398 



NATURE 



[January 26, 191 1 



interesting subject-matter, are much duller compila- 

 tions. The title "American" is given its vv^idest pos- 

 sible connotation, for whereas Benjamin Thompson, 

 later Count Rumford, was born in America, and with 

 American versatility, served on both sides in the Revo- 

 lutionary war, yet the whole of his scientific career 

 was passed in Europe, and in London he founded the 

 Royal Institution ; on the other hand, Louis Agassiz 

 was born in Switzerland, and only went to America 

 as a man of science of established reputation when 

 he was forty years of age. The word " leading " 

 also by no means always signifies pre-eminence in 

 research, for amongst the seventeen immortals we find 

 the names of chemists like Silliman, and zoologists 

 like Baird and Goode, who are remembered rather for 

 their successful efforts to build up scientific institu- 

 tions than for "epoch-making" research. The two 

 last-named are associated with the development of the 

 United States Fish Commission, and Dr. Goode, in 

 addition with the building up of the National Museum 

 in Washington. 



But amongst the most interesting biographies from 

 certain points of view is that of Prof. Willard Gibbs, 

 who devoted his life to the working out of abstruse 

 principles in mathematical physics, and produced 

 results of such high importance th&t American 

 students studying physics in Berlin were set to master 

 the work of their own fellow-countryman, about 

 which they had previously known nothing. That in 

 a country so full of "hustle" and of the utilitarian 

 spirit, a position should be found for such a man in 

 which the sole duties were to instruct four or five 

 advanced students in his speciality, augurs well for 

 the intellectual future of America. A similar feeling 

 is called to one's mind by the case of a brilliant 

 investigator prematurely cut off, whose name has 

 been, as we think, unadvisedly, omitted from this list; 

 we refer to Prof. Charles Ward Beecher, of Yale, who 

 described the anatomy of Trilobita. In his case also 

 his teaching duties were light, and did not extend 

 over more than five or six weeks in the year, and all 

 the rest of his time was devoted to research ; and the 

 tangible results of his researches in palaeontology, 

 after they had been described in publications, were 

 deposited in the museum, which was in this way built 

 up. If with Prof. Cattell we consider that 



"if he is to be regarded as a benefactor who makes 

 two blades of grass grow in the place of one his ser- 

 vices would be immeasurably greater who could enable 

 two men of science to flourish where one had existed 

 before," 



then the University of Yale, to which Prof. Willard 

 Gibbs also belonged, must take high place in the 

 rank of benevolent institutions. 



One of the most valuable features of the volume 

 under review is the account which it gives of the in- 

 vestigations of those of its subjects who were renowned 

 for research. This account is presented in such a way 

 as to be intelligible to the reader who is not a specialist. 

 The editor, President Jordan of Leland Stanford 

 University, has prefixed a preface in which are some 

 things well worthy of being emphasised. "In the ex- 

 tension of coordination of human experience," he says, 

 " lies the only permanent wealth of nations. And in 

 NO. 2152, VOL. 85] 



this view is found the keynote of the present volume." 

 Again : — 



"As we understand better the universe around us 

 our relations to others and to ourselves, the behaviour 

 of our race becomes rationalised. It becomes possible 

 for us to keep ourselves clean and to make ourselves 

 open-minded, friendly, and God-fearing." 



The spirit to which these lines give expression and 

 which is reflected in the lives recorded in this volume 

 is the better leaven of democracy. While to many at 

 a distance the American Republic seems a seething 

 mass of blatant and utterly unscrupulous commercial- 

 ism in which the professor is regarded by the rich as 

 a mere hired servant, and by the poor as a half lunatic 

 " crank," yet on a nearer view it is seen that his dis- 

 interested devotion to truth does not fail of its reward, 

 for nowhere else in the world are the dicta from the 

 professorial chair given such wide publicity by the 

 Press, and nowhere else have they such influence with 

 the " sober second thoughts of democracy." 



E. W. M. 



lue fabric of pharmacy. 



Chronicles of Pharmacy. By A. C. Wootton. Vol. i., 

 pp. xii + 428. Vol. ii., pp. v + 332. (London: Mac- 

 millan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price, two vols., 21s. 

 net. 



IN the preface to this very interesting and attrac- 

 tive work, Mr. Wootton tells his readers that his 

 original intention was to trace back to their authors 

 the formulas of the most popular of our medicines, 

 but that during the course of his researches he was 

 tempted to stray into various by-paths. Few of those 

 who take up the " Chronicles of Pharmacy " will re- 

 gret that the author succumbed to such temptation and 

 extended his investigations beyond the limits to which 

 he had originally intended to restrict them. 



The title is well chosen. The work does not pro- 

 fess to be a systematic history of pharmacy but a 

 series of contributions in which the author shows how 

 kings, quacks, philosophers, priests, men of science 

 and others have contributed to build up the fabric of 

 pharmacy and mould it into its present form. It has 

 been well said that no subject can be thoroughly 

 grasped and properly appreciated until its history is 

 known, and this is undoubtedly true of pharmacy, 

 yet how few pharmacists have any adequate know- 

 ledge of their profession or of the long series of modi- 

 fications through which many of the preparations they 

 daily handle have passed before acquiring the com- 

 position given to them to-day? Such information 

 Mr. Wootton now off^ers them, and in a form so 

 fascinating that, having once commenced to read, it 

 is difficult to lay the work aside until the end is 

 reached. From first to last the attention of the reader 

 is riveted to the subject by the romance which the 

 author has so skilfully delineated. 



The work is divided into twenty-four chapters. 

 From the first, which deals with the myths of phar- 

 macy, the author passes to pharmacy in the time of the 

 Pharaohs, of the bible, of Hippocrates, of Galen, of 

 the Arabians, and of Great Britain. "Dogmas and 

 Delusions," "Masters in Pharmacy," "Royal Phar- 

 macists," "Chemical Contributions to Pharmacy," 



