290 



NATURE 



[July 30, 1891 



proved that water alone is produced by the combustion 

 of hydrogen " (pp. 157-58). 



Although he devotes only two chapters to it, it is 

 obvious that it is the main purpose of Prof, von Meyer's 

 work to trace the development of chemistry from the 

 downfall of phlogistonism onwards, and he has there- 

 fore only dealt with the earlier periods in order to give 

 the reader a connected view of the growth of the science. 

 This portion of the work is touched with a comparatively 

 light hand, and in some respects compares unfavourably 

 with the rest. Although at times there are graphic 

 sketches — as, for example, in the account of Palissy's 

 work, and in the estimate of Bergmann's services to ana- 

 lytical chemistry, and in the story of that strange com- 

 pound of truculent charlatanry, gross mysticism, and 

 strong common-sense, who called himself Philippus 

 Aureolus Paracelsus Theophrastus Bombastus — the 

 general impression is not wholly satisfactory, and to 

 trace the historical connection of the several epochs 

 presupposes more knowledge than Prof, von Meyer im- 

 parts. It is hardly possible to do justice to the age of 

 alchemy in 40 pages, or to the history of the iatro-che- 

 mical period, which includes the work not only of Para- 

 celsus and his school, but also that of Van Helmont, 

 George Agricola, Palissy, and Glauber, in 30 pages. But 

 with the " Geschichte der Chemie " before him. Prof von 

 Meyer may well have hesitated to plough with the patient 

 heifer of Hermann Kopp. 



In his fourth chapter, where he deals with the period 

 of the phlogiston theory, the author begins to expand 

 somewhat, but occasionally, we venture to think, at the 

 expense of strict historical accuracy. Thus it is not 

 strictly true to say that Kunkel laboured " for years " to 

 discover the secret of the preparation of phosphorus 

 (p. 141), or that Cavendish defended the phlogistic theory 

 "with all his might" (p. 118). That singularly austere 

 and passionless person— that "cold clear Intelligence," 

 as Wilson calls him — was utterly incapable of entering 

 the lists as the champion of any theory. He let his Irish 

 friend Kirwan, to whom it was more congenial, do all the 

 fighting. It is hardly correct to describe the calm and 

 philosophic Priestley as "eccentric and of a restless 

 fiery nature." N o man gave and got harder knocks in 

 his time than did the kind-hearted, even-tempered old 

 philosopher ; he, too, did his fighting " all in the way of 

 business," hitting straight and above belt, and with no 

 malice in his blow ; but to call him " eccentric," or 

 "restless and fiery," reveals an entire misconception of 

 his disposition and character. The occasion of Lavoisier's 

 admission into the French Academy is only partially 

 stated, and it is not wholly true to say that amongst 

 all his numerous friends and admirers only one chemist, 

 Loysel, had the courage to protest against his execution 

 (P- 153)- 



A word in conclusion as to the manner in which Dr. 

 McGowan has done the work of translation. His aim, he 

 tells us, has been to reproduce clearly the sense of the 

 German original, and in this he has, no doubt, succeeded 

 admirably. But a purist might object that, in his efforts 

 to preserve the sense, he has too carefully retained the 

 idiom. To say that "the absorption of medicine in 

 chemistry, the fusion of both together, was the watch- 

 word which emanated from Paracelsus " (p. 3) is scarcely 

 NO. I 135, VOL. 44] 



a happy method of expression. Nor is this paragraph 

 much better : — 



" Spirit of wine— the aqua vita: of the alchemists — con- 

 tinued to grow in importance during the iatro-chemical 

 age, as it had done in the alchemistic. This applied to 

 it not merely from a theoretical point of view, as being a 

 product of various fermentation processes to which much 

 attention was paid, but also from a practical, since Para- 

 celsus and his disciples used it largely in the preparation 

 of essences and tinctures" (p. 95). 



On p. loi, Boyle's manor in Dorsetshire is erroneously 

 called " Stolbridge," and on p. 185 " Dalton " is in- 

 correctly printed for " Davy." Such terms as " centre- 

 point" and "fire-stuff" are not current English. Dr. 

 McGowan's duty as a translator doubtless required him 

 to say that " the nobility and poetry of his [Davy's] 

 nature are shown both in the journals which he kept 

 during his extensive travels in France, Germany, and 

 Italy, and in his beautiful relations to Faraday " (p. 187) • 

 but the veracious historian, familiar with the annals of 

 the Royal Institution, would probably have expressed 

 himself differently. T. E. THORPE. 



. PROGRESS IN ELEMENTARY BIOLOGY. 



Lessons in Elementary Biology. By T. Jeffery Parker, 

 B.Sc, F.R.S., Professor of Biology in the University 

 of Otago, New Zealand. (London : Macmillan and 

 Co., 1 891.) 



PROF. JEFFERY PARKER is to be congratulated 

 on having produced an extremely well-written, 

 well-considered, and original class-book. The teaching 

 of so-called " elementary biology " has, in conse- 

 quence of the coercion of examination schedules and the 

 multiplication of little cram-books dealing with the 

 selected and protected " types," become in this country 

 a very poor thing. The practical work in the laboratory 

 with frog, fern, rabbit, and worm, which was, when first 

 introduced, a step in advance, has become, like so many 

 other things which were good in their origin, a tyranny 

 and an impediment to knowledge. Students have reso- 

 lutely shut their eyes to all facts but those presented by 

 the schedule types, and teachers of a certain class have 

 seen the easiest way to secure " examination results " in 

 ignoring the generalizations of biology, and in plying their 

 pupils with the regulation details as to the few animals 

 and plants scheduled for dissection. Prof. Parker's book 

 should help to remedy this state of things. His aim has 

 been, he states, to supply the connected narrative which 

 would be out of place in a practical hand-book. I 

 agree with him that the main object of teaching biology 

 as part of a liberal education is to familiarize the student 

 not so much with the facts as with the ideas of science. 

 In this little book the student will find many of the most 

 important conceptions of biological science set forth and 

 illustrated, not by reference merely to the types which he 

 dissects or examines with greatest ease in the elementary 

 course in a laboratory, but by the use of a larger area of 

 well-chosen examples, both of plants and animals. 

 Original woodcuts, often of exceptional merit, are freely 

 introduced in the text. 



Whilst the plan of Prof. Parker's book is excellent, I 

 cannot help feeling some regret that he has not carried 



