49 o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



It is suggested that the rings were first used as a remedy for epilepsy as an 

 outcome of the " belief that an epileptic seizure may be aborted by ligature of a 

 limb, or part, above the situation in which the warning 'aura' commences." 

 Dr. Withington's work is a record of the appalling cruelties of the witch mania 

 which swept over Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He discusses 

 its possible origin and the part played by Dr. Weyer in its decline. 



The "Tractatus de Causis and Indiciis Morborum," by Reuben Levy, is 

 merely a critical discussion of an unpublished Hebrew MS. bearing this name and 

 attributed to Maimonides (the Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon). It is shown that 

 the work is probably by another author. As an example of a literary research 

 it is, no doubt, valuable and admirable, but it seems somewhat out of place in 

 this collection, even though it be regarded as an introduction to a subsequent 

 discussion of the subject-matter of the MS. 



The two remaining essays are on "Vitalism," by Dr. J. R. Jenkinson, who, as 

 a Captain in the 2nd Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action in Gallipoli, and on 

 " Scientific Discovery and Logical Proof," by F. C. S. Schiller. Dr. Jenkinson 

 wrote from a philosophic standpoint, historically and critically. He may be said 

 to have leant towards the view that the progress of science would best be served 

 by adherence to the "simpler philosophy" of mechanistic ideas. The last essay 

 forms an incisive attack on the aloofness and uselessness of formal logic, and 

 indicates the path of reform whereby, by the sacrifice of its " inhuman " infallibility, 

 it would come into contact with science and with life, and exercise a salutary 



influence on the development of both. 



D. O. W. 



ASTRONOMY 



Textbook on Navigation and Nautical Astronomy. By J. Gill. Revised 

 and enlarged by W. V. Merrifield, B.A. [Pp. viii + 438 + (12), with 

 214 figures.] (London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1918. Price 21s. net.) 



This work was written primarily to meet the requirements of officers of the 

 Merchant Service. The ground which it covers is such that candidates for Board 

 of Trade Certificates will find it a suitable textbook in preparation for all grades 

 of the Examination for Mates and Masters, both as regards theory and practice. 



In the new edition several valuable improvements have been made, the chief 

 of which are: (1) An appendix is added giving necessary extracts from the 

 Nautical Almanac in the form in which they are given in that work ; the examples 

 are such that any Nautical Almanac data required can be obtained from the 

 appendix, and the student is thus familiarised with the use of the Almanac. 

 (2) Extracts from the Admiralty Tide Tables are also given in an appendix, and 

 the chapters dealing with tides have been rewritten to suit these tables. (3) The 

 astronomical examples are fresh and solutions are given, not only by the use of 

 formulae derived in the text, but, wherever possible, they are also obtained direct 

 from a figure. This is a very wise plan, as it calls the student back to first 

 principles and tends to prevent a rigid and too often unintelligent dependence upon 

 formula?. (4) The book has been rearranged so that proofs of problems, instead 

 of being collected in one chapter at the end, have been given in with the text of 

 the chapters themselves. 



Other modifications include an entire rewriting of the chapters on plane and 

 spherical triangles, and the addition of chapters on projections and the correction 

 of altitudes. The latter is a useful addition ; the former seems distinctly out of 

 place as Chapter I, preceding the chapter containing definitions. A student 



