August 1, 1899.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



181 



J^oticcs of Boofes. 



> — 



An Introduction to Stellar Astronomy. By W. H. S. Monck, 

 M.A., F.R.A.s. 1899. (London : Hutchinson & Co.) Mr. Monck 

 has been unfortunate in his choice of a title. A more appro- 

 priate one would be " Facts and Fancies of Stellar Astronomy," 

 and this, besides expressing more truly the nature of the essays 

 that Mr. Slonck has here reprinted in book form, would have 

 been more likely to attract the attention of those readers to 

 whom it would appeal. These readers should be " scientists," 

 whom Mr. Monck in his preface distinguishes from " observers,'' 

 good, bad or indifferent ; and from the style of the book itself 

 we should judge that by " scientist '' he means what in the 

 Middle Ages would have been called a " philosopher '' and in the 

 present day a " metaphysician." Still the " Introduction to 

 Stellar Astronomy " will form a volume of comfortable reading 

 for a philosopher in a hammock slung in a cherry orchard, if he 

 is well acquainted with all the methods, and most of the facts and 

 a few of the theories in stellar astronomy^or is content to 

 remain ignorant of the first two. There is one theory, however, 

 which we cannot pass over. It is not new, indeed, having been 

 advocated for many years, by two or three paradoxers under 

 the simpler term of "the sun a cold body." It is that "'all loss or 

 gain of heat,'' and presumably all forms of energy, is " an inter- 

 change between bodies in space, and on the whole the amounts 

 lost and gained by these bodies would be equal." In other 

 words, the sun only shines where there is anybody to receive its 

 rays. We have always been ready to deplore the gross ex- 

 travagance that is rife in the universe — and perhaps since 

 economy should be practised, the sun and stars in fact take as 

 their motto " no waste " — yet we do not see how Mr. Monck can 

 ever hope to advance any evidence, not to say proof, on the 

 point, since even if he could turn " somebody " into " nobody," 

 and send it out as an immaterial spirit into the void of space, 

 it would still be a moot question whether the lack of evidence 

 it brought back would tend to establish that " nobody " had no 

 eyes to see or senses to perceive, or that the sun had no rays to 

 give forth to space. 



The Internal Wirintj of Buildings. By H. M. Leaf, a.m.i.c.e., 

 M.i.M.E. (Constable & Co.) Illustrated. 3s. Gd. This is a 

 really useful book, containing a number of minor errors which 

 must not appear in the next edition. In speaking of the first 

 of these errors, we would (in order to avoid a pun) suggest that 

 Mr. Leaf should take two pages out of his book. These pages 

 are the ones upon which definitions of the electrical units are 

 given. It is clear in this connection that the author has 

 attempted to break away from stereotyped expressions, and the 

 results are not particularly happy. For example, the ampere is 

 defined as the unit of quantity ; so that one is led to ask, 

 " What then is the coulomb V " The definition of the volt 

 again gives no idea of electro -motive force. Yet clumsy as 

 these definitions are, they will, we trust, do no great harm, 

 though for Mr. Leaf's sake, it is a pity they occur so early in the 

 book. We should like, too, to see the term C-R spoken of 

 sometimes as the watts lost by heating. Amongst the many 

 interesting points brought out, we note that while many people 

 object to the idea of bunching mains (even of like polarity) 

 in wood casing, yet it is quite usual to draw both positive and 

 negative leads into the same metal tube, and further, owing to 

 the better mechanical protection afforded by such a tube, the 

 insulation is frequently made lighter. Now all this is actually 

 done in practice, as Mr. Leaf says, but the absurdity of it is 

 obvious. There is a good detailed specification given, which 

 might be copied almost verbatim (save in the matter of 

 quantities, of course) by anyone wishing to apply it to a 

 particular " job." Finally, while the book has its faults they 

 are not serious, and regarded as a whole it is better than the 

 most of those we know dealing with the subject. It is up to 

 date, too, containing in the appendix the Institution wiring 

 rules ; also, the get-up of the book is good, but when will 

 publishers give up printing the name of a work at the top of 

 every page, instead of some useful sub-heading, or the chapter's 

 title ? 



A Te.-ct-hook of Botani/. By J. M. Lowson, m.a., b.sc. (London : 

 W. B. Clive.) 6s. 6d. This book is the latest addition to the 

 well-known series issued from the University Correspondence 

 College for the use of students preparing for examinations in 



general and those of the London University in particular. Mr. 

 Lowson, consequently, has not had a free hand, and has not, in 

 our opinion, done himself justice. There is no fault to be found 

 on the score of inaccuracy ; the book is well and clearly printed 

 and also profusely illustrated ; yet as a whole there is a lack of 

 attractiveness. One cannot on a single page forget the exami- 

 nation. The alternation of clarendon and italics unconsciously 

 sets one thinking — " Is this likely to be set next time ? " The 

 attention, instead of being fixed, is distracted. Then, too, the 

 explanatory words attached to the well-drawn and instructive 

 illustrations call up, willy nilly, the flag labels which the under- 

 graduate associates with Burlington Gardens. What is to 

 become of the romance of flowers and the poetry of the garden 

 when plants are treated in this way ? It is unavoidable, 

 perhaps, that the primrose should be regarded as a dicotyledon, 

 which is an excellent instance of heterostyly, but even the 

 mortal who aspires to the honour of Bachelor of Science or 

 Bachelor of Medicine might be taught, even while trying to 

 assign it to its proper order in a system of classification, to 

 regard a flower to some extent from the assthetic point of view. 

 We are finding no fault with Mr. Lowson, it is abundantly 

 evident that he is an accomplished teacher. Under his care the 

 candidate need have no fear of being " plucked." We complain 

 of the examination S])ectre, and wonder what will be left to poor 

 ordinary cultured beings who care nothing for titles but every- 

 thing for the flowers of the field. 



.1 nistorijof Phijitics. By Florian Cajori, PH.D. (Macmillan.) 

 7s. 6d. net. We have histories of chemistry, astronomy, and 

 biology — subjects which are sufficiently specific to lend them- 

 selves fairly well to historic treatment. Foundation stones are 

 required for these literary structures, and they are all delved 

 out of the mines of heterogeneous learning of the Greeks. 

 Anyone who has indulged in this sort of intellectual diversion 

 knows how the several sciences grow out, so to speak, from a 

 main stem — the beginning of each history is almost identical in 

 each case, and it is only after repeating the same old story that 

 the subject begins to acquire individuality. Dr. Cajori, of 

 course, resorts to the same sources as all the others, but his 

 subject instead of developing into a distinct personality, as it 

 were, becomes a kind of a many-headed monster — sound, light, 

 heat, electricity, magnetism, mechanics, meteorology, atomic 

 theory, and the evolution of physical laboratories. We our- 

 selves are at one with Professor Ostwald where he says : — 

 " Eminent and far-sighted men have repeatedly been obliged 

 to point out a defect which too often attaches to the present 

 scientific education of our youth. It is the absence of the 

 historical sense, and the want of knowledge of the great 

 researches upon which the edifice of the science rests." True, 

 but we want something approximating to continuity in the 

 history of, say, sound ; to read one or two pages of matter con- 

 cerning the progress of a subject duriug the sixteenth century, 

 followed by similar scraps on many other subjects, to form a 

 chapter for that particular period, and then repeat the same 

 process for each succeeding century is a kind of scientific 

 switchback railway which is more depressing than exhilarating. 

 It is remarkable, too, that this book should have ever seen 

 the light at all in its present condition — so thoroughly incom- 

 mensurate with the magnitude of the project ; the author, it is 

 fair to say, appears to be conscious of this defect, but here it is 

 nevertheless — not even a good skeleton for future clothing, at 

 any rate according to our way of thinking. Here are from 

 sixty to seventy thousand words in the book, and with this 

 slender expenditure of printed matter " it is hoped that the 

 survey of the progress of physics here presented may assist in 

 remedying this defect so clearly pointed out by Professor 

 Ostwald." 



A Neiij Aslrniiom;/. By David P. Todd. (Sampson, Low, 

 Marston and Co., London.) Prof. Todd's leading thought in 

 preparing this attractive little manual has been that it is 

 possible to teach much of the principles and a good many of the 

 facts of astronomy by what may be termed " laboratory work,'' 

 that is to say, by practical work of a kind that is within the 

 reach of nearly everyone. It is this principal that justifies 

 Prof. Todd in calling his book a New Astronomy, for it differ- 

 entiates it from the great majority of manuals dealing with the 

 same general subject. The idea is an excellent one, and it has 

 been admirably worked out with much ingenuity and freshness 

 of thought. Lowell's work on Mars and Venus, Hale's 



