756 



NATURE 



[November 24, 1923 



by supplying long appendices on the design of Siemens 



f!;r ' ' M'-r -stoves, and boiler setting • '••'* 



ti. Irs are applied to a large 



concrete cases, witli an abundance of numerical data. 

 Tables of t'"'""'i ''•♦i stml curves giving the heat 

 capacity w ity of some of the most 



typical gaseous uiid liijuiU lucU complete a book which 

 should exert a great influence. C. H. D. 



Our Bookshelf. 



/' Widicine and the Alhrd Scirnees in 



'/fs, Hy I'rof. R. 1'. J.tijnr ; with the 

 collaiM.i.iiiMii ,,1 I i. \1. W illi.iiiis and G. Z. L, Le Bas, 

 Pp. \i- \'i\. (l-diidon: British Medical Associa- 

 tion , nil. ) ION. 'l(/. 



Till. i)rn\isi(iii of I'niun Lists of Periodicals filed in 

 our I ni\tr.->ity centres is now recognised to be an 

 indispensable aid to research. Such Lists should be 

 authoritative. They sliould be issued at frequent 

 intervals and on a uniform basis of compilation. 

 Their type should be kept standing with the view 

 of reducing the labours of their compilers and the 

 cost of successive editions to their buyers. Something 

 has already been accomplished in this direction ; 

 but the ground is not yet adequately covered. 



Union Lists of Periodicals, however, representing 

 specific branches of knowledge, stand upon a less 

 secure footing. Dr. Leiper's " Periodicals of Medicine 

 and the Allied Sciences in British Libraries " illustrates 

 the difficulties which beset the path of the untrained 

 compiler of these sectional lists in the absence of a 

 printed National Union List covering the whole range 

 of periodical literature. Judged by the " standards 

 which guide professional librarians " (we are quoting 

 from Dr. Leiper's preface), the work before us cannot 

 be regarded as satisfactory, in more than one respect. 

 Wales, for example, is not represented in the List ; 

 the Scottish libraries are not represented by the 

 Advocates' Library in Edinburgh, or the London 

 libraries by the Library of the Patent Office. These 

 are serious omissions. We do not, however, propose 

 to justify our criticism further, for to some extent 

 the defects in the List are admitted in the preface. 

 We prefer to meet Dr. Leiper on his own ground. 

 The compiler and his collaborators have grappled 

 maiifiillv with a very ditTuvilt task, and have succeeded 

 in pnuliuing a work which will be serviceable to 

 students in the field of medical research, provided 

 that llic\- do not lean too heavily upon its biblio- 

 graphical sufficiency and accuracy. Further, we trust 

 that its publication will serve to promote a hipher 

 co-ordination of work among professional librarians — 

 in respect of which, as Dr. Leiper suggests, there is 

 still great room for improvement. 



Nickel Ores. By W. G. Rumbold. (Imperial Institute : 

 Monographs on Mineral Resources, with special 

 reference to the British Empire.) Pp. ix-i-8i. 

 (London : John Murray, 1923.) 55. net. 



This little volume is written in the same way and 

 upon the same lines as its predecessors in the series of 

 Imperial Institute monographs on mineral resources ; 



NO. 2821, VOL. 112] 



that is to sa> th a brief account 



thf mode of < HiC character of nicl 



the metallurgy of nickel, and the uses to whichi 

 li.... metal is put industrially, followed by a dwcription' 

 of .the occurrences of nickel ores within the Hritisli 

 Empire, and fi- "• ■-' *' foreign sources of supply of 

 this iin lah 1 o far rendered an easv one 



because the auinor naa at iiand the wcU-k; 

 of the Royal Ontario Nickel (*ommi.ssion ; 

 1917, in whirh the wlxtjc subject is most r.;. 

 dealt wiili. Thi.s ^rral rt port i-.. however, to.. 

 ous for the ordinary seeker after general infc*! 

 and the present monograph fulfils a useful 01 

 presenting th( subject matter in a more conveni' 

 and more readily accessible form Tt sbniild Ik* add 

 tliat Mr. Rumbold has . well. I 



SLeti(in on the applicat. , ,.,. ,^. ■. ...though hri' 



is tolerably comprehensi\r. dthough more attent; ; 

 might perhaps have been lIm n to nickel-plating, wh; , 

 is becoming of \ cry -real industrial importance, 

 other respects the author appears to have covered \ 

 ground very thoroughly ;. he scarcely does full just 

 to the important part tl ly has played in ni< r 1 



production in the past. judge by the bibl 



graphy attached, does not seem to have consulted \ 

 tolerably extensive Norwegian literature on the subj' 

 Upon the whole, it may fairly l^e said that the w^ 

 carries out very well the intention of the series, name; 

 " to give a general account of the occurrences and ci : 

 mercial utilisation of the more important minerals.'" 



Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. New Seri' 

 Vol. 23: Containing the Papers read btfore '. 

 Society during the Forty-fourth Sessior. 

 Pp. ii-f-289. (London: Williams ai. . .. ._. . 

 1923) 255. net. 



Philosophy takes account of the meaning of thin. . 

 At the present time, it is partly occupied with nt a 

 conceptions of the structure of the material univer- . 

 or matter, in terms of theoretical physics. Amo: _ 

 the papers in the current issue of the Proceedings 

 the Aristotelian Society — mainly devoted to dialectic d. 

 discussions of classical themes or the re-statement : 

 old problems — attention may be directed to thr- 

 The Rev. Leslie Walker's " New Theorv' of Mattt r 

 — neu'. in the sense of its being pre-Aristoteliar. 

 is (he says) an attempt to deduce from relatix' 

 simple first ])rin(iple> tlie !;nvs o[ lo-existence a- 

 sequence which have been tnun'. > \T'< rimrntally i" 

 hold good between obser\ tri 1 ' sphere 



both of quantitv and cjuality. --, .iiat the 



essence of a t in the fundamental structure 



or ratio — for,,., ...■■''■'''■ -which holds b'*"-*"^" 

 the potentiahties then^ 



Dr. E. S. Russell's " i',^)( nuiuolucv "' is a monauisiie 

 conception — opposed to the mechanistic or vitalistic 

 view — in which living things appear to show a persistent 

 and enduring indi\ idualit}- of action unparalleled in the 

 inorganic realm : structure and function, he maintains, 

 must be treated as one and inseparable. 



Prof. Sellars, in a thoughtful paper on the " Double- 

 Knowledge Approach to the Mind -Body Problem," 

 demands a deepening of our metaphysical categories : 

 there exists, indeed^ in Nature a level of causality. 



