October 22, 1914] 



NATURE 



195 



activity, an autonomous active whole. "The con- 

 ception of org-anism is a higher and more con- 

 crete conception than that of matter and energy." 

 In the ruins of the atomic theory, it is already 

 being- extended to the whole of nature. "We are 

 not seeking to reduce the organic to the inorganic, 

 but the inorganic to the organic." To us it 

 appears unnecessarily dogmatic to assert that 

 "there is not the remotest possibility of deriving 

 the organic from the inorganic." Would it not 

 serve to say that we cannot think of the origin of 

 organisms from the inorganic world, if the reality 

 of the latter is supposed to be exhausted by the 

 current concepts of chemistry and physics? And 

 are we not bound in fairness to admit that while 

 the physical and chemical formulae need not be re- 

 garded as exhausting the reality of the inorganic 

 world, they serve for certain practical purposes 

 exceedingly well, and must bear a definite relation 

 to reality since we successfully stake our lives and 

 our reputations (as scientific prophets) on their 

 validity. 



The fourth lecture finds a philosophical foothold 

 in the recognition of personality as the central 

 fact in the world. We may consider a man as a 

 material system weighing seventy kilogrammes, 

 and this partial and abstract way of looking at 

 him is sometimes of use ; we may _^so consider 

 him as an organism, maintaining specific struc- 

 ture and activity, and this is also useful; but we 

 get nearest the real man when we know him as a 

 person. Personality — mere organism — matter : 

 " the relation is simply one of different degrees of 

 nearness to reality in the manner in which pheno- 

 mena are described." But personality is more 

 than an individual concept ; " the personality of 

 any individual is the spiritual inheritance of ages ; 

 the individual participates in the life of the species ; 

 personality includes within itself our whole uni- 

 verse. We know extremely little about what vv^e 

 call matter; "the reality behind the appearance 

 of a physical world has and can have no existence 

 apart from personality." And thus, as the 

 physiologist in his first two lectures sought to 

 lead us away from the error of mechanism, so the 

 philosopher in the last two seeks to lead us to 

 the conclusion that the world, with all that in it 

 is, is a spiritual world. But the realist has also 

 something to say for himself ! 



FUELS FOR POWER PRODUCTION. 

 Fuel: Solid, Liquid, and Gaseous. By J. S. S. 

 Brame. Pp. xv + 372. (London: Edward 

 Arnold, 1914.) Price 125. 6d. net. 



MR. BRAME 'S treatise is one of a long suc- 

 cession of books dealing with the general 

 subject of fuels, but in view of the wonderful 

 NO. 2347, VOL. 94] 



rapidity with which processes relating to fuel 

 manufacture and its preparation are changing, and 

 of the hew uses to which the fuels are put when 

 made, there is ample room for new-comers. The 

 author writes specially for the large class of 

 readers to whom power production is of chief 

 importance, and he has produced a volume which 

 will be an extremely valuable addition to their 

 bookshelves. 



The subject divides itself naturally into three 

 divisions — solid, liquid, and gaseous ; Mr. Brame 

 discusses each separately, and adds a section on 

 fuel analysis, calorimetry, and the control of 

 fuel supply. Under the title "Solid Fuels" 

 are included wood, peat, coal, coke, coalite, and 

 the minor fuels ; liquid fuels include petroleum 

 and tar oils with their derivatives, together with 

 alcohol. The longest section, that on gaseous 

 fuels, contains an account of the manufacture and 

 properties of water gas, of Siemens and Dowson 

 gas, and of blast-furnace and coke-oven gases. 



Well-informed as the author appears generally 

 to be, he makes a strange omission when discuss- 

 ing the velocity of flame propagation in an ex- 

 plosive mixture — the stranger in a book bearing 

 specially in view the production of power — In that 

 he omits reference to the striking influence 

 on this velocity of "turbulence" in the gaseous 

 mixture. As Clerk has shown in the reports of 

 the Gaseous Explosions Committee, turbulence is 

 of first importance in influencing the velocity with 

 which the explosion spreads to all parts of the 

 gas, and that except for this no high-speed gas 

 or petrol engine would be able to run at the speeds 

 necessary for their eff'ective use. 



The Bonecourt system of surface combustion 

 is described briefly, but perhaps as fully as can 

 be expected in a book dealing with fuel itself 

 rather than with its manner of use. The author 

 compares the 90 per cent, efficiency of this system 

 when applied to the heating of steam boilers with 

 the 55 to 65 per cent, which is usual with coke- 

 oven or blast-furnace gases used in the older way. 

 This improved method of steam raising is poten- 

 tially of great practical importance, and we are 

 glad the author has found space to include a 

 number of interesting efficiency figures. 



Under the title " Economic Aspects of Liquid 

 Fuel " the author discusses the present situation 

 in which fuel users are placed owing to the rapid 

 change in price. He reiterates the relative in- 

 significance of the annual oil output compared 

 with the coal output, and aflfirms his belief in the 

 possibility and the economic advisability of the 

 production of alcohol for power uses. This is one 

 of the best parts of the book, and the author is 

 assuredly correct in saying of industrial alcohol : 



