7o 4 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



are found they are associated with usages and rites which must have had a 

 common origin, even though superficially modified in some regards. 



A tremendous amount of labour has been expended on this work ; and it 

 may seem ungracious to suggest that it has in any way failed of its purpose. But it 

 would unquestionably greatly have enhanced the cogency of its arguments if a 

 summary had been given setting forth, so far as is possible, the precise relation- 

 ship of this shell-cult with the heliolithic cult, and the search for gold and copper; 

 which seem always to have been closely associated. As it stands the book loses 

 some of its force in the bewildering mass of facts presented without sufficient 

 co-ordination to enable them to be quickly assimilated. 



W. P. P. 



ENGINEERING 



The Education of Engineers. By Herbert G.Taylor.M.Sc, Assoc.M. I. Mech.E. 

 [Pp. viii + 64.] (London : G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., 1917. Price is. net.) 



We cannot but very greatly regret the whole tone of this ill-considered effort. 



The author finds serious fault with science in general and engineering 

 professors in particular, but the following extract will serve to place his opinions 

 at their proper value : "Armed with exponential lassoos and integrated boomerangs, 

 science prefers the pursuit of new-fangled rays and electrons a la mode. I would 

 suggest that it take a trip on the next passing comet and betake itself to the 

 uttermost ends of space, and, when Vega crown the pole, return, leading captive 

 all the rays from the infra-alpha to the ultra-omega, and bearing skeletons of 

 micro-electrons from every stratum of the universe ftom Polaris to the Southern 

 Cross. Then, and not till then, will we believe that Rontgen and the Curies were 

 not afflicted with a particularly crooked mentality." 



J. Wemyss Anderson. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



Hyperacoustics. Division I. Simultaneous Tonality. By JOHN L. DUNK. 

 [Pp. vi + 311.] (London: J. M. Dent & Sons; New York : E. P. Dutton 

 & Co., 1916. Price 7s. 6d. net.) 



This volume forms the first part of a large work upon which the author is engaged 

 on " Hyperacoustics." The whole work is to be a treatise on music which will 

 embrace the consideration of tonality, rhythm, organisation, and significance, and 

 this first volume is devoted to the consideration of tonality — the science of musical 

 sound in pitch and quality. We live in the days of hyperbole, so the title of the 

 work may not strike the reader as strange. The author says that "the name 

 'Hyperacoustics' may be proposed, as indicative not only of something beyond, 

 but also of a presumption requiring justification as to the existence and rationality 

 of something beyond the known facts of acoustics." This presumption is certainly 

 not justified in the present work. He also says, " Between the region of 

 phenomena (undefined) comprised in the science of acoustics, and the experiences 

 of music considered as phenomena, there appears a great gulf, which invites 

 attempts to bridge. ... In order to form a concept of this vast and mysterious 

 region, a name is required." He does not stop to consider whether the 

 "experiences of music" can in any real sense be considered as phenomena, nor 

 does he give any grounds for the statement. 





