May 3r, 1900] 



NATURE 



99 



Among the many interesting aspects of Schonbein's 

 life and work dealt with in this section is his dislike for 

 organic chemistry already referred to in his correspond- 

 ence with Faraday. Dr. Kahlbaum, we may add, 

 endorses this opinion with some very strong remarks of 

 his own (pp. 204-205), which will, no doubt, be forgiven 

 by the " Herren Organiker " in view of the very important 

 service to the history of nineteenth century science which 

 he is rendering by these biographical contributions. Then, 

 again, one cannot but be struck by the versatility of 

 Schonbein's genius as revealed by the narration of his 

 connection with journalism. That the illustrious Bale 

 professor was possessed of great literary power is made 

 clear by his biographer. It is worthy of record that 

 Schonbein attended the Birmingham] meeting of the 

 British Association in 1839, and the Cambridge and 

 Southampton meetings in 1845 ^"d 1846; of the first of 

 sse he gave an account in his " Reisetagebuch eines 

 itschen Naturforschers," of which extracts in English 

 jre published in the Athenccum. As an excellent 

 imple of his literary style may be mentioned the 

 irming description of Easter festivities in Germany, 

 ^tten in English to Faraday in 1856. With respect to 

 literary style and method of publishing his scientific 

 Stings, there is a long and interesting critical letter 

 De la Rive in 1839, in which he reproaches Schon- 

 for being too diflfuse, for writing too much and at 

 great a length, for introducing too often unverified 

 )positions, and, in fact, as we should say at the present 

 le, for transferring the contents of his laboratory note- 

 )ks to the pages of his published memoirs :-- 

 C'est une voie tentative, k la tete de laquelle est 

 raday dans ce moment, qui publie, publie le journal de 

 experiences, aussi voyez le peu d'effet que font ses 

 ivaux sur le continent." 

 [This criticism, by the way, is endorsed by Dr. Kahl- 

 lum, who regrets that the Germans, " on account of its 

 ;ign origin," should have imitated a style which he 

 iracterises as incivility (Unhoflichkeit) to the readers. 

 I Enough has been gleaned from this volume to show our 

 iders that as a contribution to the history of the science 

 jthe nineteenth century, it is in no way inferior to its 

 iecessors. R. Meldola. 



PROFESSOR TAITS SCIENTIFIC PAPERS, 

 mtific Papers. By Peter Guthrie Tait, M.A., 

 :c. R.S.E. Vol. ii. Pp. xiv + 500. (Cambridge : At 

 |he University Press, 1900.) 

 iROF. TAIT is to be congratulated on the 

 energy with which this reprint is being pushed 

 forward. The first volume, noticed in Nature, vol. Ix. 

 p. 98, is already followed by a second, so that the 

 completion of the work at an early date may be 

 anticipated. 



The present instalment contains two considerable 

 experimental investigations ; one of these, on the com- 

 pressibility of water at very high pressures, was suggested 

 by a previous research on the Challenger thermometers ; 

 for the second, on impact, we are indebted to the author's 

 well-known interest in golf. There is also a very in- 

 teresting discussion of the cause of the " soaring " flight 

 of a golf ball. 



NO. 1596, VOL. 62] 



The most important theoretical research consists of a 

 revision of the kinetic theory of gases, from the old 

 standpoint of elastic spheres. All students of this in- 

 tricate subject will be glad to have Prof. Tail's acute 

 examination of it in the present compact form. It is 

 interesting to note, by the way, the author's frank con- 

 fession : " I have .... abstained from reading the details 

 of any investigation (be its author who he may) whiclv 

 seemed to me to be unnecessarily complex. Such a 

 course has, inevitably, certain disadvantages, but its- 

 manifest advantages far outweigh them I " Let us hope 

 that no indolent reader will be tempted to turn against 

 Prof. Tait himself a dictum which conveys a very salutary- 

 warning to authors I 



One of the most useful features of this reprint is the 

 number of short papers which to many readers will now 

 become known for the first time. There are also included 

 a few biographical notices, as well as articles from the 

 "Encyclopaedia Britannica." In a note to the article on 

 "quaternions" we are told that the sketch of the subject 

 recently given by Prof. Klein in the "Theorie des Kreisels'" 

 rests on a misapprehension. This is one disappointment 

 the more for those students who have vainly striven time 

 after time to get a clear notion of what a quaternion, 

 really is, and who hoped that they had found at last 

 something like a clear and compact and intelligible: 

 account of the matter. If, in spite of the fact that " the 

 grandest characteristic of quaternions is their transparent 

 intelligibility," men like Cayley and Klein are declared to 

 have gone astray, one may be excused for asking whether 

 there may not be something wanting after all in the 

 official presentations of the subject 1 



The paper on the laws of motion hardly addresses 

 itself to points on which a modern reader would seek 

 enlightenment. Instead, we have verbal questions as to- 

 the meaning of "force" and the proper translation of 

 certain phrases of Newton. Are not such questions 

 disposed of once for all by the simple statement that since 

 the time of Newton scientific people have specialised their 

 usage of the word "force" ? Although this has not been 

 an unmixed advantage, it is probably now irrevocable.. 

 Still, one may reasorvably urge that it is hardly fair to 

 take a popular term, used in a great variety of senses, to 

 attribute it for special purposes one and only one of 

 these, and then to denounce as ignorant any one who 

 continues to use it in its former latitude. The scorn, for 

 example, which has been called forth by the term " centri- 

 fugal force" has often been most unjust, the physical 

 notions of the users being clear enough, although they 

 were not expressed ia the conventional phraseology. 

 The endless discussions which have been inflicted on us- 

 as to the meaning of the word " weight," furnish another 

 instance of the trouble which may be wrought by 

 specialists attempting to usurp functions which do not. 

 properly belong to them. 



The last paper in the volume, on the teaching of 

 natural philosophy, contains matter which probably hardly 

 any one would question. Yet it well deserves reprinting, 

 if only for the passage near the end which speaks of 

 " the fatal objections to the school-teaching of physical 

 science," based on the intrinsic difficulties of the subject, 

 and the maturity of mind required to overcome them. 

 Any one who- is aware of the futility and the pedantry of. 



