5o8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



the future science specialist. There is an increasing tendency, however, in 

 many of the public schools at least, to replace this formal science by a wider 

 and shallower course which is held to be more suitable for the majority of 

 pupils, who thus acquire a working knowledge and understanding of natural 

 phenomena and an appreciation of the value of scientific discovery in modern 

 civilisation which they miss entirely under the deeper and narrower methods 

 of the old system. 



This American publication is far in advance of anything which has yet 

 been published in England to cater for this modern development in scientific 

 teaching, and merits attention on that account. Three university professors, 

 of chemistry, physics, and biology respectively, and a lecturer on meteorology, 

 have collaborated, each bringing his own expert knowledge to deal with the 

 various branches of science, and consequently the book is almost entirely 

 free from the misstatements and errors which are commonly found in text- 

 books on general science compiled by a single author. 



The book is a mine of information ; over loo experiments are outlined 

 in its 600 pages, and many ingenious questions and problems are inserted in 

 the various chapters. It is difficult, however, to visualise it as a first-year 

 course, as it would appear that at least three years would be occupied in 

 traversing the course in the time allotted to science in the English school 

 curriculum. Heating, lighting, refrigeration, weather, seasons, climate, 

 health, ventilation, food, nutrition, micro-organisms, soil physics, water 

 supply, sewage disposal, machines, work, and energy are all dealt with in 

 considerable detail, and the book strikes one as a fairly complete science 

 course for non-specialists rather than as an introduction. 



The printing, apart from the illustrations, is good ; but the price seems 

 prohibitive for general class use. It might be wise to issue it in sections in 

 limp covers. 



V. Seymour Bryant. 



Le Movement Scientifique Contemporain en France : I. Les Sciences Naturelles : 



Par Georges Matisse, Docteur es Sciences. [Pp. 160, with 25 illustra- 

 tions.] (Paris: Payot et Cie, 192 1. Price 4 francs.) 



This little volume appears to be the first of a series intended to summarise 

 French achievements in the domain of science during the last fifty years or 

 so. The present instalment is devoted to the biological sciences. It opens 

 with an account of the work of Lacaze-Duthiers, the founder of the first 

 marine laboratory (at Roscoff in Brittany) and of the Archives de Zoologie 

 Experimentale, both in or about 1870. The themes of the other narratives 

 are as follows : Yves Delage : Sa Theorie de I'Heredite ; Polyzoisme des 

 Organismes ; Fecondation Chimique. La Fecondation Artificielle des 

 Batraciens : E. Bataillon. La Morphologic Dynamique ; La Forme des 

 Poissons : Frederic Houssay. La Theorie de la Preadaptation des Etres au 

 MiUeu ou ils vivent : L. Cuenot. Les Tropismes ; les Formes ; la Chimie et 

 la Vie : Georges Bohn. L'eau de Mer, Milieu Organique : Rene Quinton. 

 L'Embryogenie des Plantes et les Tissus Transitoires ; Theorie de la Constitu- 

 tion de la Plante : Gustave Chauveaud. La Physiologie Vegetale : Marin 

 MoUiard. La Culture Artificielle des Vegetaux Inferieurs : Louis Matruchot.. 

 In each case the account of the problem and of the achievements of the 

 respective scientists is told in a concise and clear manner, and the literature on 

 each subject treated is given at the end of each chapter. It seems somewhat 

 strange to see science surveyed from the point of view of national boundaries,, 

 seeing that science is the most international of all human creations. And 

 the period covered, 1 870-1920, is also rather ominous, for it coincides with the 

 Rise and Fall of German Imperialism, and, as some fear, with the Fall and 

 Resurrection of French Imperialism. It is to be hoped that the great achieve- 



