October 22, 1903] 



NATURE 



597 



be placed after photosynthesis, and after the account 

 of parasites and saprophytes ; here it is noticeable that 

 Lathraea is placed amongst carnivorous plants, without 

 any mention of Groom's work. But few practical 

 experiments are suggested, and it would be easy to 

 improve the apparatus depicted in figs. 204, 206, 208, 

 and 219. Finally, the last chapter, in which irrit- 

 ability is discussed, is headed " Movements of 

 Plants," which quite ignores the phenomena of 

 stimulus, and the stimulating source. 



In the introduction, the authors state that they have 

 been impressed with the need of a work which should 

 contain all the information which is necessary for 

 certain examinations. On the contrary, the present 

 tendency, and there is much to be said in favour of 

 it, is to bring out smaller books, written by specialists, 

 which deal only with one branch of the subject. 



Traite de Chimie physique, Les Principes. By Jean 

 Perrin. Pp. xvi + 300. (Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 

 1903-) 

 This volume deals with the elements of dynamics, the 

 thermodynamical potential, the phase law and other 

 allied subjects of which a knowledge is indispensable 

 to the modern chemist. The treatment is non-mathe- 

 matical, but the author indulges in a good many dis- 

 cussions of a philosophical character. In defining the 

 scope and aim of physical chemistry, he refers to the 

 old style of thinkmg, according to which physics was 

 the science of reversible phenomena, and chemistry the 

 science of irreversible phenomena. The notion of 

 force is defined by means of the extension of a stretched 

 elastic string or wire. Why should not this treatment 

 be adopted in books where relations involving mass 

 and acceleration do not play a prominent part? We 

 notice, as a useful feature, that Lord Kelvin's defini- 

 tion of absolute temperature is dealt with at some 

 length. In the preface the author rightly directs atten- 

 tion to the desirability of abandoning such misleading 

 notions as that of absolute in contradistinction to 

 relative velocity, the statement that " heat cannot pass 

 from a cold to' a hot body," which is like speaking of 

 an apple passing from one hand to the other, and the 

 prevalent confusion of language in speaking of ideas 

 involving force and energy. 



The Arithmetic of Elementary Physics and Chemistry. 



By H. M. Timpany. Pp. 74. (London : Blackie 



and Son, Ltd., 1903.) Price is. 

 This collection of numerical exercises is very limited 

 in its scope. It is composed of four sections; one in- 

 cludes problems on relative densities, another is de- 

 voted to examples on moments and centres of gravity, 

 a third is concerned with the conversion of thermo- 

 metric scales and with specific and latent heats, while 

 the last deals with the calculation of the weights and 

 volumes of the substances taking part in chemical 

 reactions. Typical examples are worked out for the 

 guidance of the student. 



Gisements miniraux. Stratigraphie et Composition. 

 By Francois Miron. Pp. 157. (Paris : Gauthier- 

 Villars and Masson et Cie, n.d.) 

 M. MxRON here provides geologists and others with a 

 compact account of numerous non-metalliferous 

 mineral deposits which are useful in numerous 

 branches of technology. A previous volume in the 

 series known as the " Encyclopedic scientifique des 

 Aide-Mdmoire," to which the present book also be- 

 longs, dealt with those minerals in which the metal- 

 lurgist is particularly interested, and attention is here 

 chiefly directed to the natural sources of sulphur, 

 nitrates, phosphates, borates, compounds of the alkali 

 and alkaline earth metals, and other minerals. 



NO. T773, VOL. 68] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



Human Science and Education. 



There surely never was a time when there was more 

 need for consideration of the root-principles of higher educa- 

 tion. It is generally allowed that we in England are 

 behindhand in the matter, that we have allowed the 

 Germans and Americans to have the start of us. And 

 awaking to this conviction we have a difficulty in seeing 

 in what direction we should move in an attempt to recover 

 our lost ground. 



I accede with pleasure to a suggestion of the Editor of 

 Nature that I should endeavour to lay before his readers 

 some of my views as to the direction in which those studies 

 which have man for their subject should move. At first 

 sight it might seem that the present place is inappropriate 

 for a paper of this kind. Yet it is among the students of 

 nature that my contentions as to the study of man are 

 perhaps most likely to find support. 



What I plead for is that the two great branches of know- 

 ledge, the science of nature and the science of man, should 

 be brought nearer together, that it should be recognised 

 how much they have in common, and that the reasonable 

 votaries of both should make common cause against the 

 same enemies. 



The enemy in higher education of the science of nature 

 is the technical spirit, which will not take a wide outlook, 

 which ties all investigation down to narrow points of 

 practice, which does not see that breadth of study and 

 imaginative insight are necessary in our schools of science 

 if we would produce men of real efficacy for the work of the 

 world and not mere technical experts. The enemy of the 

 science of man is the spirit of convention, which is domin- 

 ated by rhetoric and commonplace, which has no ambition 

 to see the facts of human nature and of history as they 

 really are, but interprets them by tradition by self-interest, 

 by sentiment. And between these two enemies of the 

 children of the light there springs up a natural alliance. 

 The man who has received a narrow technical training may 

 be a good linguist or the like, but is not likely to appreciate 

 a wide humanistic culture. The man who has received a 

 merely conventional literary education may master technical 

 details, but will scarcely understand how the steady growth 

 of science, of ordered knowledge, has changed our whole 

 way of regarding life, religion or society. The two enemies 

 will combine when they can to keep- education at its pre- 

 sent level, and to ridicule all attempts to provide a really 

 scientific training in universities and schools. 



It is scarcely necessary to say much in these days as to 

 the importance of a thorough organisation of the study of 

 nature and natural forces in our colleges. There has been 

 in this matter extraordinary progress in the last thirty years. 

 At any rate it would be an impertinence for me, who have 

 never been trained in any branch of natural science, to 

 dwell on this matter. But while natural studies have moved 

 forward rapidly, those which concern man have in our 

 universities scarcely moved. The course in humanity, and 

 in modern history, is at Oxford almost exactly what it was 

 thirty years ago. Cambridge is less averse to change than 

 Oxford, and has been more mobile ; yet it may be doubted 

 whether human studies have imbibed much more of the 

 modern spirit in Cambridge than at Oxford. In the new 

 universities which are springing up on all sides, generally 

 speaking the side of natural science is more or less well 

 developed with teachers and apparatus, but in the matter 

 of history, psychology, archaeology and the like they are 

 much to seek. In the case of the new University of 

 London, one sees the germs of better things. Several of 

 the schemes of study there arranged look well on paper. 

 Only funds are needed to set the machine in motion. In 

 London there are great institutions, like the Record Office 

 an.l the British Museum, which are in the nature of things 

 obliged to be scientific, and one hears great things of the 

 London School of Economics. 



I think the readers of Nature will admit that the slow- 



