April 13, 191 1] 



NATURE 



205 



jreat extent, upon its explanatory function. But 

 his doctrine gave a secondary place to the considera- 

 ion of practical utility to the "ordinary reader," and 

 to put the case on no higher ground) ignored the 

 lependence of the work of reference upon the ordinary 

 eader for any commercial success. After all, com- 

 nercial success connotes wide utility. The encyclo- 

 laedic method in a dictionary offers the reader some- 

 hing more than the bare solution of his ignorance 

 )f the meaning of any word; it may offer him con- 

 jotation (in limited doses) as well as denotation ; it 

 nay assist him, as "Webster" does, by appropriate 

 )ictorial illustration. 



The encyclopaedic method ought not, on one hand, 

 o be used to the exclusion of the philological 

 md other "purer" functions of the dictionary. Nor 

 loes the new "Webster" appear to transgress this 

 )rovision. On the other hand, it is obvious that en- 

 yclopaedic information must be strictly limited by 

 lonsiderations of space, and this makes exceedingly 

 lifificult the judgment of how far it should be in- 

 ;luded at all. Therefore the following instances (by 

 10 means isolated) taken to suggest that the present 

 editors have carried the encyclopaedic principle too 

 ar. are offered with due dififidence. Under the heading 

 i:^raphy," after the general definition, there follow 

 ..^ main divisions of the science — mathematical, 

 )hysical, &c., with their scope explained — very pro- 

 )erly.~ Under " Geology " the same arrangement is 

 jiven, and the various branches — cosmical, strati- 

 jraphical, and the like — are referred to. Then 

 'oUows : — 



" Geology is of comparatively recent development. 

 ;ts basis as a true science may be said to have been 

 aid by James Hutton (1726-97). It was advanced by 

 'he investigations of William Smith (1769-1839), and 

 totablv by the teachings of Sir Charles Lvell (1797- 

 '87s)-'"' 



md so the notice ends. It is submitted that this 

 nformation, thought it might have formed the in- 

 Iroduction for a brief treatise, is, by itself, practically 

 ahif^less. Take, again, the homely instance (picked 

 t liazard) of the notice on " Football," which defines 

 le difference between the various codes of the game 

 5 far as to indicate the allowance or exclusion of 

 le use of the hands, but gives no hint of difference 

 methods of scoring, or in the numbers of players 

 wstituting sides. This is surely a partial, and 

 lerefore wrong, application of the encyclopaedic 

 lethod. 



Every allowance ought to be made to the editors 

 a general work of reference in their endeavours to 

 ive space. It is therefore possible to condone the 

 €thod, theoretically indefensible, by which each page 

 the new dictionary is made up in two parts. In 

 « upper and larger, all words of more common use 

 nthin a very wide range) are given in triple-column 

 rangement. In the lower, obsolete and local words, 

 uivalents, alternatives, uncommon compounds, and 

 e like, calling for only slight reference, are given 

 an arrangement of six columns of painfully small 

 e. An excellent feature is the printing of an 

 sy reference to the signs used to indicate pronuncia- 

 m, at the foot of every page. In planning these 

 NO. 2163, VOL. 86] 



signs, such eccentricities as inverted letters have been 

 happily avoided. 



The illustrations do not reach the mechanical 

 standard of other departments of the book. The 

 coloured plates at the beginning, showing arms and 

 flags of various nations, are indifferent, both in draw- 

 ing and (at any rate in the impression before us) in 

 colour-register, while many of the cuts illustrating the 

 text are of somewhat archaic cast. A large selection 

 of the latter are repeated at the end of the volume 

 under a series of general headings, such as agricul- 

 ture, anatomy, antiquities, and the like. The utility 

 of this is not obvious ; the classification reveals a 

 certain degree of partiality, and the cuts, crowded 

 together en masse, look frankly ugly. 



The encyclopaedic method has been held to justify, 

 and with reason, the inclusion of a gazetteer and a 

 biographical dictionary among the appendices. The 

 names in these appear to have been methodically 

 chosen. As this feature has been retained from the 

 former issue, we do not entirely follow the editorial 

 judgment in including scriptural, classic, and other 

 proper names, characters of fiction, and the like, in 

 the body of the dictionary. Such arrangement may 

 tend to confusion on the part of the user of the book. 

 On the other hand, he will be the more ready to 

 excuse any difficulty in this direction in consideration 

 of the ease with which any desired letter or section 

 of the work may be found, for the makers have 

 retained the familiar and excellent system of indicat- 

 ing sections by marked indentations in the margin 

 of the pages, so that the closed volume may be opened 

 at any desired place. Finally, it may be said that 

 though the additions to the matter of the work as a 

 whole are so numerous as to have more than doubled 

 the number of entries in the previous edition, and 

 to have added several hundred pages, the bulk of the 

 volume is not seriously increased. Such criticisms 

 as have been offered above are recognised to be mostly 

 upon debatable ground, and it is freely admitted that 

 the new edition does nothing to mar, and much to 

 add to, the established reputation of "Webster." 



O. J. R. H. 



GLAUCOMA AND ITS CAUSE. 

 Glaucoma. By Dr. Thomas Henderson. Pp. xv + 

 222. (London : Edward Arnold, 1910.) Price 

 los. 6d. net. 



GLAUCOMA is that condition of the eyeball in 

 which the intraocular tension, normally greater 

 than the superincumbent atmospheric pressure by 

 about 20-25 mm. Hg., is pathologically still further 

 increased so as to produce various deleterious results. 

 It has hitherto been generally held that variations in 

 the intraocular pressure are produced by changes in 

 the amount of the fluid contents of the globe; that 

 alterations in the quantity of blood may be considered 

 negligible in this respect; and that such variations 

 as occur affect the lymph of the eye. The lymph is 

 thought to be secreted by the ciliary processes, and 

 to be excreted through the so-called "filtration" 

 angle of the anterior chamber into the venous plexus 

 which goes by the name of the canal of Schlemm. On 



