August 9, 191 7] 



NATURE 



46; 



advantage, have been given to this aspect of the 

 subject. For example, foflr times as much space 

 is devoted to reehng, and nearly as much to 

 bundling, as to gassing. This is not commen- 

 surate with the relative imp>ortance of the opera- 

 tions. 



It is when the author turns his attention from 

 machinery to the material to be treated and after 

 its treatment that lack of clearness, loose state- 

 ments, over-statements, and errors are found: The 

 matter on p. 17 relating to the diameter of yarns 

 may be cited as an example of these defects. Mr. 

 Taggart's book, as a whole, is so good that it is 

 unfortunate that those parts which deal with cotton 

 and its behaviour during and after spinning have 

 not been revised. 



Hoia to Know the Ferns. By S, L. Bastin. Pp. 

 viiii-136. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 

 1917.) Price 15. 6d. net. 

 This book contains descriptions of the British 

 ferns and their allies, prefaced by an account of 

 ferns in general and an outline of their classifica- 

 tion. The chapter on life-histories is well up to 

 date, as is also that on fossil ferns, a group 

 usually ignored in books of this kind. The species 

 are described without unnecessary technicalities 

 and on a uniform plan ; first comes an explanation 

 of the name, then a general account of the struc- 

 ture of the plant, followed by an indication of its 

 habitat and, in most cases, hints on its cultivation. 

 These descriptions, written in narrative form, give 

 a good account of the general appearance and 

 distinctive characters of the various species, but 

 their use would have been greatly increased by 

 adding a short key to genera to the synopsis of 

 families on pp. 8-12. The last two chapters 

 deal with collecting, preserving, and cultivating 

 ferns. 



Amongst the fern-allies there is a description 

 of AzoUa caroliniana, an American water plant, 

 which has been naturalised and has spread with 

 great rapidity during recent years in this country, 

 but no reference is made to .4. filiciiloides, which is 

 also naturalised in Britain. 



There are thirty-three illustrations taken from 

 photographs, which have not been reproduced 

 very successfully. This book is a trustworthy and 

 up-to-date addition to the many popular accounts 

 of British ferns. C. H. W. 



Chemistry in the Service of Man. By Prof. Alex, 

 Findlay. Second edition. Pp. xvi + 272. (Lon- 

 don: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1917.) Price 

 65. net. 

 We are glad that Prof. Findlay 's enlightening 

 account of the facts and ideas, of chemical science 

 of to-day has reached a public large enough to 

 require a second edition within about a year of its 

 original publication. The work was described 

 in our issue of August 31, 1916, ias "a distinct 

 and valuable addition to the popular literature of 

 science " ; and the encomium then passed upon 

 it has been fully justified. A new chapter has 

 been added on " Fermentation and Enzyme Action," 

 but otherwise the volume remains unchanged. 

 Xot many works on chemistry can be followed 

 XO. 2493, VOL. 99] 



with interest by lay readers, but this is one of the 

 first rank, and it should long continue to perform 

 the useful service of stimulating attention to 

 chemical science for its own sake as well as for 

 the value of its achievements to man. 



CHEMISTRY AND THE WAR. 



A RECENT issue of Science (June 15) contains 

 an address by Prof. j. R. Withrow, 

 delivered at the Columbus meeting of the Ohio 

 Academy of Science, on "The Relation of War 

 to Chemistry in America," which has certain 

 features of interest for us at the present juncture. 

 To begin with, it is a scathing indictment of 

 the mentality of a people that can condone and 

 even applaud the damnable conduct of their 

 armies and Government at home and in the hap- 

 less countries for a time at their mercy. The 

 nation seems to have become the willing, or at 

 least the easily manipulated, pawn in the hands 

 of unscrupulous statesmen. 



We have not forgotten that it was a chemist — Ost- 

 wald^in the early days of the war, when he was acting 

 as a spokesman for Germany to men of science 

 throughout the world, who was quoted, when Germany 

 was in the flush of her initial victories over Belgium, 

 as saying the world had outgrown the idea of freedom 

 for little or weak peoples. 



The Kultiir that can lead men of great mental 

 endowments and catholicity of thought into such 

 a mental position stands self-condemned. It 

 affronts every instinct of charity and fair-dealing 

 and stinks in the nostrils of right-minded men. 



The greater part of the address, however, is 

 concerned with a question of more immediate prac- 

 tical importance to chemists, namely, the influence 

 of the war upon the progress and development of 

 their spscial branch of science. Of course, it 

 need scarcely be said that this \Corld-wide cata- 

 clysm, affecting directly the most powerful and 

 most highly developed of nations, has profoundly 

 modified the course and trend of chemical pro- 

 gress. But it would be untrue to affirm that it 

 has stagnated or declined as a consequence ,of 

 war. 



" Since," says Prof. Withrow, " war requires brains, 

 science is of course utilised, and since the demand is 

 inexorable, science must produce, and when science 

 and engineering are producing, they grow." 



It is stated that it requires three men in the 

 shops to maintain one man in the Army and seven 

 men for one in the Navy. 



It is evident therefore that it is the applied por- 

 tions of science that are most used, and hence that 

 grow most under war's influence. It is common ex- 

 perience, however, that the stretching into new 

 domains and the striving for new goals bv applied 

 science enrith the feeding-ground of unapplied science, 

 and uncover fertile fields for the patient and quiet 

 research which follows. 



But there can be no doubt that, whatever the 

 future may have in store for us, in the mean- 

 time progress in pure chemistry all the world 

 over has been greatly retarded, and in proof of 

 this Prof. Withrow points to the serious and 

 progressive decline in the number of Chemical 



