November ii, 1920] 



NATURE 



JO": 



thought about the relation between man and the 

 matter amid which he lives and moves. 



Few young students of science, and as few 

 •clergy, have any clear view of the history of the 

 philosophic thought that bears on their work. We 

 •would suggest that the time spent in reading this 

 little book would bring them lasting gain. It is 

 so simple that it will interest those quite untrained 

 in philosophy. It,is not technical; it is neither 

 dogmatic nor aggressive ; it does not moralise or 

 urge a doctrinal point of view. Furthermore, it is 

 redeemed from the deadliness of most summaries 

 by its admirable clarity and its firm adherence to 

 one path where tempting by-ways cross it. The 

 layman in science and theology will be almost 

 •equally attracted, and will rise with whetted 

 appetite ; for the defect, or merit, of the book is 

 that one wishes it were longer and fuller. Never- 

 theless, we believe that Mr. Hardwick has done 

 wisely in keeping his limits so narrow. He might 

 have written a much bigger book, done it equally 

 well, and yet have missed his mark. As it is, we 

 ■believe that his shot will go home. 



S. A. McDowAi.i.. 



Our Bookshelf. 



Mrs. Warren's Daughter: A Story of the 

 IVoman's Movement. By Sir Harry Johnston. 

 Pp. xi-(-402. (London: Chatto and Windus, 

 1920.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 



In writing "Mrs. Warren's Daughter," and more 

 particularly in his first and very successful novel, 

 "The Gay Uombeys," Sir Harry Johnston has 

 sought to reproduce some aspects of the life led 

 by men (if science in London during the decades 

 which stretch from last century into the present. 

 Both novels are speculations regarding the influ- 

 ence of environment on human character and 

 action; in "The Gay Dombeys " the author seeks 

 to depict the influence of the post-Uarwinian 

 period on the descendants of the Dombey family 

 created by Uickens, and in "Mrs. Warren's 

 Daughter " he gauges the effect of the feminist 

 movement of recent years on the daughter of that 

 rather tarnished lady, Mrs. Warren, placed first 

 on the stage of literature by Mr. George Bernard 

 Shaw. Those, however, who knew the Zoological, 

 "Geographical, Anthropological, and other learned 

 London societies some thirty or forty years ago 

 will read these books with a double interest, for 

 they will find that Sir Harry's characters resusci- 

 tate past chapters in the history of scientific life 

 in London. The author, ii is needless to say, uses 

 a light and nimble pen to draw word-pictures seen 

 from a highly individualistic Harrv Tolmstonian 

 angle. 



In "Mrs. Warren's Daughter" .., .i.v, intro- 

 duced to Prof. .Michael Rossiter, F.R.S., "a really 

 admirable and fluent lecturer nn nnthropology, 

 NO. 2663, VOL, 106] 



chemistry, ethnology, hygiene, geography, 

 economic botany, regional zoology, germ dis- 

 eases, agriculture, etc., etc." Prof. Rossiter, 

 whom we should suppose to be a character com- 

 pounded from the late very distinguished surgeon. 

 Sir Victor Horsley, and from the pioneer of 

 modern physiology in England, the late Sir 

 Michael Foster, is given qualifications as a lec- 

 turer beyond the wide capabilities of the com- 

 bined originals. Even Sir Harry Johnston him- 

 self, who has first-hand acquaintance of more 

 branches of knowledge than almost any man 

 living, would hesitate to carry out the programme 

 he assigns to Prof. Rossiter. 



Der Aufbau der Materie : Drei Aufsdtse iiber 

 tnodeme Atomistik und Elektronentheoric. By 

 Max Born. Pp. v + 8i. (Berlin: Julius 

 Springer, 1920.) Price 8.60 marks. 

 In the form of three essays the author has given 

 a clear and simple summary of the advances which 

 have been made during the last few years in our 

 knowledge of atomic structure. The first essay 

 consists of a survey of the results obtained by 

 purely physical investigations. It describes the 

 measurement of the charge and mass of the elec- 

 tron, the Kelvin-Thomson model of the atom and 

 the Rutherford-Bohr model which succeeded it, 

 the discovery of. the diffraction of X-rays by 

 crystals, and Moseley's work on X-ray spectra 

 and atomic number. A short account is given 

 of Bohr's theory and its development by Sommer- 

 felt, of the general relationships between the 

 spectra of the elements, and of Kossel's work on 

 electrovalency, which determines the number of 

 electrons in the severiil shells surrounding the posi- 

 tively charged nucleus. In the second essay, the 

 former attempts to obtain a mechanical model of 

 the a;ther are contrasted with the modern concep- 

 tion of all mechanical forces as being electrical 

 in their origin. Our knowledge of crystal struc- 

 tures has made possible a closer examination of 

 the inter-atomic forces in solid bodies ; quantita- 

 tive relationships can be obtained — for instance, in 

 the case of sodium chloride — between purely 

 physical constants, such as the distances between 

 the atoms, the ionic charges, and the compressi- 

 bility of the solid on one hand and the heat 

 of formation of the compound on the other. This 

 is amplified in the third essay. Both chemistry 

 and physics deal ultimately with the structure of 

 the atom, for the constants which govern chemical 

 reactions are to be explained in terms of the forces 

 between electrons and nucleus in the atomic 

 structure. 



In so small a volume, the author cannot do more 

 than indicate the results which have been obtained 

 in each line of investigation, but very complete 

 references are given to the original papers on the 

 subject. So much work of fundamental import- 

 ance has been done in the last three or four years 

 that this book will be welcome, both as an intro- 

 duction to the most recent researches, and for the 

 useful references which it contains. 



