I 



556 



NATURE 



[April 13, 1905 



far in advance of the museum of 1S47 ; but it in turn 

 will be old-fashioned by the end of twenty years, and 

 when the coming (= present) century is half-way 

 through, its methods and arrangements will probably 

 bp wholly superseded by something better." 



With these words we take leave of a very instruc- 

 tive and fascinating book, which it may be hoped 

 will in some measure serve to awaken greater public 

 interest in museums, and thereby enable them to 

 receive adequate financial support from those re- 

 sponsible for their management. R. L. 



ELEMENTARY PHYSIOLOGY. 

 (i) .4 Primer of Physiology. By Prof. E. H. Star- 

 ling, F.R.S. Pp. viii+128. (London: John 

 Murray, 1904.) Price is. 

 (2) Elementary Practical Physiology. By John 

 Thornton, M.A. Pp. viii + 324. (London : Long- 

 mans, Green and Co., 1904.) Price 3s. 6d. 

 (i) A SSUMING an elementary knowledge of the 

 .^ *- main facts of chemistry and physics on the 

 part of the readers. Prof. Starling has endeavoured to 

 present with as few technical terms as possible the 

 leading ideas which make up present-day physiology. 

 It is clear that within the limited space of about 

 120 short pages the accomplishment of such a task 

 is well-nigh impossible, and except in the accuracy 

 of the stated facts due to the author's mastership of 

 his subject, we do not think that the present attempt 

 is more successful than those of others which have 

 preceded it. 



The great difficulty in writing such diminutive 

 primers does not lie in the direction of finding matter 

 to insert, but in a superabundance of material which 

 must be left out if the reader is not to be stifled by 

 a congested mass of facts crammed together into the 

 shortest possible space, and as a consequence expressed 

 in the tersest and baldest of language. 



It is the difficulty of freeing the mind from the 

 bondage of detail and dealing only with broad out- 

 lines which makes such primers dry and uninterest- 

 ing reading, and causes one to sympathise with the 

 children who are forced to read and to attempt to 

 digest them mentally. 



The primer at present under consideration is no 

 worse, and perhaps somewhat better, in this respect 

 than many similar productions ; still, it would have 

 served its purpose better if much of the detail had 

 been left out, and room so provided for more ample 

 treatment of the prominent and important aspects 

 of the subject. 



In the small amount of space at his disposal the 

 author deals not only with the anatomy and physiology 

 of the mammal, but finds room for some instruction 

 regarding toxins and antitoxins, and a short chapter 

 upon the defence of the body against micro-organisms. 

 The introductory chapter takes up the consideration 

 of the animal as a thermcxlynamic machine, includes 

 the famous candle-burning experiment and the use 

 of the calorimeter, and then passes rapidly to 

 adaptive reactions, adaptation to |X)isons, and finally 

 to antitoxins, thus showing that the whole of life 

 is a series of adapted reactions. 

 NO 1850, VOL. 71] 



In this chapter even the junior chemist who may 

 read the primer will object to the illustration which 

 shows him soda-lime as a fluid in bottles i and 4 

 of the illustration on p. 5, and it is to be feared that 

 the junior physicist will be inclined to regard the 

 calorimeter shown in section on p. S as a somewhat 

 impossible piece of apparatus. 



The remaining chapters furnish accounts of 

 structure, food, digestion, circulation of the blood, 

 breathing, exertion, the skin and its uses, the history 

 of the food in the body, the chemical factories of the 

 body, the defence of the body against micro-organisms, 

 the physiology of movement and the muscles, the 

 central nervous system, feelings — the whole contained 

 in 112 brief pages, and forming a veritable miiltum 

 ill parvo. 



(2) It is somewhat difficult on first glancing 

 through Mr. Thornton's book to understand why the 

 word practical appears on its title-page, for by far 

 the greater part of the text is purely descriptive, 

 although at intervals directions for simple dissec- 

 tions and experiments are interspersed in an un- 

 obtrusive manner. 



On looking at the page opposite to the descriptive 

 title page, however, one discovers that it is a member 

 of the " Practical Elementary Science Series " issued 

 by the publishers, and intended, as the author states 

 in his preface, to meet all the requirements of stage i 

 (the elementary stage) as set forth in the syllabus 

 issued by the Board of Education, and in similar 

 syllabuses of other examining bodies. Hence both 

 the " elementary " and the " practical " of the title 

 form, so to speak, the " class name " of the series, 

 and are suggested by the syllabus and examination 

 which have evidently given rise to their existence. 



It is, in the opinion of the reviewer, a pity tfiat 

 even elementary text-books of science should have to 

 be written to suit the requirements of syllabuses and 

 examinations, but it appears to be inevitable in view 

 of the artificial manner in which a love of science is 

 propagated in this country that the majority of our 

 text-books must be so written. 



It accordingly becomes a problem whether such 

 books can best be written by experts engaged upon 

 the particular subject treated, or by the school- 

 masters engaged in teaching that subject along with 

 others. 



The schoolmaster can claim the advantage in that 

 he is a teacher of children, and knows best how to 

 put the subject so that they will understand it ; also, 

 being engaged year after year in preparing pupils for 

 the examination, he knows the requirements of the 

 situation so far as success in the examination is 

 concerned; but his knowledge of the subject and his 

 presentation of it must be chiefly second-hand, since 

 the prosecution of the study is not his daily occupa- 

 tion. On the other hand, the specialist, while he can 

 give a review of the subject from a living acquaint- 

 ance with it, may fail signally in writing to suit the 

 requirements of the syllabus and the examination, 

 disappoint both teacher and scholars in this respect, 

 and leave his publisher without a market. 



The book before us will le.id to no disaster in 



