172 



NA TURE 



[December 25, 1902 



theory must correspond qualitatively and quantitatively 

 to the phenomena of Nature. The analytical difficulties 

 may be too great to deduce all the phenomena, but if any 

 be contrary to experience, the theory, at least in its 

 exact form, must go. It is only by inventing, discussing, 

 comparing and remodelling as many theories as possible 

 that we can hope to arrive at any knowledge of the con- 

 stitution of matter or of the aether. This new and very 

 original attempt is therefore to be welcomed. As a rule, 

 authors of such theories are satisfied to show how many 

 facts their theory explains, and how probable, therefore, 

 it is that their theory corresponds to reality. Not so, 

 however, Prof. Osborne Reynolds. He claims to have 

 shown that "the research has revealed the prime cause 

 of the physical properties of matter," and that 



" there is one, and only one, conceivable purely 

 mechanical system capable of accounting for the physical 

 evidence as we know it in the universe." 



That a theory coming from Prof. Reynolds will fulfil 

 the first of our conditions goes without saying. But that 

 it should be possible to give a proof that it is the 

 representation of the actual structure of aether and 

 matter is too astonishing to be received without scepticism. 

 We await the publication of the full research. 



It is not possible to criticise a complete theory on a 

 short statement of its results — a statement which by its 

 very nature must leave much vague and much unsaid. 

 Sufficient idea, however, is given to cause us to look 

 forward to the complete work, which is, we understand, 

 to be published by the Pitt Press shortly. In brief, the 

 aether is composed of equal rigid spherical grains 

 (diam. = 1 7 x 10 ~ n times the wave-length of violet 

 light) arranged in regular and closest order, and under 

 great pressure. When strained, such a medium must ex- 

 pand — or show "dilatancy." The actions of the medium 

 depend on this dilatancy. Matter is a defect of matter 

 — a small deficiency of grains or a "negative inequality," 

 causing, so to say, a certain looseness in the gearing of 

 the grains where the deficiency exists and a consequent 

 stress in the medium outside. These inequalities are 

 permanent, and are propagated through the medium 

 without a transference of the grains themselves. Matter 

 is, in fact, a strain which is propagated through the 

 medium — an idea which has occurred to others, notably 

 Dr. Larmor in his electron theory, and to the late Mr. 

 C. V. Burton, at the Ipswich meeting of the British 

 Association in 1895. These strains attract one another 

 according to the Newtonian law, may cohere but not 

 coalesce. "Positive inequalities" (due to excess of 

 grains), on the contrary, repel one another and so are 

 dispersed. Electricity apparently consists of double 

 inequalities, excess in one place and defect in another. 

 The statement here appears rather vague, and it is diffi- 

 cult to understand the difference between electricity and 

 two inequalities, one positive and one negative. The 

 attraction is, however, enormously greater than that of 

 gravitation. Apparently the theory gives no explanation 

 of the fact that electricity never shows itself apart from 

 matter, nor is any explanation offered of the electro- 

 dynamic action of one current on a conductor bearing 

 another. A true theory must do this, and it is the crux 

 of every theory yet produced. 



NO. 173O, VOL. 67] 



In this granular medium, transverse and longitudinal 

 waves are propagated. It would take 56 million years 

 to reduce the energy of the transverse to one-eighth, 

 while it would take only four one-millionths of a second 

 to reduce that of the normal by the same amount, thus, 

 the author says, "accounting for the absence of normal 

 waves." This, however, is only a proof that such waves 

 do not last. It is necessary to show that on reflection 

 of light they are not formed, otherwise they will diminish 

 the intensity of the reflected ray. 



Many difficulties and objections suggest themselves 

 during perusal which will doubtless be answered in the 

 full paper. If Prof. Reynolds does in this what he 

 promises in the resume, he will go down to posterity with 

 a greater fame than Newton. If, however, he does not 

 succeed in convincing us that he has solved the problem 

 of the mechanism of the physical universe, he may yet 

 be congratulated on giving us what is evidently a beautiful, 

 illuminative and extremely suggestive theory. He has 

 opened to us, in any case, a new field of knowledge as 

 well as helped to stimulate that scientific imagina- 

 tion which we are told it is our bounden duty to cultivate. 



W. M. H. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Report of the Yellow Fever Expedition to Para of the 

 Li7>erpool School of Tropical Medicine. By H. E. 

 Durham. Pp. 79. (London: Published for the Uni- 

 versity Press of Liverpool by Longmans, Green and 

 Co., 1902.) Price Js. 6d. 



This is the seventh memoir published by the Liverpool 

 School of Tropical Medicine, and it is printed and got 

 up in the same excellent style as its predecessors. It 

 embodies the results of the Para expedition of Messrs. 

 Durham and Myers, and is written by the former, Dr. 

 Myers having, as is well known, fallen a victim to the 

 disease he was investigating, a circumstance which lends 

 a melancholy interest to the report. When the expedition 

 left this country, the remarkable and conclusive work of 

 the United States Army Commission in Cuba under Major 

 Reed in proving the conveyance of yellow fever by gnats 

 was not known, but this problem, with many others 

 awaiting solution as regards the disease, was present in 

 the minds of the observers, as is seen in the preliminary 

 report, which is here reprinted from the British Medical 

 Journal. In the course of their work, they became 

 acquainted with the results of the Americans, and a 

 number of observations are chronicled in the report with 

 regard to the gnat (Stegomyia fasciata) incriminated in 

 Cuba. It was bred in captivity and studied in its native 

 haunts, and much useful information gathered as to its 

 habits — the most striking being its essentially urban 

 habitat, and its custom of biting by day and not at 

 night. 



With regard to the actual microbe which is the cause 

 of yellow fever, no sufficient proof is as yet forthcoming, 

 but the observations of the expedition agree with those 

 of Agramonte and others in absolving Sanarelli's Bacillus 

 icteroides from any share in its aetiology. Attention is, 

 however, already called in the interim report, an abstract 

 of which is here reprinted, to a small, fine bacillus which 

 the English observers found with considerable constancy 

 in the intestines and in the viscera generally in fatal 

 cases, and to which they were inclined, with due reserve, 

 to ascribe a causal significance. It had previously been 

 observed by Sternberg and others, but not with the 

 constancy here recorded. A valuable series of observ- 

 ations on the condition of the lymphatic glands in yellow 



