Septemreb, 1902.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



207 



to those who have access to a good botanical library. The 

 favoured students who have ample time and the use of the 

 rather costly equipment to undertake such a course iu practical 

 plant i)hj-siolo{,'y will, we have no hesitation in saying, find 

 Prof. Ganong's little book a competent and trustworthy guide. 



" The S< IKNCE of Mkciianus." By Dr. Ernest Mach. 

 Translated from the German by T. G. McCormack. Second 

 English edition. Pp. xi.x. and 60.5. (Kegan Paul.) 9s. (id. net. 

 Illustrated. — No work in existence contains such a philosophical 

 and inspiring account of the principles of mechanics in relation 

 to their development as Prof. HIach'.s, rendered into fluent 

 English by Mr. T. G. JlcCormack. The student of physical 

 science who obtains from this book his concepts concerning the 

 motions and equilibrium of masses is to bo congratulated. 

 Jreclianics is not treated as a collection of problems h.aving no 

 connection with one another or with anything real in nature, 

 but as one of the physical sciences. To the student familiar 

 with the arid specifications of the principles of statics as 

 expressed and illustrated in text-books in general, the treatment 

 of the same subject by Prof. Mach comes as a revelation. The 

 long chapter on dynamics is of especial interest to students of 

 astronomy ; the remaining chapters deal with the application of 

 the principles of mechanics and the deductive development of 

 the science, the formal development of mechanics, and the rela- 

 tions of mechanics to phy.sics and physiology. To this new 

 edition of what is everywhere regarded as a scientific classic, an 

 appendix of eighty pages has been added, containing Prof. 

 ]\Iach's supplementary remarks upon various parts of the text. 

 For its logic, history, and scientific scope, we commend the 

 book most heartily to all serious students of matter and 

 motion. 



'' Dy.N'.\Mic AsrECT.s up Xitritiox and Hi;ui:iirTY." By Frank 

 Horridge. Pp. xiv., 175. (Bailliere, Tindall & Cox.) .')s. net.— 

 The titles of the three chapters of this book arc " The Active 

 Forces of Living Organisms," " The Spinal Cord and the 

 Functions of the Cerebellum," and " Heredity." No useful 

 purpose would be served by either describing or criticising 

 the author's material or conclusions. Suffice it to say that 

 an endeavour is made to connect physical and nervous effects and 

 phenomena. Preventive and curative medicine are shown to 

 depend for their results upon movements in the ether, and the 

 cerebellum is regarded as a reinforcing organ to the nervous 

 system. Lovers of speculative science may discover some ideas 

 to interest them, but critical students will find the book a 

 weariness of the flesh. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



The Relation of Science to Art. By Sir Samuel Wilks, Bart., 

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Manual of Astronomi/. Bv Charles A. Young, PH.D., ll.d. 

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Animal Forms, liy David S. Jordan, MS., M.D., pu.d , il.d., and 

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Elementary l^rinciples of Chemistrt/. By A. V. E. Young. 

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Elements of Physics. By C. Hanford Henderson, pii d. , and John 

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Early Life of the Young Cuckoo. By W. Percival Westell, 

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European Fungus Flora Agaricacece. By George Massce, f.l s. 

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Analysis of English History. By W. C. Pearce and Dr. S. Hague, 

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Principles of Simple Photography. Bv Fred. W. Sparrow, r.k. 

 (Hazell, Watson & Viney.) Illustrated. " Is. net. 



Preparatory Lessons in Chemistry. By Henry ^Y. Hill. (Allman 

 & Son.) Illustrated. Is. 



Macaulay's Laiis — Soratius, Lake Ber/illus, Armada and Icri/. 

 Edited by W. J. Addis, B.A. (Allman & Son.) Is. 



Ai^rial Navigation. By Frederick Walker, c.E. (Crosby Lock- 

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The Mill on the Floss. By George Eliot. (Ward, Lock.) Is.Gd. 



Electric Wiring. By W. C. Clinton, B.sc. (Murray.) Illustrated. 

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Seport of the Yellow Fever Expedition to Para (Liverpool 

 School of Tropical Medicine — Memoir I'lI.J. By H. E. Durham. 

 (Longmans.) 7s. 6d. 



Erperiments in Aerodynamics. By S. I'.Langley. (Washington : 

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Memorias y Revista de la Sociedad Cient/fica "Antonio Alzate." 

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A'f HI Phytologist. Vol. I., No. 7. Monthly. Is. (id. 



Soard of Education — Supplementary Regulations for Secondary 

 Daii Schoils and for Evening Schools (From 1st August, l'J02, to 

 31st July, lOO.y. (Eyre i Spottiswoode.) id. 



Eastern Uganda— an Ethnological Survey. By C. W. Hobley, 

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Ross Bird-Stalker. By Charles Dixon. (Ross Ld.) Illustrated. Od. 



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ARCTIC OCEANOGRAPHY.* 



The truth of the old provvrli, " It is the iinexi)ected that 

 happens," is seldom more forcibly illustrated than by this 

 volume. When Dr. Nansen prepared for his adventurous 

 voyafje, against the advice of all whose experience of arctic 

 expeditions entitled tliem to form an opinion, he expected 

 to be carried in the drifting ice across a comi>aratively 

 shallow sea, and the provision of oceanograi)l)ical instru- 

 ments and gear was made in this belief. He carried out 

 his programme to the letter as far as the surface drift was 

 concerned, but he discovered toe late that the Polar Sea 

 was one of the deepest instead of one of the shallowest of 

 the oceanic areas, and research in its depths was only 

 possible by means of gear made or adapted on board. It 

 was naturally a great disaji^jointmeut to Dr. Nausen to 

 find that his most valuable results were shorn of their 

 completeness by the want of a few thousand fathoms of 

 wire. He realised, too, that when working in the deep 

 sea from the solid surface of the ice a far higher degree 

 of accuracy was possible in occtmographical observations 

 than the vicissitudes of a tossing ship, often under the 

 command of an impatient officer, had allowed his pre- 

 decessors to dream of. On his return he proceeded to 

 devise and test instruments of high precision, and the 

 result has been to turn Dr. Nansen from a biologist into 

 a physical oceanographer. We may consequently expect 

 develo]iments of a very interesting kind from the Labora- 

 tory of the International Council for the Study of the 

 Sea, which is shortly to be opened at Christiana under 

 his direction. 



After a full confession of the incompleteness of the 

 "Fram's" oceanographical work in the preface to the first 

 memoir, " On the Oceanography of the North Polar Basin," 

 Dr. Nansen goes on to describe and criticise his instruments, 

 " nothing extenuating " as to their defects, to tabulate his 

 observations with a running commentary as to their 

 probable errors, and finally to deduce his conclusions with 

 a caution, and at the same time an independence and 

 originality which inspire confidence and respect. There is 

 a good deal in this great volume to nourish discussion, and 

 it might not be difficult to combat some of the more 

 theoretical conclusions, but in a short account of such a 

 harvest from a field hitherto untrodden and untouched it 

 is better to pay attention only to the heap of beaten-out 

 grain. 



It is hardly necessary to recapitulate the route of the 

 " Fram," but nevertheless there may be some readers who 

 will not resent a few lines of orientation. The ship left 

 Vardo on July 21st, 1893, passed through the Yugor Strait 

 early in August, coasted the Yalmal peninsula, rounded 



* " The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893-1896. Scientific 

 Results." Edited by Fridtjof Nansen. Vol. III. Published by the 

 Fridtjof Nansen Fund for the Advancement of Science. (London : 

 Longmans, Green & Co.) 1902. 



