the geocentric hypothesis. Tycho seems to have had some faith in his predictions, but he regarded them rather as warnings of evil tendencies to be resisted, or good ones to be encouraged, than as hard and fast determinations of inevitable destiny. It is rather pathetic to remember that when the eldest prince ascended the throne as Christian IV., he withdrew all Tycho's emoluments, and treated him with such marked coldness that Tycho was glad to leave Denmark altogether, and end his days in exile in Bohemia.

The remaining matter in the volume is an oration on the teaching of mathematics, and a short treatise on practical trigonometry. Tycho had access to seven-figure tables of the natural functions, and made use of the formulæ transforming products of sines and cosines into sums of the same, to save multiplication, logarithms not having been invented.

It is one of the advantages of a verbatim reprint that it satisfies our curiosity on such small matters of procedure, and helps us to realise the everyday life and thought of astronomers of distant ages.

THE RISE AND GROWTH OF BOTANY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

A History of Botany in the United Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the End of the Nineteenth Century. By Dr. J. Reynolds Green. Pp. xii+648. (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1914.) Price 10s. 6d. net.

ANY British and Irish botanists have been appearance of Prof. Reynolds Green's history of the development of their science within the United Kingdom, but its reception cannot but be accompanied with feelings of sincere regret that the author is no longer with us. Indeed, he was seriously ill during much of its preparation, and one should not lose sight of this while perusing its pages. His friend, Prof. Harvey-Gibson, undertook the duty of seeing the work through the press, though, as he states in an appendix to the preface, he has refrained from editing it in any way.

Manticipating the appearance

As anyone who is familiar with Green's writings would be led to expect, the book is well arranged, lucid, and clearly written, and it provides an excellent general description of the rise and development of the science of botany amongst us. Opening with a summary of the work of the old writers of herbals, the book goes on to trace the varied phases of the newer advances, the use of botanic gardens, and the recognition and growth of the subject at the universities; it also discusses the more recent ramifications of botany and its

points of contact with kindred sciences. A considerable portion of the volume is devoted to an account of the activities of modern and still living botanists. It is full of generous appreciation of the work of his contemporaries, but Green, with characteristic modesty, is almost silent on his own important contributions to vegetable physiology.

We could wish to give a measure of praise to the book more full than mature reflection enables us to do. It is admirable up to a point, and one must remember the disadvantages under which its author laboured, failing health and severe family bereavement, during its production. Without doubt, had Green been spared to see the whole work through its final stages and up to publication, he would have corrected many of the errors one meets with in its pages. It would be ungracious to dwell on these overmuch, but truth to tell the book stands in some need of revision on the score of historical accuracy, and sometimes also in the matter of names of the writers who are quoted. It is, furthermore, not improbable that there may be some difference of opinion as to the correctness of the general perspective, and as to the insight into the relative importance of the work and powers of more recent botanists.

But when this has been said, we may recognise that Green has left us a book of permanent value -a lively impression of the services to science, as well as of the personalities of a number of his contemporaries. The way in which he has treated this part of his subject shows him as a genial friend; perhaps somewhat apt to overvalue those for whom he entertained feelings of personal affection, but to no one is he either mean unkind. J. B. F.

OBJECTIVE PSYCHOLOGY-PURE AND

APPLIED.

or

Objektive Psychologie oder Psychoreflexologie; die Lehre von den Assoziationsreflexen. By Prof. W. von Bechterew. Autorisierte Uebersetzung aus dem Russischen. Pp. viii+468. (Leipzig and Berlin B. G. Teubner, 1913.) Price 16 marks.

Psychology and Industrial Efficiency. By Hugo Münsterberg. Pp. xviii+322. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price 6s. net.

HESE two books, though widely different

Tin origin and aim, agree in exemplifying

a single method of psychological investigation : namely, the method which American writers describe by the ungainly term "behaviourism." It is a psychology in which. (to quote Prof. von Bechterew) questions of subjective processes, or processes of consciousness, find no place. The

science defined by this exclusion obviously differs widely from the psychology based upon introspection; it may be regarded as an extension into the human field of the methods developed by Lloyd Morgan in his experiments on the instinctive behaviour of chickens, and by other workers who have followed his highly important lead.

(1) The point of view is explained and defended by von Bechterew in the first fifty pages of his volume. As he conceives it, objective psychology is the science of "psycho-reflexes," that is, of the neural mechanisms the activities of which are either known or supposed to be accompanied by | psychoses, whether the subject is conscious of them or not. The remainder of the work is a systematic exposition of the results hitherto obtained by the objective methods, from the analysis of the simpler primary and secondary reflexes to that of the complicated forms of behaviour covered by such terms as will. Many of the researches de

In both these departments the "psychology of industry" leads directly to social efficiency in both the narrower and the wider sense; for it tends to the increase both of the productivity and of the happiness of the worker. It is difficult to view with equal approval the investigations into the effects of advertisements and the psychology of the shop-counter, though Prof. Münsterberg's studies of these topics have undoubted interest as explorations of human frailty. T. P. N.

ZOOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS.

(1) Reptiles and Batrachians. By E. G. Boulenger. Pp. xiv +278. (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., n.d.) Price 16s. net.

(2) Some South Indian Insects and Other Animals of Importance, considered especially from an economic point of view. By T. Bainbridge Fletcher. Pp. xxii+565. (Madras: Government Press, 1914.) Price 9s.

HE prominent features of this convenient

own laboratory in Petrograd; those of other workers are summarised with much ability and with copious references to the original sources. The whole argument is, in fact, developed so clearly and is so elaborately documented that even students who do not accept the author's methodological postulates will find in his book a very valuable collection of material, admirably organised.

(2) Prof. Münsterberg's book is directed less to the student than to the educated layman-particularly to the business man who has heard of the remarkable achievements (and still more remarkable claims) of the pioneers in the "scientific management" of industrial processes and desires to know what a competent psychologist has to say upon the subject.

The author shows by a number of interesting examples, largely from his own laboratory, that the psychologist can help the leader of industry in two specific and important ways. In the first place, by submitting candidates for employment to laboratory tests, he can differentiate with confidence between those whose psychophysical outfit is suitable for the work to be done and those who are unlikely ever to become efficient. Among his illustrations Münsterberg describes, in this connection, the ingenious devices he uses to test the capacity of a man to drive an electric car through busy city streets. In the second place, the psychologist can determine the conditions of rapid and effective training in the performance of skilled acts (e.g., typewriting), and the conditions which will secure the most economical use of the trained worker's skill while minimising the deleterious influences of fatigue and monotony.

illustrations-mostly prints of photographs from life taken by Mr. W. S. Berridge in the Zoological Society's Gardens. Comparative anatomy and the general principles of vertebrate zoology do not come within its scope; but a knowledge of these things being taken for granted, the two classes of reptilia and amphibia are surveyed as detached assemblages. Much after the fashion of the best type of museum catalogue, the distinctive characters of every subordinate group of each class are defined, and the geographical distribution of the minor groups determined; and, much after the fashion of the best type of guide-book, the notable species are succinctly characterised and carefully considered as objects of living interest. A vast amount of well-arranged and easily assimilated information is thus presented to the intelligent reader, not only in respect of structural features, taxonomic relations, lifehistory, habits, range, and mode of life, but also with regard to popular beliefs and native superstitions, economic bearings, and numerous other matters of interest. Beyond this the author, as one of the curators of the Zoological Society's Gardens, has taken every opportunity of recording interesting facts concerning the behaviour, adaptability, and treatment of reptiles and batrachians in captivity, and of noting their peculiarities, preferences, and other interesting phenomena of their growth and being.

Snakes occupy exactly one-third of the book, and the author has done justice to the subject. With regard to venomous snakes, however, he has scarcely made it clear that in order to inject its venom in lethal amount a snake must not only

strike but must also grip, so as to drive its poisonfangs home and wring out its glands. And with regard to the treatment of snake-bite, he has failed to impress sufficiently upon his readers the important facts (a) that the most efficient ligatures and the most powerful local antidotes are perfectly useless if applied after a lethal dose of venom has been absorbed the available interval, according to the ample and carefully controlled experiments of Captains H. W. Acton and R. Knowles, being from ten to twenty minutes; and (b) that after the venom has been absorbed in lethal quantity the only hopeful remedy is a suitable anti-venom.

Good and useful as this book is, it is to be regretted that, like so many modern things, it recks so little of the priceless past. Without going back to Herodotus and his entertaining account of the crocodile, the author might have said something about the great pioneers of herpetology.

(2) This is a book that, notwithstanding the limitations of its title, is of much more than local service. Its contents are disposed in three progressive stages, the first dealing with insects generally from a biological viewpoint, the second treating more particularly of insects in their economic range, while the third is at once exact survey and an illustrated epitome of the specific local forms that affect man and his works for good and ill, but chiefly for ill.

an

As is natural in a work sponsored by a director of agriculture and a board of revenue, the main end is economic-namely, to place on record what is known about the insect pests of agriculture in southern India, to facilitate their identification, and to explain approved methods of limiting their ravages. Order by order, and family by family, the specific pests are marshalled and individually figured on a lavish scale, referred to their local habitation, characterised in their life-history and economic rôle, and relegated to the code of criminal procedure. Beyond this certain forms concerned in the transmission of disease

are

treated in a practical manner, and many insects of approved utility or potential service to man are individually noticed and portrayed.

The earlier pages that deal with insects as a class in their broad economic incidence are also well done. Among other things they include good chapters on pests as a whole, the general causes that favour their increase, the various means by which they may spread, and the methods adopted for their control. These last, both direct and indirect, are discussed with insight and discrimination, and insecticides of divers kinds, and all the ingenious apparatus of their application, are fully

described and criticised; while at the same time the author is careful to emphasise the rational factor underlying all remedial treatment-namely, exact knowledge not only of the life-history of the particular pest, but also of all the local conditions, natural and otherwise, of its particular occurrence. The series of chapters on economic insects brigaded according to rôle or circuit-e.g. as caterpillar pests, beneficial insects, pests of stores, and so on-are also extremely useful, such collective unities being easy to follow and to tackle.

The preliminary chapters on insect biology, though rather promiscuous and sketchy, are good in intention and are suggestive. In the chapter on "tropisms," however, the author gives his reader no hint that the subject-matter of his definitions and classification lies on the very boundaryline of legitimate inference and beyond the bounds of exact knowledge, and that these "tropisms " are mere imposing words which not only do not explain any process of nature, but are not even generalised expressions of the results of any analysis of natural processes.

The price of the volume, with its fifty beautiful coloured plates and many hundreds of illustrations in the text, is absurdly low, but its weight (5 lb. 6 oz.) is prodigious.

OUR BOOKSHELF. Memoirs of the Colombo Museum. Series A., No. I. Bronzes from Ceylon, Chiefly in the Colombo Museum. By Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy. Pp. 31+ xxviii plates. (Ceylon : Colombo Museum, 1914.) n.p.

THIS is the first issue of a series of monographs intended to describe the art treasures of the Colombo Museum, among which the bronzes are of special importance. Some of the finest examples have been published in Mr. Vincent Smith's "History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon," but a more complete description of these beautiful objects is welcome. Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy has contributed a useful introduction. It is not easy to fix the exact date of the bronzes, but they seem to cover the period beween the ninth and fourteenth centuries, A.D. They fall into two groups: Buddhist and Saiva Hindu. The discovery in Ceylon of many images of Bodhasattvas and female Mahāyāna deities is important because it proves that the latter cult existed in the island, and that it is now more than ever inaccurate to

speak of Northern and Southern Buddhism as if between the Hinayana and Mahāyāna schools. In these geographical terms connoted a distinction this connection the images of Brahmanical deities absorbed into Buddhism are of special value.

The Saiva Hindu bronzes, like those from Polonnaruva, differ widely from the Buddhist

group: they may have been cast in Ceylon, but as a group they are allied to the school of South India. Their existence may represent a Tamil occupation of the island, but it is possible that both Buddhist and Hindu cults may have been contemporaneous. Siva here is found performing his orgiastic dance, and he is accompanied by his Sakti, or female energy, the Mother of the Universe, source of power and fertility. Finally come the local deities, like Pattini, patron of chastity and guardian of disease, who was a deified woman executed on a false charge of stealing the anklet of the Queen of Madura. The bronzes thus represent a complex of cults: Buddhism, Brahmanical Hinduism, and the worship of local deities, all combined by the eclectic tendencies of modern Hinduism. Those who are interested in Ceylon will welcome the promised publication in this series of monographs on the local archæology, ethnology, and botany.

A Text-book of Practical Assaying, for the use of Mining Schools, Miners, and Metallurgists. By Prof. J. Park. Pp. xii+342. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1914.) Price 7s. 6d. net. THIS capital little book is a welcome addition to the lengthening list of treatises on assaying which are available in this country. already appeared in New Zealand, where it has been used for the last ten years as a text-book in many class-rooms. It is arranged as a course of instruction for students, intended to be spread over two years, beginning with the easier operations and gradually leading up to more difficult

ones.

It has

The book contains a comprehensive course, and in his zeal for completeness the author towards the end so far diverges from his own definition of assaying as to include the analysis of soils, manures, sugar, and milk. Nevertheless, it must not be assumed that everything is fair game which comes into the net of this well-known professor of mining. There is little which could be omitted with advantage. It will readily be believed, however, that one of the merits of the book is conciseness, and in some sections strength would be gained by expansion and the addition of a few more details, as, for example, in the assay of copper by electrolysis.

The book is also commendable in its accuracy, and it will be prized by students who are familiar with it after they have passed out into the works laboratory.

The directions for arithmetical computation of results are perhaps unnecessarily full and explicit for university students, and such a remark as the following might be omitted:-"Suppose one gramme of copper ore yielded o'46 gramme of copper, then the percentage is equal to 46. Some other directions in the book are similarly elementary, but teachers of classes in secondary and technical schools will not object to it on that account. For these classes it is an eminently suitable book. A few more illustrations of apparatus would not be amiss. T. K. R.

New

Acribo" Sectional Pads. Fifty sheets in a pad with cover. (London: W. H. Harling.). Price of each pad, 2s. 6d.

MR. HARLING's new pads of squared paper are printed in grey with a view to obviate eye strain and to ensure prominence for the curves plotted.. Three rulings are available: inches and eighths, inches and tenths, and centimetres and millimetres. The size of the ruled portion of each pad is 10 in. by 8 in. or 26 cm. by 20 cm. The paper is excellent, the ruling is accurate, the pad is convenient, and the production is British throughout. The Counties of Clackmannan and Kinross. J. P. Day. Pp. viii+145. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1915.) Price 1s. 6d. net. The Counties of Moray and Nairn. By Charles Matheson. Pp. x+139. (Cambridge: At the

By

University Press, 1915.) Price 1s. 6d. net. THESE recent additions to the series of Cambridge County Geographies maintain the high standard of attractiveness and utility to which attention has been directed in the case of many previous volumes. The books should become popular guides for tourists, who will appreciate the interesting style in which they are written.

UNTIL

MODERN SUBSTITUTES FOR BUTTER. NTIL the last few years the word margarine was usually associated, in the mind of the British public, with poverty; but now, under the new name of "Nuts and milk," with which advertising enterprise has made us familiar, it is becoming freely used in the kitchen, and is even found on the breakfast table in many households. On the continent, where the general standard of luxury is not so high as here, butter substitutes are used far more generally; and the demand for the raw materials from which they are made has increased to such an extent as to cause a noteworthy increase in their cost. In most cases the legislation affecting butter substitutes has been influenced by vested interests, so that, whilst only partially effective in preventing fraud, it has checked the development of the industry. Taking into account also the universal prejudice against margarine which prevailed formerly, it is very remarkable that the industry should have made such advances. It is of interest, therefore, to examine its development in some detail, more particularly from the scientific point of view; for it is desirable at the outset to emphasise that the margarine industry is essentially scientific in character, and that considerable technical skill is demanded in its manufacture.

The finished margarine must be satisfactory in taste, odour, and texture; this necessitates that the fats composing it shall be entirely free from fatty acids, and show no tendency to become rancid. Much depends on the texture of the fat, which the user expects to be the same as that of butter. The margarine maker so blends his raw materials that the mixture has the same melting

point as butter, and he is able, further, to vary the melting point to suit the climate, an advantage which will be more fully appreciated in the future when margarine has found its way to tropical countries.

The present success of the margarine manufacturer is to a large extent due to the great variety of raw materials which are now available. In the early days of the industry soft beef fat was the sole basis obtainable; this was known as oleo oil or oleomargarine, and the conditions of its manufacture were not always above suspicion. This has now been entirely changed; the factories are models of cleanliness; they are officially inspected, and above all, animal fats have become of secondary importance to vegetable oils. The process of manufacture is briefly as follows:-The carefully purified oils are blended at a suitable temperature, churned and pulverised with new or separated milk in suitable machines, cooled, washed, salted if required, and worked in exactly the same way as butter. The product is a butter substitute, and has the same composition, viz., about 84 per cent. of fat. Therefore on the accepted standards it has the same nutritive value.

A certain amount of butter fat is usually contained in the mixture, but by law this is not allowed to exceed 10 per cent. In Germany, Austria, and Denmark the presence of 10 per cent. of Sesame oil is obligatory for the purpose of earmarking the substitute. Sesame oil gives a colour reaction with certain reagents, which enables its presence to be very readily detected; for the British palate this addition of Sesame oil is unwelcome. In Belgium the addition of 0'2 per cent. of potato starch, as well as of 5 per cent. of Sesame oil to margarine is obligatory. It may be remarked that the analytical discrimination between butter and margarine is a lengthy process, and that the detection of 10 or 15 per cent. of added fat to butter is a matter of considerable difficulty. All fats are very much of the same composition, and with one or two exceptions they lack individual characteristics. The analyst depends, therefore, on small differences in physical characteristics, or on the proportion of fatty acids of low molecular weight, for their identification when in admixture.

It is an increasing practice in factories and for culinary operations in restaurants or in the kitchen to use the pure or blended fats themselves without churning them with milk. The advantages of this procedure are obvious, and it will be followed more generally by the housewife in the future. Thus in the United States, and in the poorer districts of our large towns, enormous quantities of refined cotton seed oil are sold for frying purposes, and the use of nut and blended butters containing 100 per cent. of fat for the same purpose is largely on the increase amongst the upper classes.

With the exception of olive oil the edible vegetable oils require very special refining before their characteristic flavours or impurities can be re

moved; in consequence it is only since these difficulties have been overcome in practice that they have been so largely used for margarine. It is certain that as the knowledge of refining processes increases, the development of the industry will be still greater. The methods of refining vary according to the oil; they are mostly jealously guarded as valuable secrets.

In Britain, and particularly in the United States, very large quantities of cotton seed oil are used either in margarine or for culinary purposes, both as a substitute for olive oil and as a cooking fat. About three-fourths of the world's production comes from the United States, about half of this oil being refined for edible purposes. The crude oil obtained by pressing the seed is first treated with caustic soda, then with fuller's earth, and finally made as nearly as possible free from taste and odour. From the point of view of the margarine maker, cotton seed oil is too liquid to be used in any large proportion, though its relatively low cost makes it a very desirable ingredient.

Far more important as butter substitutes are the nut oils-coco-nut, and palm kernel. The former is obtained by pressing copra-the flesh of the coco-nut, which is exported in a dried condition from its place of origin. In the past the copra-pressing industry has been localised Marseilles, though in later years an almost equal quantity of material has been dealt with at Hamburg.

Palm kernels are the seeds of the palm fruit, of which the fleshy part is utilised for the manufacture of palm oil. The natives on the West Coast of Africa collect the kernels, crack and remove the shell before the nuts are exported to Europe. It is stated that kernels were first brought to Marseilles as ships' ballast and thrown into the sea on arrival until their value was recognised. Originally the chief receiving port was Marseilles, but latterly the industry has been almost entirely carried on at Hamburg, where in 1911 93 per cent. of the total quantity was dealt with, the remainder going to Liverpool.

The palm kernel oil made in North Europe last year is estimated at 125,000 tons, of which about 40,000 was refined for edible purposes. The kernels contain about 50 per cent. of oil, which is extracted by pressing in hydraulic presses similar to those used for copra. The residue, palm kernel cake or meal, has found a very wide use in Germany as an ingredient of compound cake for cattle feeding, and in this form has been largely exported to England. The commercial success of the pressing industry largely depends on the price obtained for this meal, and no pains have been spared on the Continent to demonstrate its value to the farmers by means of scientifically conducted feeding trials. There is at present much talk of developing the industry in Britain, in which case the disposal of the cake here will be an important consideration. It is of interest that the decline of the industry in Marseilles is largely due to the cake failing to find a ready sale