February 8, 19 12] 



NATURE 



477 



in which it is so rich, we should still possess in it 

 a collection of scientific information well arranged in 

 rightful sequence, and as a whole of very direct im- 

 portance to mankind — of so much importance, indeed, 

 that in some degree it should be at the command of 

 the caterer and the cook, as well as of the physician. 

 The present edition has been specially improved in 

 those parts of more immediate importance to the 

 medical practitioner, and this is natural because of 

 the occupation of the author, but is also probably a 

 consequence of the special market which the book has 

 found. It will, however, be well when such a book 

 reaches the wider market for which it is intended, 

 as will no doubt happen when present efforts to provide 

 an adequate training in " domestic science " have gained 

 a deeper and wider success. When that time arrives 

 "hvgiene" will have permanently lifted its- head above 

 drain-pipes and fevers, and passed even the limits 

 of interest in rickets and in defective vision. 



Developing schemes of public health lead us to 

 anticipate a time when the committal to memory of 

 the symptoms of incipient disease will no longer form 

 part of the responsibility of the general public. So 

 much at least we might infer from the manner in 

 which the medical supervision of schools and work- 

 shops, and even of homes, is passing into the hands 

 of inspectors and nurses under the control of medical 

 officers of health. Responsibility for the possession 

 of some of the knowledge contained in this book will, 

 however, never pass away from the individual house- 

 holder, certainly never until the " State " is actually 

 the householder and the " State doctor " the mother 

 of every family in the kingdom. 



In certain unimportant particulars patient scrutiny 

 reveals the fact that faults might occasionally be found 

 in this book, but cui bono? The book is sound and 

 comprehensive, the author extremely able and enter- 

 taining, the present edition an improvement on its 

 forerunners, and the subject of vital interest to the 

 community. Space should be found for it in the 

 library of every educated family as necessarily as in 

 that of every practitioner of medicine. To the latter 

 it is now no longer needful to plead for its welcome. 



J. S. Macdonald. 



THE CONSTANTS OF NATURE. 

 (i) Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants, and 



Some Mathematical Functions. By Dr. G. W. G. 



Kaye and Prof. T. H. Laby. Pp. vii+i53. 



(London: Longmans, Green and Co., 191 1.) Price 



45. 6d. net. 

 (2) Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Vol. 58, 



No. I, Smithsonian Physical Tables. Prepared by 



F. E. Fowle. Fifth revised edition. Pp. xxxiv + 



318. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1910.) 



THESE two volumes of newly compiled tables of 

 physical and chemical constants cover very much 

 the same ground, though differing, greatly in many 

 respects. The larger volume of 318 pages is a revised 

 edition of the famous Smithsonian tables, bearing on 

 the title-page the name of Mr. F. E. Fowle, of the 

 Astrophysical Observatory, as its compiler. It is 

 issued as an official publication of the Smithsonian 



NO. 2206, VOL. 88] 



Institution. The smaller tables of Dr. Kaye and 

 Prof. Laby are the first issue of an entirely new work 

 by private individuals. 



In the prefaces to the larger book, by Dr. Wol- 

 oott and Mr. Fowle, it is stated that the earlier tables 

 of Prof. Thomas Gray have been almost entirely re- 

 written for this fifth edition. Both books claim to be 

 practical and thoroughly up to date ; a comparison of 

 them is therefore legitimate and instructive. 



(i) Messrs. Kaye and Laby's book of 153 pages is 

 pleasingly got up and very well printed, an enormous 

 amount of material having been carefully dovetailed 

 into a limited space. Heavy type and separation lines 

 are freely used to bring the important features into 

 prominence, thus assisting the eye in finding what is 

 wanted. The work consists of nine sections, entitled 

 — general physics, astronomy, heat, sound, light, elec- 

 tricity, magnetism, radio-activity and gaseous ionisa- 

 tion, chemistry and mathematical tables, together 

 with a good index. One of the most important 

 features, which distinguishes the book from previous 

 compilations, is the fiiceen-page section on the con- 

 stants of radio-activity, a field of work which has 

 grown enormously during the past ten years, and has 

 hitherto been entirely neglected by compilers of tables. 

 This section bears the marks of expert treatment. 

 In the case of most of the important constants the 

 names of the authorities are given throughout the 

 book, with dates and references to original papers. 

 The introductory paragraphs to the tables are many 

 of them especially good, and great discrimination 

 seems to have been shown in the selection of the best 

 determinations for. the tables instead of loading them 

 up with matter which only deserves a place in a 

 detailed historical risumd, and has long since for 

 practical purposes been relegated to the scrap-heap. 

 The values of the constants given are, so far as we 

 have seen, thoroughly up to date. Thus in the tables 

 of melting points of the elements only ten of the 

 determinations for which the year is given date from 

 earlier than 1900, while sixty-five fall within the 

 present century. 



We have submitted the book to .1 v.ry close 

 examination, and found in it extremely 1. u mistakes. 

 Among these may be mentioned a conspicuous one on 

 p. 47, where, in the thermoelectric tables relating to 

 10 per cent, platinum-rhodium and platinum-iridium 

 couples, the values of the E.M.F. shown should all 

 be multiplied by 10. On p. 64 the calorific value of 

 illuminating gas is given 1000 times too small, and 

 in the section on electrochemical equivalents on p. 123 

 the figures for copper and hydrogen require correction 

 to 0-0003205 and 0-00001045 respectively. 



The compilation of a bc)ok of this kind must have 

 involved immense labour, and every credit is due both 

 to authors and publi-shers for the result accomplished. 

 We have no hesitation in most cordially commending 

 the work to physicists, chemists, and engineers, as by 

 far the best small book of its kind, mid likely to 

 prove exceedingly useful. In view .1 ii. very 

 moderate price teachers of experimental m i, n. , would, 

 we think, be well advised in prescribiiu; ihi- volume 

 of constants as a necessary text-book fci tlx.sr aitin<l- 

 ing their courses. 



