2 20 



NATURE 



[May II, 19 16 



moderate-sized volume. The author deals with 

 the production and cause of colour, phenomena 

 of colour, the eye, effects of contrast,' and colour 

 measurement. He quotes largely from the 

 standard works of Chevreul, Rood, and, to a 

 smalkr extent, from others. Many useful tables 

 are given with regard to the effects of juxtaposed 

 colours on each other, the illumination of coloured 

 objects by coloured lights, and concerning the 

 colour and luminosity of the solar spectrum. The 

 absorption spectra of about forty of the com- 

 monest pigments, dyes, and coloured glasses are 

 shown as curves. There are eleven full-sized 

 coloured plates which illustrate in a striking 

 manner the effects of colour combinations and 

 similar matters, though when the student of 

 colour sees the fourteen absorption spectra that 

 are represented in full colour he will wish that it 

 were possible to get such clean-cut absorptions 

 as the diagrams exhibit. 



Although this is a revised edition, there is still 

 room for revision. For example, the reader 

 would imagine from the statement at p. 79 that 

 Thomas Young followed Brewster and Maxwell 

 and criticised their theories. If the starch 

 granules in a Lumiere colour plate were of the 

 size that they are stated to be, the grain would 

 be far too fine to be visible by any microscopical 

 methods ; and in this process one does not obtain 

 a negative, and then from this prepare a positive 

 which is "viewed in conjunction with a similar 

 screen." In three-colour printing the negatives 

 are not taken through "red, blue, and yellow 

 screens respectively." 



Icones Plantarum Formosanarum nee non et Con- 

 tributiones ad Floram Formosanam. By 

 Bunzo Hayata. Vol. v., pp. vi + 358 + xvii 

 plates. (Taihoku : Government of Formosa, 



1915-) 

 This fifth volume of the Icones of the Plants of 

 Formosa is devoted especially to new material 

 collected in Formosa since 1912. It is a worthy 

 successor to the previous handsome volumes, and 

 contains studies on 385 species and eight varieties 

 of flowering plants and ferns. The studies are 

 illustrated by seventeen quarto plates and numer- 

 ous text figures. Two hundred and three of the 

 sp>ecies are new to science, and twenty-three 

 genera hitherto unrecorded for the island are 

 added to the flora. At present the flora is known 

 to comprise 160 families with 914 genera and 

 3325 species. One particularly interesting dis- 

 covery is that of a new species of the ancient fern 

 Archangiopteris, the genus first found by Henry 

 in Yunnan in 1899. The addition of the families 

 Burmanniaceae and Xyrideae to the flora of 

 Formosa is also noteworthy. A large number of 

 ferns are dealt with in this volume, the majority 

 belonging to the Polypodiaceae ; one plant called 

 Polypodiutn urceolare may not belong to this 

 genus, as it is considered by some pteridologists 

 to be a subgenus of Davallia. A long discussion 

 of the points at issue is given in the text. 



The volume is very well printed and the illus- 

 trations are remarkably clear and good. 

 NO. 2428, VOL. 97] 



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.] 



Science and the State. 



In view of the efforts that are now being made in 

 many quarters to bring about better relations between 

 science and the State, it is interesting to recall Sir 

 David Brewster's dedication of his " Memoirs of Sir 

 Isaac Newton." It is addressed to the Prince Con- 

 sort, and dated from St. Andrews sixty-one years ago, 

 and yet it is sufficiently suggestive of the circum- 

 stances of the present day to be reproduced in full. 



To 

 His Royal Highness 

 Prince Albert, K.G., 

 Chancellor of the" University of Cambridge. 

 Sir, — In dedicating this Work to your Royal High- 

 ness, I seek for it the protection of a name indissolubly 

 associated with the Sciences and the Arts. An account 

 of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac 

 Newton might have been appropriately inscribed to 

 the Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the 

 birth-place of Newton's genius, and the scene of his 

 intellectual achievements ; but that illustrious name is 

 more honourably placed beside that of a Prince who 

 has given such an impulse to the Arts and Sciences 

 of England, and whose views, were they seconded by 

 Statesmen willing to extend Education and advance 

 Science, would raise our country to a higher rank 

 than it now holds, among the nations of Europe, in 

 the Arts of Peace and of War. It is from the trenches 

 of Science alone that war can be successfully waged; 

 and it is in its patronage and liberal endowment that 

 nations will find their best and cheapest defence. 



That your Royal Highness may be enabled to realise 

 those noble and patriotic views respecting the national 

 i encouragement of Science, and the consolidation of our 

 Scientific Institutions, which you have so much at 

 heart, and that you may long live to enjoy the reputa-- 

 tion which you have so justly earned, is the ardent 

 wish of 



Sir, 

 Your Royal Highness's 



Humble and obedient Servant, 



David Brewster. 

 St. Leonard's College, 



St. Andrews, May 12, 1855. 

 The relation of science to the State is referred to 

 on various occasions in the memoirs ; and the financial 

 worry, to which the unfortunate illness of the great 

 philosopher in 1692 is attributed, is held up as a black 

 example of national neglect. The project which 

 Brewster favoured was State support for men of 

 science on the lines of the French Academy, and to 

 the lack of such support Brewster attributed the 

 neglect of the Newtonian philosophy in England, while 

 it was being successfully developed in France by 

 Laplace, d'Alembert, Clairaut, and others. 



A perusal of the memoirs at the present time carries 

 other lessons. The fierce controversies among the 

 contemporary men of science about priority and pla- 

 giarism, which led Newton, time after time, to abjure 

 the society of philosophers, and the factious criticism 

 : which they emplo}-ed, make it clear that, unless they 

 ; have changed in character, the fullest recognition of 

 ! men of science by the State will not be exactly the 

 '■ beginning of the millennium ; and they change their 



