Marcu 19, 1914] 
NATORE 
given rise. The description of this principle as 
‘the latest fashionable craze in science” is rather 
cutting, but as the book is well written and easily 
read, we can imagine that it will increase rather 
than lessen the general interest in the work of 
those eminent theoretical physicists. That the 
more extravagant conclusions resulting from the 
extreme adaptations of the principle should be 
held up to ridicule is quite wholesome, as it re- 
veals the weak points in the argument and pre- 
vents the unwary from carrying it too far. 
After all, “relativity” is only one among many 
possible interpretations of the result of a more 
or less isolated experiment. It asserts that no 
electrical or optical experiments can ever reveal 
absolute motion, or show any variation in the 
velocity of light. It is Einstein’s merit to have 
pointed out the alarming consequences which 
would result from these two simple propositions. 
Our notions of time and space become almost in- 
terchangeable, and the “present moment” be- 
comes meaningless without considerable restric- 
tion so soon as relative motion is involved. 
Leo Gilbert burlesques these innovations with 
much humour and ingenuity, and will no doubt 
largely prevent them being taken too seriously. 
Since Einstein himself has practically abandoned 
the principle of the apparent constancy of the 
velocity of light in all circumstances, and even his 
mathematical methods have failed to deal with 
accelerated motion, there is little left of the im- 
posing mathematical superstructure, and what 
“craze” there was has given way before a sober 
appreciation of an interesting speculation on its 
merits. While enjoying the fun ‘of the satire, 
we cannot say that the author is at all fortunate 
where he endeavours to furnish an alternative 
explanation. 
Gipsy Coppersmiths in Liverpool and Birkenhead. 
By Andreas (Mui Shuko). Pp. vi+ 66+ plates. 
(Liverpool: H. Young and Sons, 1913.) Price 
rs. net. 
Tuts book is a collection of newspaper articles 
describing the manners and adventures of a band 
of gypsy coppersmiths, which appeared in Liver- 
pool and Birkenhead in 1912. The writer would 
have been better advised not to reprint his material 
in this fragmentary form, but to take the oppor- 
tunity of preparing a connected narrative. These 
people were commonly known in this country as 
Hungarians, but they were really cosmopolitan 
nomads from Eastern Europe. They settled in 
Liverpool, where they claimed superiority over the 
local gypsies, and, though they were lavishly 
supplied with money and jewelry, professed to 
make their living by repairing copper cauldrons. 
They can scarcely be described as attractive. They 
were most unwilling to give estimates of the cost 
of work entrusted to them. Like all Orientals 
they loved bargaining, made preposterous demands 
of payment for work entrusted to them, refused 
to be bound by any contract, and tried to enforce 
their claims by bullying and that form of coercion 
known to Hindus as “sitting dharna.” They 
NO, 2296) VOL) 93 
! 
| stole 
were shameless beggars, and one of their boys 
the ring of their English friend, and 
flourished it in his face as they departed by train 
en route to Buenos Ayres. In spite of all this, 
they had a remarkable sense of personal dignity, 
and their kindness to one of their boys stricken 
with epilepsy, for whose treatment sorcery com- 
bined with the best medical advice was used, was 
remarkable. On the whole, we can _ readily 
_ imagine that the people of Liverpool easily recon- 
| Prehistoric Times: 
' chemical methods. 
ciled themselves to the departure of their visitors. 
as Illustrated by Ancient 
Remains and the Manners and Customs of 
Modern Savages. By the late Rt. Hon. Lord 
Avebury. Seventh edition, thoroughly revised 
and entirely reset. Pp. iii+623. (London: 
Williams and Norgate, 1913.) . Price tos. 6d. 
net. 
Tuis, the seventh edition, “entirely reset,” .was 
revised by Lord Avebury only a few months 
before his lamented death. The author was a 
pioneer in the popularisation of the study of 
archeology. It is pleasant to be reminded: “ This 
(the Drift period) I have proposed to call the 
‘Paleolithic’ Period,” and ‘‘For this (the Stone 
_Age) period I have suggested the term ‘ Neo- 
lithic.’’”’ The present edition is specially enriched 
with coloured illustrations of Palzeolithic paint- 
ings. For the wide range of its information, and 
the fairness with which divergent views are dis- 
cussed, the book well deserves the improved lease 
of life now given to it as a popular text-book of 
archeology. Its defects are those of its class. 
| For certain reasons, one had been led to expect 
that in this edition the author would have set a 
| fashion in works of the kind in including a sum- 
mary of the astronomical evidence which is but 
rarely detached from archeological objects. The 
Stonehenge evidence, it is true, is now too well 
impressed on the popular mind to be overlooked 
(pp. 133-4), but it is severely isolated. It is in the 
‘interests of young readers or teachers of this 
| text-book that one points to the latter half of the 
following passage as a questionable statement. 
“Tn this country we still habitually call the mega- 
lithic monuments ‘ Druidical,’ but it is hardly 
necessary to mention that there ‘s really no sufh- 
cient reason for connecting them with Druidical 
worship ’’ (p. 126). 
JouHN GRIFFITH. 
A Text-book of Organic Chemistry. By Prof. 
A. F. Hollemann. Edited by Dr. A. J. Walker, 
assisted by Dr. O. E. Mott. Fourth English 
edition, partly re-written. Pp. xviii+621. (New 
York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chap- 
man and Hall, Ltd., 1914.). Price 10s. 6d. net. 
| THe first English edition of this work was re- 
viewed in NatTurE on June 18, 1903 (vol. Ixviii., 
p. 149). One of the chief characteristics of the 
present issue is the additional space allotted to 
the applications in organic chemistry of physico- 
The section on tautomerism 
has been re-written, and the chapters on_ the 
benzene derivatives have been re-arranged. 
