262 



NATURE 



[Jan. 23. 1879 



been shown by the writer that'the full effect of the current 

 can only be obtained by one lamp on a short circuit, and 

 that when adding to the lamps by inserting more of them 

 on the same circuit, or on a circuit so that the current is 

 subdivided, the light emitted by each lamp is diminished 

 in the one case by the square, and in the other case by 

 the cube of the number of lamps so inserted. Dr. 

 Siemens maintains also the concentration of the power 

 on one light, but other experimenters are endeavouring to 

 partially multiply the light. For instance, M. Rapieff, 

 in the Times office, very successfully distributes six lights 

 about the office, and Ladd and Co., with the Wallace 

 form of machine, also distribute six lights over the 

 Liverpool Street Station. Although there is undoubtedly 

 a loss of power in this distribution of the lamps, there 

 may be an advantage in such distribution in cases like 

 printing offices and railway stations. A successful experi- 

 ment has been made by the British Electric Company in 

 lighting up some of the stations of the Metropolitan 

 Railway Company, and the India Rubber and Gutta 

 Percha Company have been successful in lighting up the 

 London Bridge station of the London Brighton and 

 South Coast Railway Company. In all these cases we 

 have scarcely emerged from the sphere of experiment. 

 The electric light has not yet been permanently intro- 

 duced on any large scale. Many are trying it, many are 

 captivated by the brilliancy of the light, and many in 

 their eagerness to keep up with the spirit of the age, are 

 introducing it, as, for instance, the London Stereoscopic 

 Company, and the Messrs. Nichols, the clothiers in 

 Regent Street, where, however, the light does not appear 

 to give very great satisfaction through its fluctuation. 



We were led to expect very much from the experi- 

 ments of Mr. Werdermann, but his attempt to subdivide 

 the light seems to have subsided, for we have heard 

 nothing of it for some time past. Again, we have heard 

 no more of M. Arnaud's discovery, and the accounts that 

 reach us from America of the doings of the Sawyer-Mann 

 light, and of the supposed discoveries of Mr. Edison, are 

 unworthy of attention. 



The present state of the electric light question may 

 therefore be said to be a tentative one, and the gas com- 

 panies are with much enterprise now giving their retort 

 courteous by showing that they are in a position — if 

 people choose to pay for it — to give quite as powerful a 

 light as the electric light ; and, let us hope, before long 

 that it will be quite as perfect. There can be no doubt 

 that the use of electricity for the production of light is a 

 very wasteful as well as a costly process, for the energy 

 that is generated in the machine is not all consumed in 

 the lamp, but is proportionately distributed over the 

 whole circuit. It is therefore not utilised only in the 

 place where it is wanted, as in the case of gas. If we 

 are using a certain amount of energy in an electric lamp 

 to light a street, we are wasting as much if not more 

 energy in the street in maintaining the current to produce 

 that light. 



There are three points which all electric lights for 

 general purposes should be required to attain. The 

 first is a brilliancy far exceeding that of any known 

 lamp ; the second is a durability greater than that which 

 would be required for night operations in England ; and 

 the third is absolute steadiness, to enable work to be 



conducted without affecting the eyes. There is no elec- 

 tric light that has yet been introduced which supplies us 

 with these desiderata. W. H. Preece 



THE ''NOVUM ORGANUM'' 



Dacotis Novum Organum. Edited, with Introduction, 

 Notes, &c., by Thomas Fowler, M.A., Professor of 

 Logic in the University of Oxford. (Clarendon Pres>, 

 1878.) 



THE writings of Lord Bacon, and especially the 

 "Novum Organum," possess a fourfold interest- 

 They have a direct bearing upon the history of philo- 

 sophy, literature, logic, and physical science ; and what- 

 ever estimate we may form of their influence upon each 

 of these branches of knowledge, we think that few will 

 fail to admit that Bacon threw a bridge over that vast 

 and deep gulf which separates the ancient from the 

 modern modes of thought, and directly opened a way to our 

 present philosophy and science. Those who would ma\e 

 him the Founder of a sect, the Inventor of induction, or 

 the Father of experimental philosophy, know nothing of 

 his writings. Many had written against Aristotle before 

 his time, many had advocated the collection of positive 

 facts, and the application of a just induction, but they 

 had offered on their part no system which could replace 

 that of Aristotle. When the Scholastics began to abandon 

 their leader, some took refuge in the meagre philosophies 

 of Ramus, of Telesius, of Aconcio, of Nizolius, of Cam- 

 panella, and of minor men. But when Bacon gave to the 

 world a vast and definite system, and for the first time 

 pointed out the fallacies of the old methods, and sug- 

 gested new means of interrogating Nature, the scattered 

 refugees from Scholasticism were glad to unite their 

 forces under his banner. 



We must bear in mind at the outset that Prof. Fowler 

 approaches the editorship of the " Novum Organum," from 

 the logical and philosophical, rather than from the 

 scientific side. It is improbable that any one man 

 could combine the very exhaustive knowledge of logic, 

 literature, philosophy, and science, necessary for the 

 complete and thorough editing of the work. The main 

 object on the part of our author has been to show that 

 the "Novum Organum" marks an epoch in the history 

 of logic. At the same time he has by no means neglected 

 the other aspects of the work. He has added copious 

 notes, which from every point of view are admirable. It 

 is only here and there that one detects that some of the 

 notes relating to the scientific matters so largely discussed 

 in the second book, were not written by a man of science. 

 Playfair and Whewell are quoted among the older authori- J| 

 ties, while Prof. H. G. S. Smith, Mr. Kitchin, and Prof. ( 

 Clifton, have lent a willing hand in the elucidation of the 

 more knotty points. The most recent ideas on scientific 

 subjects are introduced : such as the kinetic theory of 

 heat, and the conser\'ation of energy. The liquefaction 

 of oxygen and hydrogen is noticed, although much of the 

 work must have been in type when these discoveries were 

 made. Altogether we have no fault to find with the 

 treatment of the work from a scientific point of view. 



There-^ave been wide differences of opinion concerning 

 Bacon's influence on the rise and progress of physical 

 science. While Voltaire and the Encyclopedists on the 



