DISCOVERY 



219 



a uniformly false tone in the ^v^iting3 of Richard Jefferies, 

 which for all their inaccuracy scientifically considered, and 

 lack of original observations, have been very effective in 

 introducing readers to the delights and appreciation of 

 the countn,'side, and even to-day retain a measure of their 

 original popularity. His relations with publishers were 

 rather amusing. He regarded them all as "scoundrels 

 alike, especially those of the highest repute." The truth 

 really was that Newton was so careful and accurate a writer 

 that he took about five times as long to get out a book as 

 he assured the publisher he would when he began. He 

 edited one series of books so leisurely that the publisher 

 was forced to hand over the completion of the work to 

 others, and the second volume of another serial publica- 

 tion which he had promised for 1864, was not ready — till 

 1902. There were reasons for the delay, and one cannot 

 but admire a man who refused to rush into print ; but any- 

 one, be he publisher or not, who has held his breath 

 successfully for a single minute will agree that thirty-eight 

 years is rather an uncommonly heavy strain on the 

 patience. 



It is curious that in lecturing — his one compulsory duty 

 as a professor — Newton was not a conspicuous success. 

 " Newton's lectures," writes Dr. Shipley, " were desper- 

 ately dry and very formal. He sat before a reading desk 

 and read every word of the discourse from a manu- 

 script, \\Titten in his minute hand with a broad quiU, so 

 that all the letters looked the same, like the Burmese 

 script. At long intervals there was drawn the outline of a 

 tumbler, like the wine-glasses which used to indicate in 

 the foreign Bradshaws those railway stations which boasted 

 theexistence of refreshment rooms. Whenever the Professor 

 came to these outlines he religiously took a sip of water. 

 Whether it was the time of day (one to two p.m.), or 

 whether it was that we students were all absorbsd in Com- 

 parative Embryology and in Morphologj', the attendance 

 was always small. I went during my second and third year, 

 and at times was the sole auditor. Not that that 

 made the least difference to the Professor. He steadily 

 and relentlessly read on — ' The majority of you now 

 present know,' ' Most of my audience are well aware,' 

 and similar phrases left me in considerable doubt as to 

 what parts of me were ' the majority, and which the 

 ' most.' " 



It was in informal talks in his room after lecture or at 

 his house in the old lodge at Magdalene College that the 

 Professor excelled. His rooms, on Sunday evenings, were 

 a meeting-place for the younger men in residence and of 

 older men revisiting Cambridge or returning from expedi- 

 tions abroad. The influence of these meetings, zs many 

 letters in this book testify, was very great. " After a glass, 

 or perhaps two, of port, and a couple of exiguous Russian 

 cigarettes in the Combination Room, the Professor used to 

 retire, and twenty minutes later those who were privileged 

 to dine with him in the Hall went through the garden en- 

 trance, and so into the inner room, where we found him 

 seated in an arm-chair just within the doors. The room 

 was plainly but comfortably furnished in the mode of the 

 Victorian period ; the fire was verj- hot, the guests were 

 seated in a large circle of chairs, something like the Christy 



Minstrels of our boyish days ; and yet in spite of these 

 obvious disadvantages Newton's Sunday evenings saved 

 Zoology as the science of living animals in Cambridge. 

 Often there were awkward pauses, but the Professor sat 

 tlurough them all, making paper spills out of old letters, and 

 smoking pipe after pipe. To him the little Russian cigar- 

 ettes were merely hors d'asuvre, the real business was 

 tobacco in a pipe, and he held very strong views about 

 pipe-racks. . . . The Sunday evenings were a little formal 

 and a little dull ; we were all a little afraid of the Professor, 

 and much more afraid of ourselves. Sitting in that semi- 

 circle of seats it was difficult, if not impossible, to break up 

 into groups, and yet those Sunday evenings and some others 

 which I attended . . . helped me more than I can say. 

 He was in the real and the best sense a man of the world, 

 and hence he was able to help us, and did help us in many 

 ways not in the least zoological." 



This book gives a reader an interesting account of the 

 happy life of an honourable, obstinate, truthful, high- 

 spirited, and very genuine man. 



A Brief Account of Radio-activity. By Prof. Fr.\ncis 

 P. Venable, D.Sc, LL.D. (Boston : D. C. Heath 

 & Q). London : G. G. Harrap & Co., 3s 6d.} 

 This little book, published in 1917, wliich has just come 

 my way, is the work of the Professor of Chemistry in the 

 University of North Carolina, and is published for the infor- 

 mation of the general reader or for those Students of science 

 who wish to know something of radio-acti\-ity but have 

 not sufficient time or desire to read the larger treatises. It 

 is based on Rutherford's Radio-active Substances and their 

 Radiations (Cambridge University Press, 1913) and Soddy's 

 Chemistry of the Radio-elements (Longmans, 1915). It is a 

 small book of but fifty pages, and one's first comment on 

 reading the title is " Too brief," yet the matter is set forth 

 so clearly and simply that the brevity is a help and not a 

 liindrance. It is recommended to readers not only for its 

 own merits, but also for the fact that it is the only book 

 in English devoted entirely to Radio-activity that is 

 approximately up-to-date. The lists of the radio-elements 

 given on page 24 need some revision in the light of new 

 elements discovered since 1916, and because of a small 

 change in nomenclature that has been lately adopted. It 

 would be a good thing, I think, if the publisher would issue 

 a correction slip for this page, so that a reader coming to 

 the subject for the first time may have the informarion as 

 accurate as it is at present known. I think also that 

 authors of little books like this one would do well to give 

 a carefully selected list of books or of scientific articles for 

 further reading. Guidance of tliis kind is most valuable 

 and is invariably appreciated by the student. 



The Case against Spirit Photographs. By C. Vincent 

 P.'MRicK and W. Whateley Smith. (Kegan 

 Paul, 2S.) 

 A reprint of an article in the April Psychic Research 



Quarterly. An interesting and important study which 



was commented on editorially in the June issue of 



Discovery. 



