NATURE 



[March 4, 1920 



Becquerel and the Curies in connection with radio- 

 activity. 



Prof. Soddy has been associated with research 

 on radio-activity since 1901, when, in Sir Ernest 

 Rutherford's laboratory in Montreal, he joined in 

 framing the idea which attributes radio-active 

 change to the spontaneous disintegration of the 

 atom. Later, in conjunction with Ramsay, he 

 proved that the a-particles escaping from radium 

 are electrified atoms of helium. In 191 3 he also 

 traced, simultaneously with other observers, the 

 nature of the successive changes in radio-active 

 matter which ultimately lead to the production of 

 non-radio-active elements, of which the best- 

 known case is lead. The whole story is told in 

 a condensed form in several of the essays in this 

 volume, and it could not be told better. Those 

 who are interested in such subjects should obtain 

 the book and read it. 



Turning, now, to the remainder of the contents 

 of this volume, so many questions are touched 

 on of which many would be regarded as debatable 

 that it seems probable that readers will be divided 

 into two camps, those who would cordially 

 approve and support the views set forth, and 

 those, chiefly the orthodox, who would deeply 

 resent the attitude and conclusions of the writer. 

 The first article, entitled "Science and Life," deals 

 with the influence which scientific discovery has 

 exercised on the conditions of modern life, seen 

 from various points of view, and contains little that 

 is seriously controversial. There are, of course, 

 passages which seem a little over-enthusiastic- — 

 e.g. the statement that, "if not yet, some time in 

 the future, the synthesis of food from the material 

 constituents and any form of available energy will 

 probably become possible " — but the review given 

 of the sources of energy in Nature is useful as 

 popular instruction. The author's remarks on the 

 relations of brains, labour, and capital seem 

 rather to belong to the views likely to find ex- 

 pression at the meetings of a young men's debat- 

 ing society, though it is certainly true that "the 

 exploiters of the wealth of the world are not its 

 creators," and is likely to remain so until human 

 nature undergoes a profound change. A similar 

 remark might be made on the question which 

 occurs in the second article : " Physical force, the 

 slave of science, is it to be the master or the 

 servant of man ? " 



Of course. Prof. Soddy has a good deal to say 

 on the subject of education. He is an. experienced 

 and distinguished teacher, but in one direction he 

 seems to overlook the necessity for clearly differ- 

 entiating the kind of general education which 

 must necessarily be provided wholesale for the 

 NO. 2627, VOL. 105] 



great majority, and that which should be adapted 

 to the exceptional youth, the genius, that rara 

 avis for whom is wanted more in the shape of 

 opportunity than in direct instruction along lines 

 which may or may not be useful to him. The 

 great difficulty in regard to this kind of student 

 is to recognise his qualities early enough. In con- 

 nection with the continued appropriation of more 

 than their due share of scholarships, emoluments, 

 and facilities of all kinds by the authorities and 

 powers which claim to represent humanist interests 

 at the schools and universities, everyone con- 

 cerned with such matters remembers Prof. 

 Soddy 's criticism of the action of the executive 

 committee of the Carnegie Trust for the Universi- 

 ties of Scotland in January, 1918, and the inade- 

 quate reply thereto. The whole of the relevant 

 papers are added to this volume in a series of 

 appendices A, B, and C. 



Many people will find the lecture given to the 

 Aberdeen University Christian Union on " Matter, 

 Energy, Consciousness, and Spirit " among the 

 most startling of the utterances contained in this 

 book. There are still many serious religious 

 persons who find the almost universal abandon- 

 ment of the Mosaic account of Creation and of so 

 many of the Hebrew legends disturbing to the 

 whole of their Christian faith and subversive of 

 all religion. But the religious reader may get 

 some comfort from this chapter if he will read it 

 thoughtfully and with prejudice discarded as 

 much as possible. Truth in the realm of science 

 is of a quahty and nature quite its own, and the 

 man of science who frames a hypothesis does so 

 in the knowledge that, while it responds to every 

 test applied to it up to that moment, it may be 

 modified by further discovery or absorbed into 

 and covered by a theory of a more comprehensive 

 character. The continuous advance of knowledge 

 proves, however, that the foundations have been 

 well and truly laid. "The scientific man seeks 

 truth as a continually developing revelation, and 

 he changes his outlook on the world according 

 as it unfolds itself before his eyes. The priest 

 teaches that in some remote period of the world 

 God Himself revealed Truth once and for all 

 time, and his profession is to guard it against all 

 comers. I do not believe that the soul, any more 

 than the mind, can stagnate. It must grow or 

 decay. Christianity cannot be crystallised into a 

 creed binding for all time, and least of all into 

 a creed dating back to the century that preceded 

 the relapse of Europe into intellectual barbarism. 

 The world changes and has changed in the last 

 hundred years out of all recognition . . . on 

 account of the new revelations of science, though 

 these have come about by a process the reverse 



