20 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Januaby 1, 1897. 



REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 



Himphn/ Davy, Poel and Philosopher. By T. E. 

 Thorpe, LL.D., F.K.S. (The Century Science Series. 

 Cassell & Co.) 8s. 6d. This is one of the very best 

 short biographies that we ever remember to have 

 read. Prof. Thorpe is well known in the scientific 

 world as possessing a singularly clear and attractive 

 style of writing, and we may say with confidence that 

 this gift has never been shown to greater advantage 

 than in the little volume now before us. The book is 

 based for the most part on the well-known memoirs of 

 Davy by Dr. Paris and Dr. John Davy, especially upon 

 that of the latter ; and in his preface the author specifies 

 in detail the further sources from which he drew his 

 information. From the variety and extent of this list of 

 references it is easy to infer that no pains have been 

 spared, and — to put it shortly — the impression left upon 



Institution as it was in Davy's time, a drawing which 

 tells its own moral in these days of elaborate apparatus 

 and fittings. In nothing was Davy's genius more clearly 

 shown than in the precision with which he almost intui- 

 tively seized upon the true lines of a research — upon the 

 analogy of iodine to chlorine in the case just mentioned. 

 And lest anyone should imagine from what has just been 

 said that his work was hasty and incomplete, let him but 

 read Davy's classical papers on chlorine, and marvel 

 at the closeness and accuracy of reasoning which they 

 exhibit. 



An interesting account is given of the safety lamp, 

 together with drawings of the various forms of lamps 

 which Davy tried before he arrived at the one we all know 

 so well ; while a portion of the concluding chapter is 



devoted to 



)avy's presidency of the Pioyal Society. The 

 book is lightened up by pleasant 

 side-touches, such as the des- 

 cription given byLockhart in his 

 " Life of Scott " of that famous 

 night during one of Davy's 

 visits to Abbotsford, including 

 the remark which it drew from 

 honest William Laidlaw. Space 

 will not permit of a reference 

 here to Davy's real poetic power. 

 That he was a great chemical 

 genius, and that his work was 

 of immense benefit to mankind 

 at large, everyone will allow. 

 And.ifhepermittedhisambition 

 for scientific fame to acquire an 

 undue influence over him, let us 

 rather turn aside from that and 

 dwell on some of his many 

 good qualities, such as the 

 disinterestedness he showed 

 wherever money was concerned, 

 and the unchanging love and 

 affection which throughout his 

 life he bore to his mother and 

 the other members of his family. 



Pueumatic Experiment at the Koyal Institution. 



(From " Humphry Davy, Poet and Pliilosoph 



the mind after reading the book is that the author has 

 given us an impartial and unbiased, but at the same time 

 a sympathetic, account of the great chemical philosopher. 

 The rapid, almost meteoric, rise of Davy was of course 

 one of the most striking points in his career. He was but 

 twenty-one years of age when he left the Pneumatic Insti- 

 tution at Bristol for the Iloyal Institution, and barely 

 twenty-nine when he reached the summit of his scientific 

 fame by the isolation of the metals of the alkalies. 

 Another characteristic was the marvellous rate at which 

 he got through his investigations ; thus, in the spare time 

 of a fortnight spent in Paris, in 1813, he worked out the 

 broad outlines of the chemistry of iodine, partly in 

 Chevreul's laboratory and partly in his hotel with the aid 

 of the chemical apparatus which he was in the habit of 

 carrying about with him on his travels. Not the least 

 interesting thing in the book, by the way, is the illustra- 

 tion on page 91 of the chemical laboratory of the Koyal 



(After Gillray.) 

 er.''J 



Biological Experimentation : 

 its Functions and Limits. By Sir 

 Benjamin Ward Eichardson, 

 M.D., F.R.S. (George Bell 

 & Sons.) 2s. Gd. No fairer statement on the subject 

 of experimentation on living animals could be made than 

 that contained in this little volume. The crux of the matter 

 appears to be whether in learning the art of prevention it 

 is requisite to produce pain, and, if so, whether the results 

 justify the means. The general conclusions to which Sir 

 Benjamin Ward Eichardson appears to arrive are that painful 

 experiment may be expedient but is not indispensable ; 

 that experiment on animals played no indispensable part 

 in the discovery of either general or local anaesthesia ; that 

 they should only be performed for a definite object, should 

 not be made a matter of demonstration to students in 

 schools of physiology, and should bo conducted, as far as 

 possible, painlessly. Vivisectionists and anti-vivisectionista 

 would be brought to view their differences in a better state 

 of mind by reading this testimony of an investigator capable 

 of taking a broad survey of a difficult subject and of 

 giving an honest opinion. 



