452 



NATURE 



[December 23, 19 15 



interest; and here the book has more direct 

 bearing upon present-day affairs. 



The average reader will turn with most interest 

 to the third section, "The Future"; and in it he 

 will find much to stimulate thought. It would 

 be too much to expect a general agreement with 

 all the views advanced by the author ; but whether 

 one differs from him or not, his book will serve 

 a useful purpose in compelling people to think 

 out certain problems which must arise before 

 many months have passed. Sir Oliver Lodge is 

 frankly an optimist ; but his optimism does not 

 blind him to the difficulties which will lie before 

 this country when the war is over. He discusses 

 the question of social unrest, traces its roots in 

 the present industrial conditions, and suggests 

 one or two points at which improvements might 

 be made; but the limited space at his disposal 

 has obviously led to a curtailment of this part 

 of the book. He asks that science shall not be 

 forced "to grub along like a sort of Cinderella, 

 called in occasionally when the housework has 

 to be done, but otherwise left to sit among the 

 ashes and brood " ; but the turn of his phrases 

 seems to hint that, like most of us, he has little 

 hope of any immediate improvement in this 

 direction. 



Apart altogether from its subject-matter, the 

 volume is interesting as a revelation of the feel- 

 ings of one of the older generation. Sir Oliver 

 Lodge is clearly one of those who were well 

 acquainted with "the lovable, friendly, and 

 homely past aspects of the majority of our 

 present foes" ; and, lulled by these recollections, 

 he failed to notice that the modern German has 

 but little resemblance to his forefathers. Natur- 

 ally the revelations of the war have shocked him, 

 and he strives pathetically to readjust his views. 

 He is plain-spoken in his indignation at the 

 methods employed by the Germans in the cam- 

 paign ; but when he comes to the question of 

 the settlement after the war, there appears, not 

 too vaguely, the firm belief that madness will 

 depart and leave us once more with the kindly 

 Germans of his earlier recollections. 



Sir Oliver Lodge's conclusions may or may not 

 be right, and it certainly seems to be risking a 

 good deal upon a gambler's chance. The essen- 

 tial condition of peace is the security of Europe 

 for the next generation ; and if the German people 

 emerge from their ordeal in a better frame of 

 mind it will be all to the good; but it would be 

 criminal to leave them with their teeth undrawn 

 merely on the chance that they might re-acquire 

 the old characteristics which they have evidently 

 lost. It is no use telling us that "an enormous 

 amount of what they are committing just now 

 NO. 2408, VOL. 96] 



has nothing to do with their soul." A nation 

 whose soul is so aloof from "what they are com- 

 mitting" might just as well have no soul at 

 all. The matter cannot be shuffled off on to the 

 back of Prussia alone. The criminal statistics 

 of Germany before the war were a sufficient 

 danger signal ; and, as to the South German type, 

 the Bavarians had a bad reputation in 1870, and 

 have gained a worse one during the present cam- 

 paign. One may regret the past, in common 

 with Sir Oliver Lodge, but it is useless to blind 

 ourselves to the fact that we are dealing with 

 a different kind of nation to-day. 



OVR BOOKSHELF. 



Soils : their Properties and Management. By 

 Prof. T. L. Lyon, Prof. E. O. Pippin, and 

 Prof. H. O. Buckman. Pp. xxi + 764. (New 

 York : The Macmillan Co. ; London : Mac- 

 millan and Co., Ltd., 191 5.) Price 8^. net. 

 Prof. Lyon has done well to bring together his 

 colleagues in the well-known school of soil tech- 

 nology at Cornell, and induce them to join in 

 producing a book on soil management. The 

 result is eminently successful, and will be cordially 

 welcomed by all teachers and students of agri- 

 cultural science. 



Beginning with the general principles of soil 

 formation, the authors pass, naturally, to the 

 actual soils of the United States, and reproduce 

 for this purpose the interesting soil map pub- 

 lished two years ago by the Bureau of Soils. 

 From the soil as a mass they proceed to the 

 separate particles, dealing first with chemical and 

 physical properties, and then with the relation- 

 ships to water and temperature. Afterwards they 

 turn to the micro-organisms of the soil, and 

 finally to the methods of soil management — 

 methods by which the soil conditions can be made 

 more favourable for the growth of plants. 



The distinguishing feature of the book is the 

 extensive use made of the results of recent in- 

 vestigations in the United States, in this country, 

 and on the Continent. On reading the book one 

 is struck by the great advance made by soil in- 

 vestigators during the past ten or fifteen years. 

 New points of view, new fields of knowledge, and 

 new methods of investigation have all been opened 

 up, and the various results are beginning to piece 

 together remarkably well. Altogether the out- 

 look is very hopeful, and if only soil investigators 

 could find an elegant name for their subject they 

 would soon be assured of an enthusiastic follow- 

 ing. E. J. Russell. 



The Cures of the Diseased in Forraine Attempts 



of the English Nation. London, 1598. 



Reproduced in facsimile, with introduction and 



notes by C. Singer. Unpaged. (Oxford : At 



the Clarendon Press, 1915.) Price is. 6d. net. 



The short tract now published in facsimile by 



the Clarendon Press was written by one George 



Wateson, doubtless George Whetstone, the 



