1@2 
NADL ORE 
| NOVEMBER 29, 1906 
could be attempted, which should serve as a found- 
ation for further detailed investigations of the 
important questions connected with these plant 
parasites. 
The Dissociation of a Personality, a Biographical 
Study in Abnormal Psychology. By Dr. Morton 
Prince. Pp. x+569. (London: Longmans, Green 
and Co., 1906.) Price tos. 6d. net. 
Or all the problems raised by the investigations of 
that section of modern psychology which deals with 
the abnormal and neurasthenic, those concerned with 
what is called multiple personality are perhaps the 
most interesting for psychology and philosophy as a 
whole. Cases of multiple personality are com- 
paratively rare, and this book is of great value as 
being a very full and careful account of quite the 
most remarkable of such cases known to us. Dr. 
Prince had ‘‘ Miss Beauchamp ”’ under his care from 
the time when a second personality first manifested 
itself until ‘‘ the real Miss Beauchamp ”’ was at length 
discovered and restored. It is the great merit of the 
book. that the author abstains almost altogether from 
theories. These he promises us in a further volume. 
In this he contents himself with a careful history of 
the details of the extraordinary case. Extraordinary 
it certainly is. There were three distinct and entirely 
different personalities. Of these, two known as BI 
and BIV, were alternating, and only knew of each 
other by inference. Dr. Prince evidently considers 
that they were caused by ‘‘the splitting up the 
original personality ’’ and loss of memory due to an 
intense mental shock. Not the least interesting part 
of the book is an account of the striking oppositions 
in what we should be inclined to call bodily character- 
istics, manifested by those two personalities. But the 
personality known as Bille or, casallys2 1s = most 
interesting of all. Not only did she exist as an 
alternating personality with BI and BIV, but she 
went on being conscious all the time, while BI and 
BIV were in possession of the body, with the differ- 
ence that in the one case she was conscious, not only 
of outside events, but of BI’s thoughts, while in the 
other she was aware always of what BIV said and 
did, but not of what she thought. The consequence 
is that the study of Sally throws light on many ques- 
tions concerning subconscious personality, and such 
phenomena as dreams, hallucinations, &c. The ques- 
tions raised by the whole story in regard to how a 
personality is constituted, and what either an asso- 
ciated or a dissociated personality can mean, are 
many and important, but a discussion of the philo- 
sophical importance of the facts recorded here had 
better be postponed until the appearance of Dr. 
Prince’s promised second volume. Meanwhile, the 
book can be recommended to all interested in ques- 
tions of abnormal psychology. The facts of the case 
are told in a very direct and interesting way. 
Ie IDB IL 
The “ Lloyd” Guide to Australasia. Edited by IN, (Crs 
Plate for the Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen. Pp. 
469+ix. (London: Edward Stanford, 1906.) 
Price 6s. 
Tus compact handbook on Australia should prove 
of great service to tourists visiting the Antipodes. 
The volume is profusely illustrated, and generously 
provided with maps and plans. Great care appears to 
have been taken in making the information up to 
date. The volume may not only be commended to 
travellers, but also to teachers of geography in second- 
ary schools, who will find it useful as a supplement 
to their class-books. 
NO. 1935, VOL. 75| 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 
expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 
to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 
manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 
No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 
Presence of Neon in Radio-active Minerals. 
I nave for some time been engaged in a search for the 
rare gases, along with helium, in the radio-active minerals. 
The earlier results were negative, but I have just found 
a trace of neon in two minerals—zircon and cyrtolite. I 
cannot give definite quantities, but should guess that the 
neon is not so much as 1/300th part of the helium. 
The separations have been made by Sir James Dewar’s 
charcoal method. He suggested this application of the 
e ethod 1. his original publication of it. 
I cannot yet state positively whether or not the presence 
of neon with helium is general. The manipulation has been 
progressively improved, and it may be that on repeating 
the earlier experiments on other helium-bearing minerals 
neon will be detected. On the other hand, it may be that 
the presence of neon is connected with zirconia, for both 
of the above minerals contain it. R. J. Strutt. 
Sunnyside, Cambridge. 
Radium and Helium. 
In Nature of October 25 Prof. E. Rutherford has briefly 
restated the arguments for considering that radio-active 
phenomena are probably associated with atomic degrada- 
tion, and that, as a rule, the loss of an atom of helium 
accompanies such changes, the atomic weight of the sub- 
stance undergoing transformation being diminished by 4, 
the atomic weight of helium. 
With this assumption, the transformation of the uranium 
atom (238-5) into radium (225) occurs owing to the loss 
of three helium atoms, whilst the change of radium into 
lead (206-5) is due to the loss of five such atoms. The 
numbers are not, however, in strict agreement with this 
view, for 238:5—3xX4=226:5 imstead of 225, and 
225—5X4=205 instead of 206-5. 
This objection can, however, be removed by assuming 
that the atomic weight of radium is not 225, but 226-5, 
for we then have 
238-5 —3 X4=226-5 
and 
226-5 —5 X4=206-5. 
The above assumption, that the atomic weight of radium 
is slightly higher than that obtained by Madame Curie in 
her latest determination, does not, indeed, appear improb- 
able when it is remembered that the first determination 
of the atomic weight of radium by Madame Curie gave a 
value of 146, and that the atomic weight has become 
greater and greater as the material used has been more 
and more purified. Madame Curie now considers that her 
latest value is correct to within a single unit, but she 
states that the material she employed contained a minute 
quantity of barium. B. Watter. 
Hamburg, physikalisches Staatslaboratorium, 
November 6. 
Magnetostriction. 
In your issue of March 24, 1904, Mr. Nagaoka gives an 
account of a lecture experiment on magnetostriction; a 
few weeks later Prof. W. S. Franklin describes an ex- 
periment of the same kind. Both experimenters use a 
vertical solenoid, along the axis of which is fixed at its 
upper extremity an iron wire. When a current is sent 
through wire and solenoid, the wire is twisted. The ex- 
planation given is that the wire is magnetised helically, 
the expansion along the lines of magnetisation resulting in 
a twist of the free lower extremity. 
May not the result of the experiment be accounted for 
in the following way? When a current enters at a pole and 
passes out at the centre of a freely suspended magnet, the 
magnet rotates about its axis. If, then, the current enters 
at one pole and passes out at the other—as both halves tend 
to rotate in opposite directions—one end of the magnet 
should be twisted relatively to the other. 
D. O. S. Davies. 
138 Earlham Road, Norwich, November 16. 
