278 



NA TURE 



[August 25, 1923 



with the following subjects — the relations of animals 

 to gravity and their locomotion in various media ; 

 light, colour, and luminescence ; equilibration, hearing, 

 and touch ; chemical influences ; the influence of heat 

 and cold ; animal electricity ; and respiration. This 

 is a lot to cover in 150 small pages, but we are bound to 

 say that the treatment is very effective. The chapters 

 are simply illustrative, and thus they remain interesting. 

 Most of the illustrations are fresh. 



Origine de la vie stir le globe. Par Julien Costantin. 

 (Biblioth^que de Culture generale.) Pp. 192. 

 (Paris : Ernest Flammarion, 1923.) 4.50 francs net. 



The problem of the origin of organisms upon the earth 

 continues to attract and to defeat the inquisitive spirit. 

 Prof. Julien Costantin discusses it in various aspects : 

 Had living creatures a beginning at all ? If they had, 

 what were the first organisms like ? Did plants come 

 before animals ? Is there any clue in the so-called 

 " life of crystals " ? He also inquires into the meaning 

 of animate organisation, the importance of colloids, 

 the chemistry of the cell, the puzzle of cell-division, the 

 processes of growth and development. 



The chapters are all careful and clear, but they do not 

 lead us to any solution. The author concludes that 

 there must have been pre-Cambrian spontaneous 

 generation, that it is very improbable that it ever 

 occurred again, that there is no hint of its occurring 

 now, that green algae were the first organisms, and that 

 there is nothing to show that they were preceded by 

 bacteria, that the hypothesis of cosmozoa only shelves 

 the problem, and that their hypothetical arrival on the 

 earth should have been followed by several distinct 

 lines of evolution, which is not what the facts indicate. 

 To expect to effect the synthesis of living matter in the 

 near future is " perfectly ridiculous." 



University of Oxford : Institute for Research in Agricul- 

 tural Economics. An economic survey of a rural 

 parish. By J. Pryse Howell. Pp. 31. (London : 

 Oxford University Press, 1923.) i^. 

 This little survey, extending to 25 pages only, is 

 quite useful as an example of the kind of inquiry that 

 could well be made in many more of our country 

 parishes. We are told nothing of the location of the 

 particular parish, not even its county, and the work 

 loses much of its value in consequence. But the 

 survey gives a picture of a village, presumably in 

 Wales, where the houses are let at annual rentals of 

 255. upwards, and where the inhabitants apparently 

 produce most of what they need for themselves, since 

 the sales from the farms work out to about £50 per 

 annum only per person employed. It is interesting 

 and should prove instructive to any rural or urban 

 dweller interested in the human side of agriculture. 



Tychonis Brake opera omnia. Edidit I. L. E. Dreyer. 

 Tomi quinti, fasciculus posterior. Pp. 217-343. 

 (Hauniae : Libraria Gyldendaliana, 1923.) n.p. 



This is a supplement to vol. v. of Tycho's collected 

 works. It contains several examples of Tycho's ob- 

 servations of the sun and planets, and' his discussion 

 of them, assuming that the sun (the centre of the 

 planetary motions) itself goes round the earth. These 



NO. 2808, VOL. 112] 



will always remain classic, from the part they played 

 in establishing Kepler's Laws, and later Newton's law 

 of gravitation. 



A map of Huen is reproduced. 



The table of longitudes and latitudes reminds us how 

 inaccurate the knowledge of longitude was in Tycho's 

 time ; for example, Alexandria is placed 36'' cast of 

 London. 



The volume closes with twenty-five pages of useful 

 editorial notes. A. C. D. C. 



Scientific Method : an Inquiry into the Character and 

 Validity of Natural Laws. By A. D. Ritchie. (Inter- 

 national Library of Psychology, Philosophy, and 

 Scientific Method.) Pp. viii -t- 204. (London : Kegan 

 Paul and Co., Ltd. ; New York : Harcourt, Brace 

 and Co., Inc., 1923,) 10s. 6d. net. 



Mr. Ritchie's book being a dissertation for the 

 examination for a fellowship at Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, is primarily designed to prove the extent 

 and depth of the writer's reading. It leads us to 

 hope much from Mr. Ritchie when he no longer needs 

 credentials. The main scientific value of the book is 

 perhaps that it reveals the type of mind the present 

 Cambridge teachers are nurturing and the direction of 

 research they are encouraging. 



Traits de Psychologic. Par Prof. Georges Dumas. 

 Tome I. Pp. xiv + 964. (Paris: Felix Alcan, 

 1923.) 40 francs net. 



The work under notice partakes more of the nature 

 of an encyclopaedia of psychological science than of a 

 treatise on psychology. It is a reminder of the 

 exuberant growth of the subject in our own time. 

 It was designed by the late Theodule Ribot, and his 

 preface is retained, but the present edition is under 

 the direction of Prof. Georges Dumas, and he has 

 secured as his collaborators a number of most dis- 

 tinguished workers, every one eminent in some branch 

 of psychological science. 



The Amateurs' Book of Wireless Circuits. By F. H. 

 Haynes. Pp. 107. (London : The Wireless Press, 

 Ltd., 1923.) 2S. 6d. net. 



The amateur radio engineer will find Mr. Haynes's little 

 work most instructive. The author begins with the 

 simplest possible circuits and then introduces elabora- 

 tions step by step until he arrives at many of the 

 complicated arrangements used in practice. Standard 

 symbols are employed and the diagrams are beautifully 

 clear, so the gradual evolution of the systems can be 

 very readily followed. 



Questions and Problems in Chemistry. By F. L. 

 Darrow. Pp. vii-l-177. (London: G. Bell and 

 Sons, Ltd., 1923.) 35. 6d. net. 



This book consists of a large number of \ery simple 

 questions on chemistry, and may be found useful to 

 teachers in schools. It is, however, more adapted for 

 use with an American text-book, and adopts American 

 spelhng — " sulfuric," etc. The examination papers at 

 the end are American, and in many ways the book will 

 not fit in with English school methods. 



