JUNE 18, 1914| 
NATURE 
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the threads of research now or later. 
précis is not attempted, because so much of the 
work is too new to permit of fair criticism and 
evaluation. The results which are likely to prove 
permanent are set forth in a final chapter. 
The volume is written in a remarkably clear 
style. Contradictory results and deductions are 
set forth with the utmost effort at impartiality, so 
that the reader can readily find points of attack 
for fresh work should that be his object. The 
indices, both of subjects and of authors, are very 
full, and the literature given is probably as com- 
plete as it can be. It is within the knowledge of 
the reviewer that Dr. Woglom made especial 
effort to consult personally all the originals and 
verify each reference. It is but natural, since 
Dr. Woglom was for some years a highly-valued 
assistant of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, 
that this fact, and the close association with his 
colleagues, have led to full recognition of the 
work of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund; but 
it was Dr. Woglom’s aim that no injustice should 
thereby be done to any other worker or centre 
of cancer research. 
Vol. i,,uplike vols...11., in. sand av-, has been 
issued not only as a large quarto, but fortunately 
in octavo form at the same price. This is really 
a boon, because by simply cutting off the large 
margins Dr. Woglom’s book has been reduced by 
more than two pounds dead weight, viz., from 
more than four to less than two pounds. 
It is noteworthy that throughout the three large 
volumes reviewed, the question of the etiology of 
cancer is nowhere seriously raised from the view- 
point of a possible “cancer parasite.” Cancer 
is regarded as a problem of growth, and the 
question of a stimulus to growth (a growth hor- 
mone in Starling’s sense), is frequently and often 
ably discussed. But in the light of experiment 
it appears to the reviewer that the question should 
also be considered from the point of view of the 
absence or withdrawal of resistance to growth, 
of “chalones” in Schafer’s sense, if it be justifi- 
able so to extend the term. er. oD. 
A NEW TACTICAL TREATISE. 
The Principles of War. By Major-General E. A. 
Altham. With an Introduction by General Sir 
H. L. Smith-Dorrien. Vol. i. Pp. xv+436+ 
maps. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 
DOI4.). Serica tos. net. 
“~ ENERAL ALTHAM has produced the first 
XZ of a series of volumes on major tactics, 
under the title of “The Principles of War.” 
Although the fundamental principles of war are 
neither very numerous nor in themselves very 
abstruse, their application is difficult. War is not 
NO. 2329, VOL. 93] 
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A critical | 
an exact science, and cannot be reduced to a 
series of mathematical formule. All that can be 
done is to deduce from actual experience certain 
broad principles, and leave it to study and to 
practice to create an instinct in the mind of the 
soldier for their correct application to the circum- 
stances of the moment. 
But tactics are constantly affected by the pro- 
gress of. science, and disaster may ensue if its 
effect is not correctly appreciated. In peace there 
is no means of putting modern appliances to the 
ultimate test of battle, and imagination must 
necessarily play so large a part in peace prepara- 
tion for war, that there is always a danger of 
' fundamental principles being obscured by an ex- 
aggeration of the effect of new inventions. Thus 
General Altham ascribes the French defeats in 
1870 to the false theory they had formed that the 
improvement in the rifle favoured defensive tactics, 
a theory which ignored the national characteristics 
of the Frenchman, and committed the French 
armies to a fatal cult of positions. 
General Altham’s object in this volume is to 
illustrate from history the doctrine which the 
General Staff has laid down for the guidance of 
the Army, and thus constantly to remind students 
of the necessity for assigning due importance to 
the lessons of the past in these days of rapid and 
far-reaching changes in war material. 
Field Service Regulations and the training 
manuals, which contain this doctrine of the 
General Staff, while entirely complete in them- 
selves, are. necessarily somewhat condensed in 
form. Field Service Regulations, Part 1, in par- 
ticular—a 220-page summary of the art of war— 
| every word of which has been carefully weighed, 
and no single sentence of which could be removed 
without material loss, may seem to be strong 
meat to many, and is apt to cause a species of 
mental indigestion if taken in too large doses. 
The senior officers of the army will  re- 
member, possibly with gratitude, that they were 
more gently nurtured on the pages of Home and 
Clery. 
General Altham’s work bids fair to take the 
place of these authors on the bookshelves of the 
younger generation of soldiers. His method is 
to take a series of texts from Field Service 
Regulations, and to preach a sound and simple 
sermon on each of them, impressing his lessons 
on the mind by one or more graphic illustrations 
drawn from the campaigns of the last half century. 
En passant, we express the hope that he may 
be able, both in his subsequent volumes, and in the 
later editions of this one, to draw more extensively 
for illustration upon the recent operations in the 
Balkans. 
