September 6, 1900] 



NATURE 



435 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Probleme Kritische Sltidien iiber den Monismus. Von 

 Dr. H. V. Schoeler. Pp. viii + 107. (Leipzig : Engel- 

 mann, 1900.) 



Dr. von Schoei.er's critique of monism is the work of 

 a mind which, with all reverence for scientific fact, has 

 nothing but disdain for post-scientific theory. The 

 monism of which Haeckel, for instance, or Romanes is 

 the exponent, has captured many scientific intellects, but 

 it is in Dr. von Schoeler's view an arbitrary conceptual 

 construction. It leaves the problems still with us. Of 

 the ultimates of physics, of biology, of psychology, we 

 know but little, and that little makes against such monism. 

 Life is more than knowledge, and will find emancipation 

 neither in science nor in religion, but in art. 



Dr. von Schoeler's discursive criticisms of a variety of 

 attempts at construction, or steps towards construction, 

 are of somewhat unequal value, but not uninteresting. 

 They enter into some detail, and might well give pause 

 to any one who is inclined to build a system without 

 straw to his bricks. But, if it be true that a man's nay 

 has no meaning apart from the underlying and implied 

 yea, the unsatisfactory character of our author's positive 

 teaching must reflect upon his polemics. The way in 

 which he couples Plato and W. K. Clifford on p. 95 

 suggests doubts as to his insight. Those who allow that 

 current mechanical theories are tending more and more 

 to immaterialism, that organic evolution reduced to its 

 facts cannot assert even descriptive continuity unhypo- 

 thetically, and that for a deduction of consciousness from 

 the non-conscious we have not so much as the point of 

 departure, will be left cold by Dr. von Schoeler's appeal 

 for Diploismus, and his enthusiasm for Goethe's Weltan- 

 schauung made complete in the light of Kant's. The 

 duality for which he goes to Bruno's gemini efficientes 

 falls even for Dr. von Schaeler within a monism (v. p. 97, 

 11. 1-4). And Kant's provisional dualism does not exclude 

 a hypothetical monism, idealist or agnostic. Only the 

 resolution of it from the standpoint of understanding is 

 not achievable, and from any other standpoint it cannot 

 be more than hypothetical. 



It is doubtful, finally, whether Dr. von Schoeler quite 

 understands in what sense a system admits certain unex- 

 plained points as truly problems, and in what sense it 

 claims to solve them. Is the origin of motion a problem 

 recognised by monism as one which it must attempt to 

 solve ? And is not metaphysic always, so to speak, a post 

 mortem examination ? The " gray in gray " of philosophy 

 is a commonplace : "■ the owl of Athene wings for flight 

 only when twilight falls." H. W. B. 



Diamond Drilling for Gold and other Minerals. By 

 G. A. Denny. Pp. X-M58. (London: Crosby Lock- 

 wood and Son, 1900.) 



vi the Paris Exhibition of 1867 much interest was 

 aroused by Leschot's invention for cutting through hard 

 rock by diamonds in rapid rotation. Originally intended 

 for use on a small scale, this method was soon applied by 

 Major Beaumont and others to deep boring ; and the 

 great improvements made of recent years in the con- 

 struction of the instruments used, and the large amount 

 of experience that has been gained by their general use 

 in mining districts, have added so much to the importance 

 of the subject of boring, that it is no longer possible to 

 deal with it adequately in a chapter of a general treatise 

 on mining. An mdependent work is needed. In German, 

 this exists in Tecklenburg's monumental work. In 

 English, however, Mr. Denny's handbook is the first to 

 give a detailed account of the use of modern diamond 

 core-drills in searching for mineral deposits. The work, 

 which covers 158 pages, contains much information of a 

 practical character, including particulars of the cost of 



NO. 16 10, VOL. 62] 



apparatus and of working. It is, unfortunately, limited 

 in its scope. South African conditions are alone con- 

 sidered, and the descriptions of the drills are confined to 

 machines made by two American firms. The numerous 

 well-designed drills of English and Continental make 

 are not mentioned. The work cannot, however, fail to be 

 of value to any one contemplating using diamond-drilling 

 machines for the examination of mineral lands in South 

 Africa. 



The author gives some interesting results, deduced 

 from his own experience, of the rate of progress of 

 machine diamond drilling in various rocks. For holes 

 up to 1000 feet he finds that, including all normal delays, 

 the rate averages per week : in limestone, 150 to 200 feet ; 

 in Carboniferous sandstone, 1 50 feet ; in slate, 100 to 1 50 

 feet; in greenstone, no feet; in basalt, conglomerate, 

 diabase, diorite and dolomite, 100 feet ; in porphyry, 

 90 feet ; in quartz, 85 feet ; in granite, 73 feet ; and in 

 chert, 60 feet. As regards the cost of drilling, the author 

 points out that diamond drilling on the Witwatersrand 

 is almost always done by contract, the reasons being that 

 men with the requisite experience are not easily secured, 

 and that a mining company rarely has sufficient work to 

 justify the outlay upon the plant. The average tender 

 for a hole 3000 feet deep would work out at about yjs. 6d. 

 per foot, the price being fixed on a sliding scale, say 25J. 

 per foot for the first 500 feet, and rising by 55. per foot 

 every 100 feet. If the company undertook the work on 

 its own account, the cost per foot would be about 26s. M., 

 or 3950/. for the 3000 feet. This with 2340/., the 

 cost of drilling outfit, brings the total cost of the hole to 

 6290/., as compared with 5625/., the contractors' price. 

 It is to be regretted that the author has not compared 

 these prices with those obtaining elsewhere. The bore- 

 hole at Paruschowitz in Upper Silesia, for example, the 

 deepest in the world, completed to a depth of 6566 feet 

 in 1893, was bored by the diamond drill. The average 

 rate of progress was 16^ feet a day, and the cost was 

 3761/., or 35^. a yard. Details of the average working 

 cost of diamond drills in \'ictoria and New South Wales, 

 which are published annually in the Government reports, 

 might advantageously have been cited for purposes of 

 comparison. B. H. B. 



Symons's British Rainfall, 1899. Compiled by H. 

 Sowerby Wallis. Pp. 251. (London : Edward 

 Stanford, 1900.) 



A PORTRAIT of the late Mr. G. J. Symons, the founder 

 of the British Rainfall Organisation, and an appreciative 

 tribute to his memory, are naturally found in this volume 

 — the first to appear without his name upon the title-page. 

 The thirty-nine volumes for which Mr. Symons was 

 responsible form a real monument to his industry and 

 scientific work. Mr. Sowerby Wallis, who was associated 

 with him for thirty years, will continue the work along 

 the lines which have hitherto proved so successful. 



The usual particulars are given concerning the rainfall 

 and meteorology of various parts of the British Isles 

 during the year 1899, as observed at about 3500 stations. 

 The average rainfall of the ten years 1890- 1899 is dis- 

 cussed in an article, the values being given for a hundred 

 stations well distributed over the three kingdoms. The 

 discussion is only provisional, but so far as it has gone it 

 indicates that over a large part of the kingdom the rain- 

 fall in the period considered was deficient by from 5 to 10 

 per cent, and upwards. Over an area of about 300 miles 

 long by 100 miles wide, stretching right across the 

 country from south-west to north-east, the fall for the 

 period shows a deficiency of 10 per cent, or more. In 

 other words, accepting the values discussed, it appears 

 that little more than eight and a half years' rain fell over 

 a large part of Central England in the ten years 1890 

 1899. 



