462 



NATURE 



[February 14, 19 18 



Used peoples upon cow's milk for the feeding of 

 infants, the need for the development of milk sup- 

 plies and for the organisation of distribution has 

 steadily grown until at the present time the pro- 

 duction of milk has been developed by the leaders 

 of the industry into the most highly organised and 

 efficient branch of agriculture in the more densely 

 populated regions of the civilised world. 



Before the development of modern science the 

 business of milk production was necessarily run on 

 simple lines. Alternative feeding-stuffs were few 

 in number, and the significance of chemical com- 

 position was unknown. With the development of 

 chemistry and physiology, and the consequent 

 elucidation of the fundamental principles of nutri- 

 tion, a more elaborate adjustment of rations to 

 milk output became possible, and was further 

 facilitated by the increased range of feeding mate- 

 rials which the concurrent expansion of commerce 

 and industry placed at the disposal of the farmer. 

 The discovery of micro-organisms and of their 

 relation to public health has exercised, and must 

 continue to exercise more and more, a potent influ- 

 ence upon the methods of milk production and 

 distribution. A knowledge of the principles 

 underlying improvement of livestock by breeding 

 has also become an essential item in the intellec- 

 tual equipment of the modern dairy-farmer, and 

 acquires additional importance with the develop- 

 ment of the infant science of genetics. -The fur- 

 ther complexities introduced by the modern de- 

 velopments of transport and marketing facilities 

 are obvious. 



It is thus patent that the technical education of 

 the dairy-farming expert of to-day cannot be com- 

 pressed into any narrow curriculum, and demands 

 for its efficient assimilation a level of intellect and 

 capacity which is scarcely associated as yet in the 

 public mind with the farming industry. The pro- 

 vision of the necessary educational guidance is a 

 formidable task that has nowhere been faced with 

 more courage and success than in America. From 

 their inception the' American agricultural colleges 

 and experiment stations in dairying areas ■ have 

 placed great emphasis upon the importance of 

 scientific method in dairy-farming, and the litera- 

 ture of the subject bears witness to the persistent 

 effort which has steadily brought American work 

 into the very foremost position in this branch of 

 applied science. 



As in so many other branches of technology and 

 science, British readers in the past have been 

 accustomed to draw largely upon German litera- 

 ture, but in this particular field the German has 

 been surpassed, and no country ijow possesses a 

 dairying literature equal in volume and general 

 level of quality to that which America has pro- 

 duced. The work of Dr. Larson and Prof. Putney 

 is an excellent example of the best type of modern 

 American text-book, and is primarily designed to 

 secure the closest co-ordination between class- 

 work and private study. The material is ar- 

 ranged in twenty-nine lectures, which cover the 

 whole field of feeding, breeding, management, 

 hygiene, housing, cost accounting, and distribu- 

 tion. A commendable feature is the outline of a 

 course of practical work which is given in the ap- 

 NO. 2520, VOL. 100] 



pendix. It Is obvious that an exhaustive treat- 

 ment of the subject is impossible within the com- 

 pass of one volume of this size, and some sections 

 beat evidence of compression beyond what the 

 student may reasonably expect to find. On the 

 wliole, however, the compression has been judi- 

 ciously effected, without omission of essential in- 

 formation or of adequate illustrative .matter from 

 experimental records. The work may be warmly 

 commended to the dairy student and teacher as 

 being perhaps the* most comprehensive class-book 

 on the subject. C. C. 



PHILOSOPHICAL IDEALISM AND NATURAL. 

 SCIENCE. 



The Idea of God in the Light of Recent Philo- 

 sophy. The Gifford Lectures delivered In the 

 University of Aberdeen in the Years 191 2 and 

 19 1 3. By Prof. A. Seth Pringle-Pattlson. Pp. 

 xvi-t-423. (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 

 1917.) Price 125. 6d. net. 



IN his recently published Gifford Lectures, Prof. 

 Pringle-Pattison, starting from Hume's "Dia- 

 logues concerning Natural Religion," passes in 

 review the reasoning of successive philosophical 

 writers up to the present time on the nature of 

 ultimate reality. His personal point of vl^w is 

 that of the idealism so strongly represented in 

 recent British philosophy, including his own 

 former works ; but in the course of very acute 

 and yet thoroughly sympathetic criticisms of other 

 writers, and particularly his fellow-idealists, he 

 has now carried philosophical Idealism a consider- 

 able step forward, and brought it into more liv- 

 ing touch with natural science and other develop- 

 ments of human thought and action. A clear and 

 very graceful literary style adds largely to the 

 value of what Is unmistakably a great philosophi- 

 cal book. 



To many men of science it will perhaps come as 

 something of a shock to find that the world of 

 apparent "objective" physical reality is treated 

 by philosophers as only the one-sided or subjective 

 appearance of a deeper reality. Prof. Pringle- 

 Pattison traces the steps by which philosophical 

 thought has developed in the direction of showing 

 that the real world is a world of what he con- 

 stantly refers to as "Intrinsic values." "Ideal- 

 Ism," as he puts It, " takes Its stand on the ess'en- 

 tial truth of our judgments of value, and the im- 

 possibility of explaining the higher from the lower. 

 Beauty and goodness are not born of the clash of 

 atoms ; they are effluences of something more per- 

 fect and more divine." A distinctive key-note of 

 the book is his treatment of imperfection and 

 suffering as organic to the development and very- 

 existence of these intrinsic values. The hedonistic 

 test of perfection is examined and rejected. 



Perhaps the designation "idealism" is some- 

 what misleading. What it mainly Indicates Is a 

 direct historical descent from Berkeley, Hume, 

 and the great German Idealists of a century ago. 

 Philosophy is only the endeavour to describe 

 realitv ; and the result of this endeavour, as set 



