166 



DISCOVERY 



Tay from Dunkeld in Perthshire. He held this post at 

 a salary of less than forty pounds a year till he was 

 fifty-one, when he retired on a pension of ten shillings a 

 week. He did not marry upon either of these incomes. 

 He was early imbued with a love of nature, and his 

 calling and the countrj'side gave him excellent oppor- 

 tunities of using his talents. He was a bit of an ornitholo- 

 gist, a biologist, a meteorologist, and an archaeologist ; 

 but most distinguished as a botanist. On these subjects 

 he published no less than ten papers in the Proceedings 

 of the Perthshire Society of Natural Science. He was 

 particularly keen on fungi, and of the seventeen he dis- 

 covered, four were new to science, and the remainder to 

 Britain. 



He was also interested in music. He collected old 

 melodies, composed a few new ones, tried his skill at 

 hymn-tunes, and, despite his maimed hand, could perform 

 on the 'cello. " Fond of living things, perhaps birds and 

 children most of all, of music and poetry, of wood-turning, 

 of old things, of queer things like toadstools, of his 

 microscope, and of the march of the seasons, he never 

 had a dull moment. Of course, he made his discoveries 

 of new creatures and new occurrences, of which anyone 

 might be proud, but the man was bigger than all he 

 did. . . .'■ 



This I quote from the foreword. He was indeed a 

 fine type of naturalist wlio made a success of his life in 

 the true sense. 



The book is, however, more than a mere biography of 

 Macintosh. The opening chapters are taken up with 

 a sketch of the topographical features and the past 

 history of the region where his life was spent, and they 

 throw light on the part which central Perthshire played 

 in the history of Scotland. Next, the folk-lore of rural 

 Scotland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 

 is dealt with, and many half-forgotten customs and 

 incidents are recalled. The chapters which mainly 

 record the results of Macintosh's researches give at the 

 same time an interesting epitome of the folk-music and 

 the natural history of Perthshire. 



This is a book for Scots, for lovers of Nature, and for 

 those who, like Edward Fitzgerald, realise that in the 

 biographies of obscure persons there is more of interest 

 than in any but the very finest novels. 



The Spectroscope, and its Uses in General Analytical 

 Chemistry. By T. Thorne Baker, A.M.I. E.E., 

 F.R.P.S. Second Edition. Pp. x "+ 208 ; 94 figures. 

 (London : BaiUiere, Tindall & Cox, 1923, 85. td. net.) 

 Mr. Thorne Baker has aimed at producing " an inter- 

 mediate textbook which will connect the ordinary 

 treatises on general physics with the modern advanced 

 works on the spectroscope," but has only succeeded in 

 writing a somewhat discursive survey of the various fields 

 covered by modern spectroscopy, suited rather to the 

 amateur than to the student. In spite of the sub-title, 

 the analytical use of the spectroscope is not well described, 

 and the practical instructions given are frequently inade- 

 quate. The theoretical discussions are elementary and 

 not always lucid. Good features of the book are the 

 illustrated descriptions of laboratory spectroscopes com- 



mercially obtainable, the sections on the choice and use 

 of plates for spectro-photography, and the inclusion of 

 many references to the original literature. 



D. C. H. 

 [N.B. — Owing to a publishers' error, the price of this book was 

 originally given as -js. 6d.] 



Some Questions of Phonetic Theory. Chapter VI. The 



Mechanism of the Cochlea. By Wilfrid Perrett, 



Reader in German in the University of London. 



(W. Heffer & Sons, Ltd., 2s.) 



This little book is controversial and acutely technical. 



It attacks the theory of " sympathetic resonance " in 



the cochlea — the idea that those of us who hear have a 



kind of " baby grand " in either ear. In its irony and 



witty asides the book is more akin in style to a dialectic 



display in the Classical Review than to the duller but no 



less pertinent arguing in a magazine like Nature. 



The Religion of Science. By Willi.^m Hamilton Wood. 

 (Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 65.) 

 It is difficult to understand for which class the professcr 

 of Biblical History at Dartmouth College, New Hamp- 

 shire, has written this book. Theologians may agree 

 that the science disclosed in it is all right, but they will 

 never pass the theology, and biologists, without disputing 

 the theology, will smile at the author's statements about 

 evolution. The plain reader will be completely mystified 

 by the quantity of miscellaneous information conveyed 

 to him. The style, moreover, is both too allusive and 

 too elusive. No, I am afraid this book will not do. 



The Mathematical Theory of Relativity. By A. Kopff, 

 Professor of Astronomy at the University of Heidel- 

 berg. Translated by H. Levy, M.A., D.Sc. (Methuen 

 & Co., 8s. 6d.) 

 This book contains a clear exposition of the mathe- 

 matical and physical foundations of Einstein's theory in 

 the form of a course suitable for University students of 

 mathematics and physics. 



The Problem of Solution. A Tavern Talk between certain 

 Chymists and Others. By Stephen Miall. (Benn 

 Brothers, 2s.) 

 This quaint, amusing, and, on the whole, good-natured 

 pamphlet describes a conversation in the style of two 

 hundred years ago on the subject of solution in chemistry 

 between a Friend (representing the majority of chemists 

 at the present day who believe in " ionisation ") and a 

 Chymist (the Armstrong school which believes that part 

 of the theory is untrue and other parts positively dis- 

 proved). Friend is not entirely worsted, but he receives 

 many knocks from Chymist, a tremendous talker, who 

 is clearly out to win a dialectic triumph, and who is 

 the type of arguer which makes reference to Mr. Dooley. 

 A student of chemistry will gain much interest in, and 

 some information about, the facts of solution from this 

 talk. It has an introduction by Professor H. E. Ann- 

 strong and it is followed by several critical letters. 



Says Chymist : "I think the explanation these ionists 

 give of solution, of electrolysis, of osmotic pressure and 

 of chymical change is misleading and doing great harm 



