October 8, 19 14] 



NATURE 



145 



matical thought and work to be found easily. 

 Passages 907 and 1643, which are given in 

 German from Schiller and Jacobi, as well as in 

 English, appear to be repetitions of the same story 

 in slightly different renderings. 



Zur Lehre von den Zustdnden der Materie. By 



Prof. P. P. von W'eimam. Band I. : Text. 



Pp. x-rigo. Band II.: Atlas. Tafeln Hi. 



2 \'ols. (Dresden and Leipzig : T. Steinkopff, 



1 91 4.) Price 7 marks. 

 These two volumes are put forward in proof of 

 the author's main thesis "that colloid-amorphous 

 properties appear in bodies as their comminution 

 increases, and that such comminution is possible 

 in all bodies." The well-executed atlas of plates 



PROBLEMS OF THE PENGUINERY.^ 

 r^R. LEX'ICK has made a fascinating study of 

 *--' the Adelie penguins {Pygoscelis adeliae), 

 and the charm of his book is enhanced by his 

 beautiful and really interesting photographs. He 

 has certainly a good subject, for penguins are 

 among the quaintest of living creatures, among 

 the most ancient of birds, triumphs of adaptation 

 to aquatic life, remarkably congruent with Ant- 

 arctic conditions, and verj' instructive from a 

 psychological and even sociological poini of view. 

 Inquisitive, unafraid, altruistic and social, they 

 make a strong claim on our interest and sym- 

 pathy. 



The Adelie penguins spend their summer and 

 bring forth their young in the far South. They 



" Occasionally an nnacconnuble ' broodiness' seemed to take possessioo of the Pengains." From " .Antarctic Pengoins.' 



reproduces photographs of crystallisation pro- 

 cesses in various concentrations, chiefly of barium 

 sulphate and aluminium hydroxide. It is shown 

 that the size of the crystals is strongly influenced 

 either way by the concentration. Examined in the 

 ultra-microscope, jellies and transparent colloid 

 structures generally show minute particles which 

 are essentially crystalline, differing from crystals 

 only in their size. Any solid, sufBciently com- 

 minuted, might be made into a "solid mist" of 

 particles showing Brownian motions, but the latter 

 are just what leads as a rule to crystalline agglo- 

 meration. By comminuting aniline-blue into a 

 neutral substance (urea), Pihlblad obtained colloid 

 solutions of the former in water of any degree of 

 fineness. The author, in view of these facts, pro- 

 poses to substitute the term " dispersoid " for the 

 less significant term "colloid," and would call the 

 science of colloids " dispersoidology. " 



NO. 2345, VOL. 94] 



seek out wind-swept places, kept bare of snow, 

 where they find solid ground and pebbles for mak- 

 ing nests. After the chicks have been suflficiently 

 educated to be able to fend for themselves, young 

 and old leave the southern limits of the sea and 

 make their way to the pack-ice out to the north- 

 ward. The first year's birds remain on the pack 

 for two winters, until they get their adult 

 ; plumage. "The spring following this, and prob- 

 ably every spring for the rest of their lives, they 

 return south to breed, performing their journey, 

 verv often, not only by water, but on foot across 

 many miles of frozen sea." That they find the 

 breeding ground is remarkable, for they cannot 

 see far when they are swimming (and there is 

 often nothing to be seen), or when they are 

 "tobogganing," and their horizon when walking 



1 "Antarctic Pcneuins." By Dr. G. Murray Lerick. Pp. x+i40+ 

 I plates. (London : W. Heinemaon, 1914.) Price 6x. net. 



