January 14, 191 5] 



NATURE 



535 



it the <^ ratio be that of "perfect growth," it is 

 one towards which vital architecture tends rather 

 than one which it reaches. Even the Nautilus 

 shell is only an approximation to it, and this to 

 Mr. Cook is half the charm. For the approxi- 

 m.ateness re^eals the endeavour, which arouses 

 our sympathy, while mathematical exactness 

 leaves us dull. Life is like an artist, full of 

 individual variability. " Perfect beauty, like 

 natural growth, implies irregular and subtle varia- 

 tions." 



But the 4> proportion is not only a descriptive 

 formula for natural growth, it shows itself in 

 statues and in the proportions of pictures. It 

 looks as if the secret of one type of successful 

 growth (of course, there are other non-spiral 

 architectural creations) echoed in the artist's ex- 

 pression of the beautiful, and even in our apprecia- 

 tion of it. Perhaps the logarithmic spiral with 

 the Pheidias ratio is an " objective " element in 

 beauty, not merely in the sense that mankind was 

 literally brought up on spirals — in days when 

 spiral phyllotaxis was a problem by no means 

 academic, when the coils of the succulent bulb and 

 the toothsome whelk had an interest much more 

 than aesthetic, when the spiral conch called tlie 

 tribe to war — and when, for we need not expatiate, 

 the spiral mode of growth became the Swastika 

 symbol of good growth and good luck. We 

 should be inclined to press the point that spiral 

 architecture became prevalent in the evolution of 

 organisms because it was, for certain conditions, 

 particularly fit. It was a successful architectural 

 style, discovered among the unicellulars, and 

 always kept, with the sublime conservatism of vital 

 evolution, available, for whatever experiment in 

 internal structure or external form might be 

 demanded or prompted by the exigencies of the 

 situation. The secret was much too good to lose. 

 But Man is conservative as well as Nature, and 

 he began to accumulate pleasant feelings in associ- 

 ation with all manner of spirals. But Mr. Cook 

 will not be content with any position of this sort. 

 '' If <^ in some way describes the principle of 

 growth, which is one revelation of the spirit of 

 Nature, would not the artist most in touch with 

 Nature tend to employ that proportion in his 

 work, even though he was not conscious of its 

 cxisence?" We confess to wishing to work for 

 a while longer with the hypothesis that the artist 

 uses the ratio of Pheidias because it figures largely 

 in Nature, and thus in Man's upbringing. But 

 Mr. Cook's view is subtler, that Leonardo and 

 the Nautilus exhibited a dominance of the <f> spiral 

 in their respective masterpieces because they were 

 both artists. We like the spiral shell, and still 

 more the spiral staircase of Blois, not merely be- 

 cause impressionable mankind was brought up on 

 spirals, but because the spiral in question re- 

 presents one of the inmost experiences of life itself 

 — an endeavour after perfect growth. This seems 

 to be Mr. Cook's view, but we are sceptical. 



Mr. Cook has given us a delightful study, 

 eloquent of patience in collecting examples of 

 spirals, of delight in measuring them by the 



NO. 2359, VOL. 94] 



Pheidias rule, and of quiet meditation over "the 

 unspent beauty of surprise " and the worldwide 

 treasures of significant form. The personal note 

 is strong and it is pleasant, but we have sometimes 

 wished, as we read the book, that the author had 

 been more methodical, and less swift to move from 

 one problem to another. For there are many 

 problems, (i) There is the question, which Mr. 

 Cook has in part answered, as to the various 

 architectural types — spiral and otherwise — ex- 

 hibited by organisms — a question to which Haeckel 

 paid considerable attention long ago in his dis- 

 cussion of " promorphology. " (2) There is the 

 question of the varied utility of the spiral, which 

 gives it its surVival-value. To answering this Mr. 

 Cook has made some contribution. (3) There is 

 the difficult problem of the forces at work in the 

 genesis of the spiral form, of the physical forces 

 or the properties of matter that determine shape. 

 A preliminary (as it were, aeroplane) survey of this 

 borderland between morphology and physics will 

 be found in Prof. D'Arcy Thompson's brilliant 

 presidential address to Section D of the British 

 Association in 191 1; and a paper by the same 

 naturalist on the shapes of eggs (Nature, vol. 

 Ixxviii., pp. Ill, 158) is also important. (4) There 

 is the question of the recurrence of the logarithmic 

 spiral in human works of art. Nor should we for- 

 get the spider's spiral, the making of w^hich is to 

 be ranked beside building nests and shaping honey- 

 comb, not beside the secretion and moulding of 

 shells. (5) Then there is the problem of why 

 these spirals please us, and are joys for ever. In 

 regard to which it should be carefully noted that 

 there are (a) physiological, (b) intellectual, and 

 (c) imaginative or sympathetic factors in our 

 appreciation of beauty, (a) There are shapes that 

 sing, and produce pleasant eurhythmic echoes in 

 our bodies, (b) There are shapes which arouse 

 happy associations, and others of which the adap- 

 tiveness never fails to please, (c) There are others, 

 again, which strike a deeper note, in which we 

 recognise a triumph of life over its m.aterials and 

 difficulties. It is in the contemplation of these 

 achievements that the artist in us is thrilled most 

 deeply, sharing a vicarious triumph. 



ICEBERG OBSERVATIONSA 



AFTER the loss of the Titanic in April, 1912, 

 had directed attention to the dangers from 

 ice in the North Atlantic, the Government and the 

 shipowners concerned chartered the Scotia as an 

 experimental ice-observation vessel to cruise to the 

 north of the trade routes. The Scotia, fitted with 

 wireless and carr\'ing three investigators and two 

 Marconi operators, was commanded by Captain 

 T. Robertson, her former captain in Bruce's Ant- 

 arctic exp>edition. Her work was carried on from 

 March to August, 191 3, and proved so useful that 

 the year following she was replaced by a specially- 

 built ice-patrol boat of larger size, and so perhaps 

 more suitable for the work, though it would be 



1 " Ice Observation, Meteorology and Oceanography in the North Atlantic 

 Ocean." Report of the work carried out by the s.5. Scotia, igrj. Text, 

 pp. 142. Price 4J. 6</. Map and Charts. Vnot 2S. 6<i. (H.M.S.O., 1914.) 



