.9^ 



NATURE 



[March 30, 1916 



more or less regular, which admit of scientific 

 study and analysis. As for the relation of socio- 

 logy to other social sciences, "while economics, 

 political science, or ethics may deal with specific 

 laws relating to parts of society, sociology deals 

 with the general laws which apply to the whole 

 structure " ; " it occupies much the same position 

 with reference to the social sciences that biology 

 holds to the natural sciences dealing with organic 

 phenomena." 



Sociology is essentially a co-operative study ; 

 no great individual genius can epitomise it and 

 stamp it with his own theory. What the " social 

 mind " is to society, sociology, in a sense, is to 

 the social sciences ; and, as Ellwood says, " the 

 term social mind is a convenient term to express 

 the unity of our mental life." One danger that 

 may threaten sociological science is the possi- 

 bility of becoming academic. Few studies have 

 more inducements for the armchair philosopher. 

 The cure for this tendency is in the highest 

 ideal of sociology, viz., creative work in the 

 amelioration of social pathology. The only 

 sphere for the realisation of this ideal is field- 

 work, the study of living conditions. To this 

 all antiquarianism and historical investigation 

 must be subordinated. For instance, an investi- 

 gation into the causes of poverty in a particular 

 country, carried out personally, would be a valu- 

 able factor for progress. It is just in this kind 

 of creative work that the State can make use of 

 the science, as it is beginning to do, while the 

 science should place itself at the service of the 

 State. This is true of every science. But the 

 duty of the State is no less plain : it must en- 

 courage, organise, and subsidise all the sciences, 

 without the cumbrous pomp and delays of Royal 

 Commissions, but on simple business lines. 



The war has begun to drive home this ele- 

 mentary truth. At the stage of civilisation now 

 attained, it is preposterous that the State should 

 not realise its function and duty— that is, to 

 secure the increasing well-being of the society and 

 the individuals over whom it presides. To effect 

 this result is impossible on merely political and 

 legal bases ; science is the only sane foundation 

 of national prosperity and progress, and therefore 

 the main concern of the State should be with 

 science. And sociology is a sort of middle-man 

 between the sciences and their utilisation by the 

 State. There is probably not a single depart- 

 ment, either of the social or individual life (the 

 political counts merely as a phase of the social, 

 artificially maintained in relation to the State) 

 which is not more or less haphazard in its theory 

 and practice. We do not want to substitute for 

 painful experience and rule-of-thumb any theoreti- 

 cal fads, but we may certainly claim, in a scientific 

 age, th.Tt the best results of applied science should 

 form the material for State-development of the 

 national possibilities. Otherwise we are left with 

 the barbarous creed of laissez-faire, of which 

 " muddle through " is the proper and most apt 

 translation. 



Everything of the best in recent sociological 



NO. 2422, VOL. Q7l 



interpretation seems to be included in this text-- 

 book of Profs. Blackmar and Gillin ; it is quite 

 the most impartial, reasoned, and sound of 

 rdsumds of the subject, most of which, by the 

 way, together with original theory, has recently 

 emanated from America. 



To illustrate the needs of a relation between, 

 sociology and the State, the authors' remarks on 

 " social surveys " are in point. They mention the 

 great work of Mr. Charles Booth, " who devoted 

 his fortune and a great part of his later life to a 

 study of social conditions in London," also Mr. 

 Rowntree's study of York, Miss Jane Addams's 

 "Hull House Maps and Papers," and others. 

 " A number of places have introduced this method 

 of social stocktaking." But "as practised at the 

 present time by the professional, social, and edu- 

 cational surveyor, it is liable to be brought into 

 disrepute." "There is great need of a standard-j 

 isation of methods and a perfecting of technique. 

 In other words, there is needed for this, as foi^l 

 every other sociological survey and any practice 

 application of science to national purposes, 

 central organisation. Such can only be supplieC 

 by the State, but there is always the danger of 

 that corruptio optimi, red tape, of which, how- 

 ever, the best cure is scientific training. 



A. E. Crawley. 



EUCLID'S BOOK ON DIVISIONS OF 

 FIGURES. 



Euclid's Book on Divisions of Figures, with a 

 Restoration based on Woepcke's Text and on 

 the " Practica Geometriae" of Leonardo Pisano. 

 By Prof. R. C. Archibald. Pp. viii-88. 

 (Cambridge : At the University Press, 191 5. 

 Price 6s. net. 



ATYPICAL problem of the Divisions is "to 

 cut off a certain fraction from a given 

 triangle by a line drawn from a given point 

 within the triangle." Of the thirty-six proposi- 

 tions of the book, six are auxiliary, two deal with 

 areas the boundaries of which are partly or wholly 

 circular; the rest are concerned with the division 

 of triangles and quadrilaterals. For several 

 reasons the treatise is very interesting ; it is appar- 

 ently complete, the Arabic text ^ translated b> 

 Woepcke {Journ. As., 1851) seems to represent 

 Euclid's text, and although the same cannot be 

 said about the proofs supplied by Leonardo ol 

 Pisa (Fibonacci), they retain a great deal of th( 

 old Greek style. The peculiar fact that show; 

 how, even early in the thirteenth century, geo 

 metry, as understood by the ancient Greeks, hac 

 become infected by arithmetic, is that Leonard' 

 constantly gives numerical illustrations, and evei| 

 refers (p. 41, note) to segments defining a givei! 

 ratio as "numbers," which we may be sure Euclii|^ 

 would not do in this context. Since the editor'ff 

 translation of Leonardo is not absolutely literal 

 we must not lay stress on the passage (p. 61) :-' 

 "Apply a rectangle equal to the rectangle zb.h 



1 This contains the enunciations only. ■- 



