;o6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



French Scientific Reader. Edited, with Introduction, Notes, and Vocabulary, 

 by Francis Daniels, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Modern Languages. 

 University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy. [Pp. xviii + 748, 

 with illustrations.] (New York : Oxford University Press, American 

 Branch; London: Humphrey Milford, 1917. Price 10s. 6d. net.) 



This admirable scientific "reader" gives a very good picture of the part the 

 French have taken during three centuries in the development of modern science. 

 As the editor remarks in the preface, " There is no finer French prose than can be 

 found in some of these papers. . . . With the exception of Lamarck, whose 

 barren style kept him for half a century from the recognition due to his genius, 

 all the great French scientists have written well ; some, like Buffon and Fabre, 

 have written extremely well, and their work is an imperishable part of the 

 literature of France." The contents consist of extracts from famous works dealing 

 with nature in general, the system of the world, the earth, the ocean, minerals, 

 physics, chemistry, life, plants, animals, man, the soul and senses, the theory of 

 probabilities, and scientific method. The authors of these extracts are Buffon, 

 Laplace, Lapparent, Loti, Thoulet, Becquerel, Mme. Curie, Berthelot, Lamarck, 

 Von Tieghem,Candolle, Michaux, Humboldt and Bonpland, Pasteur, Fabre, Lesson, 

 Cuvier, Pascal, and Taine. There are various illustrations, including seven of 

 these authors. "One may smile at my including Loti among French scientists, 

 and with reason, but he knows the desert as few scientists do, and he describes it 

 as no one else can. Nor let any one be indignant if I have admitted one stranger 

 to a place here. Humboldt's Essai, which created a new science, is in itself a 

 tribute to the superior fitness of the French language to serve as a medium of 

 scientific expression. I have one other name to mention here, that of Andre 

 Michaux, whose indefatigable toil in the field of American botany makes an 

 inclusion of a specimen of his work a duty to an American editor" (pp. iii, iv). 

 The book includes, certainly, one article which was purposely chosen to enable 

 the student to realise the vast advance made by science during the last century 

 and a half. " For it seems to me that one of the functions of a scientific reader 

 should be to give the student some adequate knowledge of the development of 

 science itself" (p. iv). Under the heading " Le Nombre" is given an extract from 

 Laplace's essay on probabilities, and this is the only extract dealing with mathe- 

 matics. It might have been possible for the purposes of a scientific reader to give 

 extracts from Lagrange's lectures on elementary mathematics, which are written 

 in a very fine style and are quite easy of understanding. This is a most excellent 

 book. 



Philip E B. Jourdain. 



The Year-hook of the Universities of the Empire, 1916 and 1917. The Univer- 

 sities Bureau of the British Empire. [Pp. xiii + 412.] (London : Herbert 

 Jenkins, 191 7. Price 7s. 6d. net.) 



The publication of this useful year-book was discontinued for a year, but it was 

 thought that in spite of war conditions it would be better to reissue it, and with 

 this decision we are in entire agreement. It is an extremely useful volume, and, 

 in spite of the difficulties of printing and binding which have been responsible for 

 its late appearance last year, is one whose value justifies its production even under 

 adverse circumstances. In it will be found information respecting all the univer- 

 sities and university colleges of the Empire, with appendices giving summaries of 

 the Beit Memorial for Medical Research and for Scientific Research, Royal 



