December i6, 1920] 



NATURE 



499 



syllable) are frankly impossible. To neglect the 

 established "rules of the game" in this matter is 

 merely to encourage anarchy. "Anlage" should 

 be accented on the first syllable. 



The preparation of a dictionary of so many dif- 

 ferent sciences and subsciences is a formidable 

 undertaking for two authors; the writers have, 

 however, attained a considerable measure of 

 success. 



The Evolution of a Coast-line : Barrow to Aberyst- 

 wyth and the Isle of Man, with Notes on Lost 

 Towns, Submarine Discoveries, etc. By W. 

 Ashton. Pp. xvi + 30j. (London: Edward 

 Stanford, Ltd. ; Southport : W. Ashton and 

 Sons, Ltd., 1920.) Price ids. net. 

 The author gathers every (jossible kind of evi- 

 dence to prove that there has been a widespread 

 downward tendency in the land levels of the 

 western coast of Britain, which has continued 

 from a beginning, one gathers, after Neolithic 

 times. He has read widely and with profit, 

 though not always with discrimination, but his 

 book will be of value to students, especially if 

 they also iiave Sinel's "Geology of Jersey" to 

 consult alongside it. The coast is considered 

 section by section with, frequently, a popular geo- 

 logical introduction. The author works out a 

 conjectural map of some ancient coast-lines, such 

 as that of Cardigan Bay, which he suggests 

 was once all lowland, and the land of the famous 

 story of the Lowland Hundred or Cantref y 

 (iwaclod retold by T. L. Peacock in "The Mis- 

 fortunes of Elphin." In this he is almost certainly 

 right in the main, though some of the scraps of 

 evidence quoted are conjectural, and it is doubt- 

 ful whether enough is allowed, either in this 

 section or in others, for the consolidation, with 

 the lapse of time, of the boulder clay which 

 formed the main part of the lost lowlands. It is 

 rightly stated that there has been distinct loss of 

 land within historic times, but protection at the 

 public expense is difficult, because the public does 

 not appropriate land gained from the sea, and 

 this, in the last thirty-five years, has been more 

 than seven times the land lost. Even on the west 

 coast gains have counterbalanced losses. The re- 

 productions of old maps and prints arc a valuable 

 feature of the book. 



Has the North Pole been Discovered? By 

 Thomas F. Hall. Pp. 539-i-maps, charts, etc. 

 (Toronto: Richard G. Badger.) Price 2.50 

 dollars. 

 The Poary-Cook question still arouses Con- 

 troversy in the United States, and the author 

 of the b<x>k before us, a former captain in 

 the American Merchant Service and a past 

 n:cmber of the Nebraska Legislature, has 

 elaborately rros.s-examincd the various narra- 

 tives by Peary and his colleagues. He concludes 

 that there is no conclusive evidence that either 

 of the two claimants reached the North Pole. He 

 states that he began his investigation with full 

 faith in Peary ; if so, his feelings have been so 



NO. 2668, VOL. 106] 



strongly roused that his statement is marked by 

 the appearance of bitter personal bias. He main- 

 tains that the speeds claimed by Peary in his last 

 marches are impossible, that Peary's photographs 

 are shown by incompletely obliterated shadows 

 not to have been taken in the latitudes claimed, 

 and that Peary's different narratives are incon- 

 sistent and contradicted on essential ques- 

 tions by those of his negro companion, Henson. 

 The author also claims that recent ascents of 

 Mount McKinley show that Cook must have 

 achieved the ascent of that mountain. 



Whether the author's criticisms of Peary are 

 fundamental, or based merely on honest errors 

 ill the narratives, on inconsistencies due to 

 haste in publication, and on photographs 

 which were prepared as book illustrations, 

 and not as evidence, will doubtless be ultimately 

 settled by the opinion of competent and impartial 

 American geographers. 



The Mystery of Life as Interpreted by Science. 

 By R. D. Taylor. Pp. 176. (London and 

 Felling-on-Tyne : The Walter Scott Publishing 

 Co., Ltd., 1919.) Price 35. 6d. net. 



Most readers of Nature seek enlightenment on 

 "The Mystery of Life as Interpreted by Science"; 

 but whether they will find it in the little book 

 which Mr. R. D. Taylor presents under this title 

 is open to question. All life is psychic in its 

 essential being, and every atom is "a psychic" 

 endowed with super-consciousness defined as 

 native cognition, determinative and directive, in- 

 bred in the structure of every atomic centre. This 

 super-consciousness is the law of its being. In 

 accordance with this law every atom radiates at- 

 tractional emanations into the related atom of next 

 lower radial potency, and coincidently receives 

 radiations from the next higher. The " radial- 

 attractional law of gravitation," which is not only 

 the act of tending towards a centre, but is also co- 

 incidently the act of developing towards a source 

 (and thus includes all human aspirations), is the 

 theme of a book the metaphysical implications of 

 which call for no further notice here. 



Directions for a Practical Course in Chemical 

 Physiology. By Dr. W. Cramer. Fourth 

 edition. Pp. viii-t-137. (London: Longmans, 

 Green, and Co., 1920.) Price 4s. 6J. net. 



In the present edition of this laboratory manual 

 the arrangement and method of treatment adopted 

 in previous editions have been retained, while the 

 subject-matter is also largely the same as that in 

 the edition reviewed in Nature of March 35, 1915. 

 Two additions have been made — a simple experi- 

 mental arrangement for demonstrating cell- 

 respiration, which was devised by Or. Drew, is 

 described, and a section has been added on the 

 balance tjctwecn acids and bases in the organism. 

 In the latter a brief account is given of the ele- 

 mentary facts of the physical chemistry of acids 

 and bnsc.s, and simple experiments by which they 

 can be verified are described. 



