallow, and gives the day and month of their 
arrival, the years not being stated. We should expedt the 
season when they were noticed on April ist, in so bleak a locality 
as Barnsley, must have been exceptionally genial. 
The Rev. E. M. Geldart communicates a characteristic anec- 
dote of the great naturalist whom we have just lost. Some boys 
found first a Dytiscus, and afterwards some frogs with small 
fresh-water mussels clinging to their hind legs. They made 
bold to communicate this observation to Darwin. “ In return 
they received a very kind answer, thanking them for the light 
they had thrown on a problem which had long puzzled him, viz., 
How it came about that mussels, which can neither fly nor walk, 
can migrate from one pond to another.” 
The Hon. Percy Wyndham, M.P,, writes on the sense of 
locality in animals, a subjedt on which more extended and more 
definite observation is needed before we can attempt to theorise. 
Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India . Vol. XVI., Part 2. 
Calcutta : Geological Survey Office. London : Triibner 
and Co. 
This part contains an account, by Mr. W. King, B.A., of the 
Gneiss and Transition Rocks, and other formations of the Nel- 
lore portion of the Carnatic. The author, in his general descrip- 
tion of the region, remarks that both the soil and the waters of 
most of the streams, with the notable exception of the Penner,' 
are charged with soda, and are consequently barren. 
A curious ethnological fadt is mentioned : the Yanadis, a rem- 
nant of a decaying race, who inhabit the island of Sriharikota 
and the waste jungle lands of its neighbourhood, though within 
an easy distance of Madras, are still in a very primitive condition. 
“ An iron arrow-head is treasured by them as a rare thing ; the 
points of their wooden arrows are hardened by charring, and 
they are in the habit of obtaining fire by the fridtion of wood.” 
