766 



NATURE 



[June 17, 1922 



germ of the theory of evolution. But they all pre- 

 supposed the action or intervention of supernatural 

 forces, and as such had no real scientific basis. Purely 

 metaphysical speculation leads nowhere, and the un- 

 substantial subtleties of dialecticians leave us cold. We 

 seek to elucidate what has been for countless ages an 

 inscrutable problem in the light of the lessons of physical 

 science. We reason from the facts of astronomy, 

 geology, physics, chemistry, and biology as we know 

 and understand them, and as each new development 

 arises we apply its teaching to the solution of the 

 mystery. It has already been pointed out that the 

 appUcation of the mechanical theory of heat, spectrum 

 analysis, thermal radiation, radiation pressure, and 

 radio-activity to cosmogonic phenomena has done 

 more to elucidate these problems than all the specu- 

 lative theories and systems of former ages put together. 

 The lecture ^ which Prof. Nernst reprints in the 

 little brochure before us is, we believe, the latest 

 attempt to focus the outcome of modern research upon 

 this question of the origin and mode of formation of 

 the world. He appHes to it the knowledge with which 

 his study and training as a worker and expositor of 

 chemical physics has equipped him. Furthermore, he 

 has sought the aid of students in fields of inquiry other 

 than his own when these have any direct relation to his 

 subject. The lecture was originally delivered in Berlin 

 as one of a series of popular discourses arranged by the 

 Prussian Academy of Sciences about a year ago, and 

 has been repeated in parts of mid-Europe, notably in 

 Vienna and in Prague. As published it has been con- 

 siderably enlarged. It is prefaced by a short intro- 

 ductory statement defining the problem and explaining 

 its limitations, and the methods by which it may be 

 attacked. It is furnished with a long appendix, 

 practically as extensive as the lecture itself, in which 

 details are developed which would be out of place in a 

 purely popular exposition. As may be anticipated, 

 the whole is instructive and highly suggestive, and we 

 have read it with interest and pleasure. Nevertheless 

 we rise from its perusal with a humbhng sense of the 

 inadequacy of our present means to grapple with so 

 stupendous a problem. More than ten years ago the 

 same theme was handled by Prof. Svante Arrhenius in 

 his " Werden der Welten ' ' and afterwards in ' ' The Life of 

 the Universe," and it may be doubted whether in reality 

 Prof. Nernst has succeeded in carrying the matter any 

 further. How partial and inadequate is the basis on 

 which even the latest cosmogony rests was well brought 

 out in the discussion last year at the Edinburgh meeting 

 of the British Association on the age of the earth. The 

 work of one epoch does little more than upset that of 



• " Das Weltgebaude im Lichte der Neueren Forschung." Von Prof. Dr. 

 W. Nernst. Pp. iv+63. (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1921.) In Germany, 

 1 2 marks ; in Great Britain, 48 marks. 



NO. 2746, VOL. 109] 



its predecessor. Premises in regard to the earth's 

 heat are vitiated by the discovery of radio-active 

 materials. We are still in ignorance as to the true 

 source of solar energy. Secular contraction apparently 

 is not enough to account for it. We have absolutely no 

 definite knowledge on so fundamental a matter. The 

 more we learn the greater seems our ignorance. We 

 can but go on groping for the light, testing our surmises 

 as best we may in the feeble glimmer that our present 

 knowledge sheds. 



Negligible as is the scientific merit of the old cosmo- 

 gonies, they had at least the charms of imagery and fancy 

 — charms at which the cold, unsympathetic eye of a 

 passionless science looks askance. Even the imagina- 

 tion of a Tyndall would find it difficult to invest our 

 modern cosmogony with the vestiges of such attributes. 



Textile Research Fellowships. 



THE British Research Association for the Woollen 

 and Worsted Industries represents the culmina- 

 tion of a movement which was started at the University 

 of Leeds during the early days of the war. Two object- 

 ives were then in view, research specially applied to 

 the elucidation of problems presented by the textile: 

 industries, and a deeper and more extensive education, 

 with the object of promoting the introduction of the 

 sciences and scientific method into industry whenever 

 and wherever possible. It was perhaps natural that 

 the first of these objectives should dominate when, in 

 what it conceived to be the larger interest of the com- 

 munity, the University handed over its missionary 

 work to the newly constituted Research Association, 

 which included representatives from the whole of the 

 woollen and worsted industries of Great Britain and 

 Ireland. 



The experience of this association is now tending to 

 emphasise the need for well-trained, sympathetic men 

 actually placed in the works if the achievements in 

 research — which already are by no means inconsiderable 

 — are to be used at all : still more is this necessary if any- 

 thing like full value is to be drawn from research results. 



It is therefore not surprising that the research asso- 

 ciation should consider it not only expedient but also 

 absolutely necessary that well-trained University and 

 other students should be encouraged to resist the more 

 direct call of industry and to prepare themselves for 

 the difficult but very necessary work of introducing 

 more science into industry. Whether this appeal will 

 achieve the desired result depends not only upon the 

 fellows and scholars which the association is now 

 selecting, but also upon the sympathetic consideration 

 given to their work and its possibilities by the con- 

 trollers of industry. In addition to ability, there must 



