Book reviews

THE MIND OF EAST ASIA, Lily Abegg. (338 pp. with Index). Translated from the German. Thames and Hudson; London, New York.

BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES: Problems in Co‐operation. A joint report prepared by Henry L. Roberts and Paul A. Wilson. London. Royal Institute of International Affairs. Pp. 224. Price 8/6 sterling. 1953.

D?R LAUTLOSE AUFSTAND. BERICHT VEBER DIE WIDER‐STANDSBEWEGUNG DES DEUTSCHEN VOLKES 1933–1945. Herausgegeben von Guenther Weissenborn. Rowohlt Verlag Hamburg. Pp. 348.

“EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD”: Selected Readings with a foreword by S. Hofstra. Issued under the auspices of the Netherlands Foundation for International Co‐operation and published by W. Van Hoeve Ltd., The Hague, Bandung. 1953. Pp. 181.

NATIONALISM AND SOCIAL COMMUNICATION. By Karl W. Deutsch. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. viii and 292.

BURMA UNDER THE JAPANESE: By Thakin Nu. Pictures and Portraits, Edited and translated with Introduction by J. S. Furnivall. Macmillan, London. 1954. Pp. xxviii and 132. Price 12s 6d.

COMMODITY TRADE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT—Report of a Committee appointed by the Secretary‐General, United Nations, Published by the United Nations, 1953.     

Book reviews

MIDDLE EAST AND FAR EAST, Allan S. Walker, M.D., Ch.M., F.R.A.C.P. Published by the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Obtainable at all booksellers, price 35/‐.

UNESCO, HUMANISM AND EDUCATION IN EAST AND WEST — Published in 1953 by the United Nations. 224 pages.

THE ALTERNATIVE (a dynamic approach to our relations with Asia). By John Burton, B.A., B.Ec., Ph.D., Sydney. Morgans Publications, 1954. PP. 116.

TING HSIEN — A North China Rural Community: By Sidney D. Gamble (Institute of Pacific Relations, New York, 1954). U.S. $6.50.

ZWISCHEN BEFREIUNG UND FREIHEIT. DER SONDERFALL OSTERREICH, by Karl Gruber. Verlag Ullstein. Wien, 1953.

AMERICAN ECONOMIC POLICY TOWARDS THE PHILIPPINES: By Shirley Jenkins — With an introduction by Claude A. Buss. Published under the auspices of the American Institute of Pacific Relations by Stanford University Press, California, 1954. P. 181.

THE ORIGINS OF PRUSSIA: By F. L. Carsten—Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1954. 309 pp., 1 map. (55/6 sterling).     

Testaments of two cities: A comparative analysis of the wills of medieval Genoa and Douai

A comparison of testamentary practice in medieval Genoa with that in Douai, France, reveals how differing social orientations resulted in profoundly contrasting social practices. Genoese society was chiefly privately orientated, and patrimony in Genoa was correspondingly transmitted along a vertical dimension. The public nature of the process in Douai, meanwhile, was correlated with a wide distribution of legacies on a horizontal axis. Women in Douai, therefore, enjoyed a scope of action not experienced by their Genoese counterparts. These circumstances, in turn, require a re‐evaluation of the so‐called ‘Frauenfrage‘ — the supposed problem of too many unmarried women.     

The Pre-Settlement Vegatation of the Western and Central Wimmera Plains of Victoria,Australia

Historical records indicate that the fertile soils of the western and central Wimmera Plains of Victoria, Australia formerly supported grassy woodlands on rises and flats, and grasslands on shallow depressions and clay plains. Soil type and micro-relief appear to have been the major factors that determined the distribution of these communities. Burning of the woodlands by Aborigines may have contributed to their open grassy nature. The few ungrazed remnants of Buloke (Allocasuarina luehmannii) woodland support a suite of species that are absent from or uncommon in other Buloke woodland remnants in the region. This work demonstrates that in districts where little intact native vegetation remains, investigation of the distribution and floristic composition of the pre-settlement vegetation can provide useful information for the maintenance and restoration of remnant vegetation.     

Locating Vehicle Inspection Stations to Protect a Transportation Network

We develop a new conceptual approach to locating inspection stations for hazardous vehicles, prevention, and compare it to the previous, punitive, philosophy of the flow-capturing location model. We implement this preventive protection philosophy with a new mixed integer program that maximizes hazard avoidance by locating a number of inspection stations to detect and remove hazardous vehicles as early in their trips as possible. We test the model's performance and analyze the spatial characteristics of solutions simulating several potential applications. Our computations demonstrate that a relaxed integer-linear program is overly demanding computationally and that a simple greedy heuristic lacks robustness. We suggest further approaches to developing more powerful and efficient solution methods.     

X-RAY FLUORESCENCE ANALYSIS WITH SYNCHROTRON RADIATION ON THE INKS AND PAPERS OF INCUNABULA

Non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analyses induced by white synchrotron radiation (SYXRF) have been performed on a page of the Gutenberg Bible and 21 other different single leaves printed in the years 1470 to 1500. Absolute elemental areal densities for the papers and the inks are reported. The known high Cu and Pb content in Gutenberg's ink is confirmed. The elemental compositions of the other inks, if measurable by XRF at all, are in general very low, governed only by a few additional elements and found to be not distinctive for a known printer. This will render an identification of the printer or printing offices by ink composition analysis in the period after 1470 difficult.     

Markov Models of Inertia and Dynamism on Two Contiguous Ohio Landscapes

This study examined landcover change during 1940–1988 in two contiguous landscapes of approximately 12,400 hectares in central Ohio, USA: an inertial till plain area and a more dynamic moraine area. Agriculture dominated both landscapes throughout, however, the cover of natural vegetation and urban-suburban development increased over time on the moraine while natural vegetation decreased and agriculture increased on the till plain. Markov process models for landcover change were constructed for three 14–17-year time intervals and for the entire forty-eight-year study period. Probabilities of self-replacement for agricultural lands (0.91–0.97) were higher and those for forests (0.54–0.65) lower than those reported for other landscapes. Predictions of landcover percentages for fifty years in the future were made using Markov process models derived from actual cover changes in 1940–1957, 1971–1988, and 1940–1988. All three models produced similar predictions for the inertial till plain area. In contrast, the three models' predictions differed considerably for the moraine area. Only the 1971–1988 transition matrix was sensitive to increases in urbanization and reforestation which began on the moraine in the 1970s. These results indicate that reliance on lengthy study intervals and net rates of change can obscure spatial and temporal patterns of landcover change that are caused by natural and socioeconomic factors operating on shorter time scales.