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The Natural History of Commerce

Abstract

THE design of this book is excellent; and it has, on the whole, been well carried out. The author is well known as the principal of a large “middle-class” school, who has long recognised the claims of Science as an essential item in the education of an English gentleman or merchant. And the information contained in this volume is exactly such as ought to be familiar to everyone who lays claim to the advantages of a liberal education. We are afraid, however, that, as a matter of fact, it will be found that the “Natural History of Commercen” is a terra incognita, especially to those engaged in commercial pursuits, who might often derive, not only pleasure, but, what is perhaps more to the point, profit, from some acquaintance with it. The work is divided into four parts. In the first we have commercial products treated from a geographical point of view; the different botanical zones of Meyen are defined; and the principal natural products described of Britain, Continental Europe, and the other quarters of the globe, with a supplementary chapter on Nature and Man as agents of change. The second part is descriptive of the commercial products of the Vegetable Kingdom, in which Meyen's plan appears again to have been followed in the main; it is subdivided into Food Plants, and Industrial and Medicinal Plants. In the third part we have, in like manner, the commercial products of the Animal Kingdom; and, in the fourth, raw mineral products. The comments which we have to make are almost confined to errors of omission which can be readily rectified in future editions. We regret to see still retained the antiquated classification of the Animal Kingdom into Vertebrata, Mollusca, Annulosa Radiata, and Protozoa. The sentence by which (p. 260) the porcupine and the ant-eater are made members of the order Monotremata, is no doubt merely an oversight. Among food plants, it is strange to find no mention made of the potato nor, indeed, of any of our culinary vegetables, the cabbage, turnip, or carrot, with the single exception of the onion ! We demur to the assertion that the morel is “one of the few fungi found in this country which may be eaten with safety;”among these few we do not understand why the truffle and the morel only are given, the mushroom not being even alluded to. Indeed, the whole subject of Vegetable Products requires revision, many being entirely omitted of much greater importance than others to which considerable space is allotted. Among Industrial. Plants for instance, we should expect to find some description of the numerous fibres now used in the manufacture of paper, the esparto-grass, different kinds of wood, &c., which are daily becoming more important articles of commerce. An exceedingly useful vocabulary is appended, containing the names of natural productions in the principal European and Oriental languages; and the volume may be safely recommended as containing an immense mass ol useful information on a very important subject.

The Natural History of Commerce.

By John Yeats. (London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1870.)

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The Natural History of Commerce . Nature 3, 103–104 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/003103b0

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