274 



NA TURE 



[August 25, 1923 



In his " Elements of Plant Biology " Mr. Tansley 

 has certainly achieved a great measure of success in 

 discharging a task beset with difficulties, and his book 

 deserves to be widely read, for it possesses a certain 

 indefinable, but none the less real, quality of distinction. 

 The author has thought out his subject-matter well, 

 and he has succeeded better, we think, than any of 

 his predecessors in giving, on elementary lines, a clear 

 and comprehensive account of the main features of 

 plant life regarded from a truly scientific point of view. 

 His mode of exposition is clear and his choice of 

 material admirable, and thus, with remarkable freedom 

 from esoteric technicality, he has produced a volume 

 that really does provide the student with what will 

 stand him in good stead, no matter what branch 

 of biology he may ultimately elect to follow up. 

 Furthermore, the book may be recommended with 

 no less confidence to those who want to know something 

 of some of the most important tendencies in modem 

 biology, even if their main interests happen to lie in 

 quite other fields. 



The opening chapters touch briefly, and very clearly, 

 on those physical and chemical aspects of the subject 

 which are so essential to any real understanding of 

 the living organism. The cell, its structure, its modes 

 of reproduction, and so on, is sufficiently described, 

 and its marvellous variety, both in form and develop- 

 ment, is illustrated by well-chosen examples, special 

 prominence being accorded to essentials, whilst details 

 which, for the purpose of this book, are of less moment 

 have been wisely passed over. A good account is 

 then given of the leading and most generally interesting 

 facts of structure and function as displayed in the 

 various main groups of the vegetable kingdom, the 

 whole treatment being so worked out as to enable 

 the reader to obtain a comprehensive, if elementary, 

 grasp of the chief evolutionary story of plants. 



It is possible that a chapter on genetics might lend 

 more completeness to this admirable volume ; but with 

 the object the author had more especially before him 

 when writing it, possibly the omission was deliberate. 

 Moreover, he does, in his closing chapter, briefly discuss 

 the larger aspects of evolution, and the present writer 

 especially welcomes the expression of opinion that 

 " there is no bar to the appearance of characters which 

 are of no use to the organism, nor even of characters 

 which are disadvantageous to it, provided they do not 

 handicap the organism sufficiently to destroy its chances 

 of continued existence." This sentence (the italics are 

 the author's) is in real accordance with the facts as 

 they may be gathered from a study of plants actually 

 growing in the open, and it represents a point of view 

 which it is well to emphasise in the face of much false 

 doctrine phased on fanciful teleology. Lucretius, 



NO. 2808, VOL. 112] 



regarding the matter from a somewhat different angle, 

 has well said in his " De Rerum Natura " (iv. 834-5) : 



Nil ideo quoniam natumst in corpore ut uti 

 Possemus, sed quod natumst id procreat usum. 



J. B. F. 



Kamerlingh Onnes and his Laboratory. 



Het Natuurkundig Laboratorium der Rijksuniversiteit 

 te Leiden in de Jaren igo4-ig22. Gedenhboek 

 aangeboden aan H. Kamerlingh Onnes, Directeur 

 van het Laboratorium bij gelegenheid van zijn veertig- 

 jarig Prqfessoraat op 11 November ig22. Pp. iv + 458. 

 (Leiden : Eduard Ijdo, 1922.) 



AT a recent lecture given in London by Prof. H. A. 

 Lorentz, Sir William Bragg made the happy 

 remark that Holland, per square mile of its land — 

 and water ! — produced more eminent physicists than 

 any other country. Amusing, and true. The appear- 

 ance of the volume with the above title is another 

 reminder of how true it is. Surely it is almost, if 

 not quite, without precedent that it should fall to the 

 lot of the same scientific investigator to have his work 

 commemorated twice during his lifetime. Yet this 

 is what has happened here. In 1904 there appeared 

 a book, produced by his colleagues, to celebrate the 

 twenty-fifth anniversary of the bestowal of the title 

 of doctor on Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. The name 

 of that book is identical with that of the present one, 

 except for the dates — 1882 to 1904; and in its intro- 

 duction, if a free translation from the Dutch may be 

 permitted, its purpose is described as " a review of 

 what by him — through his inspiration, under his 

 direction, by means of the apparatus he has assembled, 

 and from his learning — has been added to the advance- 

 ment of science." 



It has appeared to the committee responsible for 

 the new commemoration — Prof. Zeeman being the 

 chairman and Prof. Lorentz himself a member — that 

 the occasion would be served best by bringing out 

 what Prof. Lorentz calls a *' second edition," dealing 

 with the work in Prof. Onnes' laborator}' during the 

 period 1904-1922, a period which includes the success- 

 ful liquefaction of helium in 1908 and the well-known 

 subsequent advances in the attainment and use of 

 low temperatures. The cryogenic laboratory- at 

 Leyden has for some years become " an international 

 institution for scientific investigations at very low 

 temperatures " — a fact made evident by the names 

 of those who have worked there and contributed 

 papers to this volume. The description given by 

 Dr. Crommelin indicates what a magnificent and 

 well-organised laboratory it now is ; but, until the 

 enlarged building was completed and opened in January 



