NA TURE 



505 



THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1903. 



THE NEW ENCYCLOP.EDIA. 



Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. xxx. New Volumes. 

 Vol. vi. K — Mor. (London : The Times Office, 1902.) 



AS with its predecessors, the articles of scientific 

 interest in this volume are very numerous and 

 varied. The brief but effective biographies of Kelvin, 

 Langley, Lister and Mendel6eff suggest the width 

 •of horizon that belongs to the work, as regarded from 

 the scientific standpoint. The subjects and authors 

 have been chosen with the same discrimination which 

 established the reputation of the original ninth edition ; 

 every important article displays the careful workman- 

 ship of a special expert. In this particular volume, 

 perhaps by alphabetic accident, all shades of gradation 

 of scientific treatment are exhibited, from established 

 metaphysics by Prof. Case, through a short article by 

 Boltzmann on models with a tendency towards meta- 

 physical considerations, to the technical treatment of 

 such subjects as lighthouses, by Mr. W. T. Douglass ; 

 machine guns, by Major Barlow ; military kites, by 

 Major Baden-Powell; lead, by Mr. H. O. Hofman ; 

 mercury, by Mr. S. B. Christy ; and mining, by Prof. 

 C. le Neve Foster. Of the facilities which the pub- 

 lishers have afforded for taking advantage of most 

 recent information, the inclusion of a brief account of 

 the eruptions of 1902 under Martinique is sufficient 

 evidence. 



The authorship of the articles, in accordance with 

 the traditions of the " Encyclopaedia," is made con- 

 spicuous by the system of veiled anonymity which 

 consists in putting initials at the end of the article, and 

 thereby setting the reader a little sum in guess work 

 with the assistance of a list of authors of the chief 

 articles at the beginning, and a key to the system of 

 initials at the end. The delicate challenge which this 

 ingenious system offers is one which no self-respecting 

 reader can resist. 



We may turn first to the articles which illustrate 

 recent progress in the department of physics and 

 physical chemistry. An article on light, by Dr. C. G. 

 Knott, supplements articles in the original volumes, 

 and deals with photometry and refraction, as well 

 as magnetic rotation, a subject which is subse- 

 quently treated in a special article on magneto- 

 optics appearing over the suggestive initials of 

 J. J. T. A brief but very luminous article on lubrica- 

 tion and its relation to viscosity and Tower's experi- 

 ments is from the pen of Prof. Osborne Reynolds. 

 Metallography and metallurgy, by the late Sir W. C. 

 Roberts-Austen, give an indication of the wide field of 

 research that is opening out in that direction, while 

 Prof. Dewar gives an account of another subject of 

 absorbing interest under the paradoxical heading of 

 liquid gases, in which the general subject of low tem- 

 perature research is treated from the point of view of 

 most ample scientific experience. Mr. Marconi's name 

 does not appear in the type of the heading of an article, 

 but a concise and effective article by Prof. Fleming on 

 " measuring instruments— electric " makes one feel 

 NO. 1744, VOL. 67] 



that perhaps the omission of the subject only arises 

 from the fact that it may be more effectively treated 

 under a later letter of the alphabet. The immense 

 developments of electromagnetics, nominally of magnet- 

 ism, since Prof. Chrystal's article was written have 

 afforded Dr. Shelford Bidwell an opportunity of which 

 he has availed himself with conspicuous success. 



A special welcome should be given to Prof. Henrici's 

 article on mathematical instruments. It is a subject 

 which, in a way, is everybody's business, and perhaps, 

 on that account is not generally treated in mathematical 

 or physical text-books. It is one of the advantages 

 of an encyclopaedia that information upon such a 

 subject can be put satisfactorily before a reader in a 

 short article by an acknowledged expert. 



Turning to the subjects included under cosmical and 

 terrestrial physics, we may notice in passing an article 

 on maps, by Mr. Ravenstein, which includes some 

 interesting historical particulars, and one on lim- 

 nology, by Dr. H. R. Mill. Prof. Simon New- 

 comb deals briefly with the work of Profs. Hill and 

 E. W. Brown in an article on the moon. But the two 

 chief articles in this division of the sciences are that 

 on terrestrial magnetism, by Dr. Chree, and that on 

 meteorology, by Prof. Cleveland Abbe. Dr. Chree 

 gives a careful and concise account of recent work on 

 terrestrial magnetism, including the systematic classifi- 

 cation and representation of the variations shown by 

 self-recording instruments, and the generalisations ar- 

 rived at regarding them. He deals also with recent 

 magnetic surveys and the identification of localities of 

 special disturbance, and finally he treats of the evalua- 

 tion of the Gaussian constants and other representations 

 of the general magnetic conditions of the earth. 



The article on meteorology, by Prof. C. Abb£, is 

 specially interesting, as it starts de novo, without re- 

 ference to the original article in the ninth edition, and 

 in thirty-two pages gives a general conspectus of the 

 subject. We may be permitted to consider this article 

 somewhat more in detail later on. 



The biological articles include Mollusca, by Mr. Pel- 

 seneer; Mammalia, by Mr. Lydekker; Malacostrata, by 

 Mr. Stebbing; and a short unsigned article on malaria, 

 a subject to which one naturally turns with interest in 

 view of recent developments. The present position of 

 the science of medicine is entrusted to the competent 

 hands of Prof. Clifford Allbutt. 



Returning to Prof. Cleveland Abba's article on 

 meteorology, its main headings are (1) fundamental 

 physical data ; (2) apparatus and methods ; (3) clima- 

 tology ; (4) physical and theoretical meteorology, with 

 an unnumbered addendum on meteorological organisa- 

 tions. The work is what may be expected from a 

 learned and experienced worker in meteorology, 

 although the task of making a rapid survey of the 

 whole range of a very wide subject in a comparatively 

 short article is evidently a difficult one; the difficulty 

 lies partly in the selection of the class of readers to 

 whom the remarks may be supposed to be addressed. 

 In this case the article will certainly be read by meteor- 

 ologists with great interest and with the wish to go 

 into further details which any brief survey ought to 

 stimulate. To cite an instance of what may be re- 



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