490 
KEV1EWS. 
in “ taking in ” the unwary chemist and druggist, is to offer him the vermin killer, tied 
up in packets, at a cheaper rate than usual. The bait generally takes, hut after he has 
sold two or three from the top of the packet he finds the remainder to consist of blank 
envelopes, without name or printing of any description on them, and, of course, quite 
useless for the purpose of sale. The powder itself is of no effect at all as a “ vermin 
killer,” for, although coloured to imitate “ Battle’s,” it contains neither strychnine nor 
arsenic, and in some cases the envelopes contain nothing but a piece of folded news¬ 
paper ! 
STREET WATERING. 
Mr. J. W. Cooper has patented an improved system of watering the streets, which is 
being tried in the parish of St. Marylebone and elsewhere, and promises to be successful. 
He introduces into the ordinary carts, when charged with water, a mixture, in suitable 
proportions, of fused chloride of calcium and chloride of sodium (common table salt). 
These salts, as is well known, are highly deliquescent, especially the chloride of calcium. 
When such a solution is applied to the roads, the retention of moisture by the chlorides 
serves to keep them in a damp condition for a much longer period than when ordinary 
water is used. 
By the present system of deluging , three applications daily are scarcely sufficient in 
warm dry weather to prevent the dust from blowing, whereas one application of Mr. 
Cooper’s composition at intervals of two or three days will, it is said, effectually accom¬ 
plish this object, and at a much less cost. 
The dust in the large rooms of warehouses and similar buildings might, doubtless, be 
effectively controlled by adding a little of these salts to the water used. 
REVIEWS. 
The Chinchona Species of New Granada ; containing the Botanical Descriptions of 
the Species examined by Drs. Mutis and Karsten, with some Account of those Bota¬ 
nists, and of the Result of their Labours. By C. R. Markham, F.L.S. 
The present volume is an evidence of the zeal and energy with which Mr. Markham 
has followed out whatever bears upon his favourite object,—the establishment of the 
culture of the quinine-producing trees in India. The w r ork is brought out under 
Government auspices, at a time when the author is away in Abyssinia ; but the absence 
of his final corrections is in part supplied, and further information afforded, through 
notes appended by J. E. Howard, F.L.S., author of the ‘Illustrations of the Nueva 
Quinologia of Pavon,’ and his fellow-labourer in the arduous work of the elucidation of 
the species of cinchona. Here a difficulty meets us at the outset, and the question 
arises, are we to write the name of this important genus of plants as time and the ex¬ 
ample of the great Linnseus have sanctioned ; or are we, as is very strongly urged by 
Mr. Markham, to adopt the spelling chinchona , as now accepted in the Indian plan¬ 
tations? The latter course would involve a very troublesome change in the chemical 
nomenclature of the derivative products, and would certainly not be followed by the 
leading authorities in the botanical world. In confirmation of this, we may mention 
that Mr. J. E. Howard acceded to the course urged at the Botanical Congress in 186G 
by Dr. Weddell, that it was inexpedient to make an alteration in the name hitherto used ; 
and we have here written cinchona , although still bearing in mind the very correct 
axiom of Horace (‘ De Arte Poetica’) :— 
“Multa renascentur, quse jam cecidere; cadentque, 
Quaj nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus, 
Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi.” 
Returning to Mr. Markham’s work, we notice that it supplies very important in for- 
