June 20, 19 18] 



NATURE 



303 



pre-war days, but largely disregarded when labour 

 was plentiful and when the need for its conserva- 

 tion was not so manifest. 



An authoritative and informing manual dealing 

 with the whole subject is at the present moment 

 much needed, and Mr. Hutton's book is a useful 

 contribution to the subject ; probably he intended 

 it for no more. But it cannot in its present form 

 be regarded as a standard work on the subject. It 

 is curiously uneven. The scope of " \\'elfare Super- 

 \ ision " is outlined in an early chapter, but only 

 touched upon very inadequately later ; the subject 

 of factory medical service — a matter of the utmost 

 importance — is dealt with by another writer, who 

 is allowed but limited space; recreation, which 

 is just receiving much attention, -and being 

 thoroughly organised in many industrial centres, 

 is represented only by a few instances from some 

 of the factories of Vickers, Ltd. ; while the last 

 chapter, which introduces industrial unrest, and 

 <leals with it haphazard by a series of quotations, 

 might have advantageously been omitted, for it 

 openly seeks to drag the peace-making influence 

 of the w^elfare movement into the unsettled tur- 

 moil of economic strife, from which it should be 

 ■ever guarded. 



The six appendices which reproduce from Home 

 Office publications legal and other information do, 

 it is true, give condensed and useful information 

 on many points, but appendices 'often escape the 

 reader. In fact, we regret that Mr. Hutton did 

 not use all the space he allowed himself for dis- 

 cussing at greater length those branches of the 

 subject with which he is best able to deal — indus- 

 trial housing, transit, and feeding. The chapters 

 tlealing with these subjects are the best, and the 

 information they contain as to how Vickers, Ltd., 

 "have dealt with the difficulties they had to face 

 AvUl be turned to, both now and in the future, by 

 others with similar problems to solve. They are 

 \mdoubtedly of considerable value, but we should 

 like to have learnt more of the workers' point of 

 view — as to whether they take any share in organ- 

 ising and administering, or whether they are just 

 "housed and catered for "like dumb-driven cattle." 

 The workers' pofnt of view is too often neglected 

 lay those who take a paternal interest in them, and 

 there is a tendency to forget that (using Dr. 

 Renton's words) "there is'an inseparable relation- 

 ship in varying degrees between all work and 

 licalth and disease, and it is onlv by intimate 

 l<nowledge of both that a correct conclusion can 

 be reached, especially if, added to this, one has 

 1<nowIedge of the home conditions and habits of 

 the worker." 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



Af>i)Ued Mechanics. Second Year. By H. Aughtie. 



Pp. 227. (London : G. Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 



1918.) Price 25. 6d. net. 

 This book opens with a very good discussion on 

 the relations between movement and force ; experi- 

 mental evidence is obtained by use of a trolley 

 NO. 2538, VOL.' lOl] 



and vibrator. Engineers' units are used freely, in 

 which the unit of mass is g pounds. We are rather 

 uncertain, however, as to what exactly the author 

 wishes us to understand by "i lb. weight." The 

 poimdal absolute unit of force is explained, and 

 mention is made of the dyne, but the engineers' 

 metric unit of force of one gram weight or one 

 kilogram weight is not mentioned. There is a 

 slip on p. II, where, in dealing with momentum, 

 \V/^ is described as lb., instead of engineers' 

 units of mass. Despite these minor blemishes, this 

 section of the book is a good deal clearer than 

 many similar discussions in other text-books. 

 Some very readable matter on hydrostatics and 

 hydraulic appliances follows, illustrated by appro- 

 priate experiments. The chapter on materials will 

 be useful in laboratories possessing but small 

 equipment and under the necessity of using ex- 

 temporised apparatus. The drawings of apparatus 

 throughout the volume are such as to enable 

 the appliances described to be constructed from 

 them. 



Some of the illustrations in the sections of the 

 book dealing with the transmission of motion and 

 power could be improved, especially in the iso- 

 metric drawings of pulleys and wheels ; the dis- 

 tortion in some cases strains the readers' eyes in 

 examining the drawings. ' The remainder of the 

 book is devoted to the motion of bodies subjected 

 to alternately decreasing and increasing accelera- 

 tion, motion in a curved path, centrifugal force, 

 and the speed control of engines. The treatment 

 throughout is simple, and the book contains suffi- 

 cient to interest the student and induce him to 

 push on to the study of the higher branches of the 

 subject. 



Glossary and Notes on Vertebrate Palaeontology. 

 By S. A. Pelly. Pp. ix+113. (London: 

 Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 55. net. 

 Ix this little book Mr. Pelly has made a praise- 

 worthy effort to help the inexperienced reader of 

 works on fossil backboned animals and the visitor 

 to museums. It is a laborious compilation, sug- 

 gested by many visits to the British Museum (Nat. 

 Hist.), and consists of a series of brief memo- 

 randa, often quotations, arranged under the names 

 of various extinct animals in alphabetical order. 

 Some of the notes are apt and excellent, but most 

 of them are so inadequate and so lacking in 

 essentials that it is difficult to understand to what 

 type of student they can be of service. A special 

 feature is made of the derivation of each technical 

 name, and in most cases the original Greek words 

 are rightly chosen, but the English equivalents 

 given are not always appropriate to the occasion. 

 There are, however, unfortunate instances of bad 

 guesses (such as those under Goniopholis, Trema- 

 taspis, and Uronemus), and the author would have 

 done well to consult the old glossaries of Owen, 

 Page, and Nicholson, which he appears to have 

 overlooked. The book is well edited and remark- 

 ably free from misprints, and of a convenient size 

 for the pocket. .'\. S. ^^'. 



