March 13, 1919] 



NATURE 



23 



the British settlers, who are now merging into 

 a new race. The old settler neighbours are 

 described with their establishments and estates, 

 which are clearly best remembered for their 

 rheas, feral pigs, or more frequently their birds 

 and frog-infested lakes. Old as Hudson is, he 

 still remains a boy, projecting himself into bird, 

 beast, and plant. We imagine him as full of 

 happiness and peace, and we trust he may con- 

 tinue so for many years. Try as we may, we 

 cannot speak of him impersonally after we have 

 read his book. 



(2) "Jungle Peace" is altogether a contrast, 

 the work of a modern, professional naturalist, 

 with excellent descriptions and bright writing, but 

 without the delightful unconsciousness of self be- 

 longing to the old-time author. Perhaps, in these 

 days, scientific education has to some degree killed 

 out the soul for Nature, and we may never see it 

 again in its old form in the professional man of 

 science, in whom ,the wonders of heredity have 

 crushed out interest in simple habits and psycho- 

 log>\ The book is the description of the estab- 

 lishment of a tropical research station in British 

 Guiana, the wish being to study birds, beasts, 

 and insects in their natural environment. The 

 site chosen was an old house in the jungle near 

 the mouth of the Essequibo, and the quite vivid 

 descriptions show that it was well chosen and 

 suitable for researches on the beasts of the little- 

 known continent of South America. The jungle 

 carne right up to the doors of the house, and a 

 trail was cut through it to form a collecting 

 i^round. The fauna was evidently of extraordinary 

 richness. 



(3) Our third work is in a different category 

 still, the latest work of a popular author of the 

 North-west, a land famed for its inimitable wilds 

 and its few, but conspicuous, beasts. To quote 

 R. W. Service, 



Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding 



sunsets blazon, 

 Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar. 

 Major Roberts is a man to follow, for he is 

 never dull, and is true to Nature in man, bird, 

 and beast. 



OVR BOOKSHELF. 

 Man's Redemption of Man. By Sir William 

 Osier. Third edition. Pp. 63. (London : Con- 

 stable and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price yd. net. 

 This "lay sermon " is a delightful piece of 

 writing ; good thoughts in good English ; a little 

 Magnificat for anaesthetics, antiseptics, preventive 

 medicine, and other great results of the work of 

 the medical sciences ; the author has the secret of 

 sympathy, and the art of making you think of what 

 he is saying. The war has shown us further In- 

 stances of the value of medical discoveries than we 

 , had in 1910 ; but that fact does not impair the 

 wisdom and the pleasantness of the discourse. 

 Ihere is one passage in it which is exemplary ; Sir 

 William challenges the anti-vaccinationists with 

 rhe old argument, which thev cannot beat : — 

 NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 



" I would like to issue a Mount-Carmel-like chal- 

 lenge to any ten unvaceinated priests of Baal. I 

 will take ten selected vaccinated persons, and help 

 in the next severe epidemic, with ten selected 

 unvaceinated persons (if available !). I should 

 choose three Members of Parliament, three anti- 

 vaccination doctors, if they could be found, and 

 four anti-vaccination propagandists. And I will 

 make this promise — neither to jeer nor to gibe 

 when they catch the disease, but to look after them 

 as brothers ; and for the three or four who are 

 certain to die I will try to arrange the funerals 

 with all the pomp and ceremony of an anti- 

 vaccination demonstration." 



Galileo. By W. W. Bryant. ("Pioneers of Pro- 

 gress," Men of Science Series.) Pp. 64 + 

 portrait. (London : Society for Promoting 

 Christian Knowledge, 1918.) Price 2s. net. 

 Born in the same year as Shakespeare, Galileo 

 Galilei shared with his contemporary that philo- 

 sophic outlook, that felicity of diction, and that 

 elegant style which have contributed to the fame 

 of both. Prof. Playfair has said that in reading 

 Galileo's "Dialogues" one feels oneself carried 

 back to the period when the telescope was first 

 directed to the heavens, and when the earth's 

 motion, with its train of consequences, was proved 

 for the first time. Mr. Bryant has given a careful 

 account of the life of the great natural philosopher, 

 whose first appointment was a professorship of 

 mathematics with a salary of about five shillings a 

 week. Galileo was, however, both a discoverer 

 and an inventor, and started a workshop in his 

 own house, in which he employed a staff of 

 mechanics under his personal supervision to make 

 his geometrical and military compass, his hydro- 

 static balance, his magnets and telescopes. He 

 ground all his lenses himself until his sight failed. 

 The story of his conflict with the Jesuits as to the 

 Copernican doctrine, and of his examination before 

 the Inquisition, is retold in an interesting but 

 unbiassed manner. His sufferings hastened the 

 triumph of the doctrines which he upheFd, and have 

 ensured his enduring fame. H. S. A. 



Surface Tension and Surface Energy and their 

 Influence on Chemical Phenomena. By Dr. 

 R. S. Willows and E. Hatschek. Second 

 edition. Pp. viii + 115. (London: J. and A: 

 Churchill, 1919.) Price 45. 6d. net. 

 The first edition of this useful volume was re- 

 viewed in the issue of N.\ture for July 8, 1915 

 (vol. xcv., p. 506), when the scope of the book 

 was described. The present edition has been 

 enlarged by the addition of a chapter on some 

 important complex phenomena, and it also now 

 includes, among other additions, Mr. Whittaker's 

 work on the connection between surface energy and 

 internal latent heat ; a summary of recent theories 

 on the structure and properties of metals, in 

 which the surface energy of the intercrystalline 

 layer plays an important part; Dr. A. Ferguson's 

 equation connecting surface tension and absolute 

 temperature, and paragraphs on adsorption. 



