512 



NATURE 



[April 22, 1922 



A book that devotes a chapter of fourteen pages to 

 intelHgence tests, and then gives in an appendix a foot- 

 rule for intelHgence testing, is bound to give the im- 

 pression that any one with a certain degree of intelligence 

 but without any special knowledge is in a position to 

 apply such tests with fruitful results. Any such 

 impression is erroneous in the extreme, and pays little 

 respect to the psychologists who are experimenting in 

 this field of research and are trying to overcome 

 scientifically some of the difficulties inherent in the 

 subject, which are either not mentioned or passed over 

 so lightly by Dr. Drever. 



The fundamental difference between these two 

 books is that the author of one is mainly interested in 

 industrial psychology from the point of view of the 

 lecturer ; while the main interest of the author of the 

 other is that of the research worker. Industrial 

 psychology has a long way to go before it can offer 

 much scope for those who wish to lecture profitably 

 about its principles, for most of these have to be dis- 

 covered by the research worker and tested in various 

 fields before they can claim to rank as truly scientific. 

 It is because Dr. Vernon has attempted this that his 

 book marks a definite advance in the science and should 

 be read by all who are interested in the human side of 

 industry either from the practical or the scientific point 

 of view. 



Glacial Climates. 



Das Klima des Eiszeitalters. By Prof. Dr. R. Spitaler. 

 Pp. iv+138. (Prag : from the author, Smichow, 

 379. 1921.) 65K. 



DR FELIX OSWALD (Nature, vol. Ixxv. p. 197) 

 performed a remarkable feat when he printed 

 his " Treatise on the Geology of Armenia " on a hand- 

 press at Beeston in 1905. Prof. Rudolf Spitaler has 

 reverted further, and has issued his work on glacial 

 climates in a written script. The reproduction of 

 this by lithography secures a uniformity that was 

 not always possible among the ancients. He thus 

 shows us a way out of the apparent impasse that has 

 threatened scientific publication. The lodging in suit- 

 able libraries of, say, a hundred copies of a quarto 

 memoir such as this would go far in the dissemination 

 of ideas, and the process lends itself to tabular matter, 

 freely used by Prof. Spitaler, and also to much delicacy 

 of illustration. Authors in the days of imperial Rome 

 were not dissatisfied with a manuscript mode of publi- 

 cation. The monumental " Naturalis Historia " of the 

 elder Pliny, in thirty-seven books, gained a handsome 

 circulation, and the author was engaged on a supple- 

 ment — how well we know those supplements ! — in the 

 NO. 2738, VOL. 109] 



tragic year of 79. The genial Martial directs a would- 

 be borrower to the shop of Attractus opposite Caesar's 

 forum, in the certainty that a copy of his latest poems 

 could be bought there for five denarii. Allowing for 

 the exchange, Prof. Spitaler asks little more, and we 

 must remember that Roman publishers had the 

 advantage of slave-labour. 



In the beautiful script of his amanuensis. Prof. 

 Spitaler supports the astronomical explanation of the 

 climatic changes that produce or abrogate an ice-age. 

 He divides the globe into zones of latitude, and shows 

 how each would be affected by the variation of the 

 perihelion position of the earth, combined with varia- 

 tion in the obliquity of the ecliptic. He lays stress 

 on the distribution of land and water within the zones ; 

 climate is greatly affected by " continentality " and 

 " oceanity." This, however (p. 29), does not account 

 for the higher average temperature in January as 

 against July at the equator, which is attributable to 

 the occurrence of perihelion when winter reigns in the 

 northern hemisphere. 



A maximum excentricity of the orbit and a high 

 obliquity of the ecliptic provide extreme conditions 

 and promote glaciation ; but Prof. Spitaler contends 

 that even in these circumstances there need not be 

 a reversal of the climate of each hemisphere every 

 10,500 years. He urges (p. in) that a glacial climate, 

 when promoted in the north, may affect the equator 

 and still more the south, so that simultaneous glacia- 

 tion over the whole earth, as postulated by A. Penck, 

 is possible. Cool summers and mild winters (p. 94) 

 favour snowfall, while hot summers and very cold 

 winters are unfavourable. The maximum of the 

 last warm period for the northern hemisphere (p. 57), 

 when the summer took place in perihelion, is held to 

 have occurred about 8500 years ago, an epoch that 

 coincides presumably with the rapid melting back of 

 the northern ice. The author (p. 131) looks forward 

 to a continuance of a warm period, controlled by the 

 excentricity, for nearly 500,000 years, when a great 

 ice-age will again begin to affect the earth, unless 

 tectonic changes intervene, such as have no doubt 

 acted in the past. The Permian ice-age (p. 137) may 

 be referred to the greater coolness of the large sea- 

 area lying to the north of Gondwana Land, at an 

 epoch of high excentricity, high obliquity of the 

 ecliptic, with perihelion, as now, in the winter of the 

 northern hemisphere. 



In view of recent progress in physics, many geologists 

 will prefer the hypothesis of variations in solar radia- 

 tion as a possible explanation of great climatic changes ; 

 but this will not lessen their interest in Prof. Spitaler's 

 detailed calculations. G. A. J. C. 



