May 26, 1904] 



NA TURE 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



4 History of Ihc DcTuboiv Laboratory. Mai^dalcn 



Cotlcse, Oxford. By R. \V. GiJnther, .M.A., F.L.S. 



Pp. vi+137; 3 full page plates. (London: Henry 



Frowde, 1904.) Price 55. net. 

 O.XFORD chemistry is entering on a new phase of its 

 existence. L'p to the present time the theoretical 

 teaching has been excellent, but partly owing to lack 

 of accommodation and partly through other causes, the 

 practical teaching has not reached so high a standard. 

 .Mr. Giinther's book is a sort of commemoration of the 

 opening of the reconstructed chemical laboratory at 

 .Magdalen College. The laboratory, apart from the 

 Physic Garden, which is nearly four hundred years 

 "Id, was founded in 1S42, and it was the scene of 

 Daubeny's labours both as chemist and botanist. His 

 chemistry lectures were, however, given in a basement 

 of the old Ashmolean building. It is to a certain 

 extent typical of the earlier days of Oxford science that 

 most ot the work was relegated to cellars. Brodie's 

 " last word on the formula of ozone " was said in a 

 cellar at Balliol, and in the same cellar much of Dixon's 

 excellent work on the rates of explosion in gases was 

 done. Harcourt's classical experiments on velocity of 

 chemical change were performed in a basement at 

 Christ Church. Things are changing now. New 

 l.-.lroratories have been built both at Christ Church and 

 .Magdak^n, and in both, research laboratories, with the 

 be.^t appliances, give hope that chemical research in 

 Oxford many be entering on a new lease of life. 



Mr. Giinther gives a very minute and interesting 

 account of the laboratory now under his charge. Not 

 the least interesting is his description of the collection 

 of old apparatus which has been lying, fortunately 

 unbroken, for many years in the laboratory. A com- 

 plete meteorological record from 1869 has been kept, 

 ;md the monthly averages are given in an appendix. 

 .\ list of Daubeny's researches is also appended; the 

 number of papers is very large, considering the fact 

 that he was the holder of three several professorships — 

 chemistry, botany, and rural economy. The researches 

 of later workers in the laboratory are described in full. 

 -Mr. Giinther has evidently been misled by the polite- 

 ness of one of the learned societies. It is scarcely con- 

 sidered a mark of distinction for an author to have his 

 paper "deposited in full in the Society's Archives." 



The registers of attendance at the lectures of 

 Daubeny are printed in full from 1826, with 

 notes of the after careers of the students. It is a 

 curious fact that fully three-quarters of the early 

 attendants of science lectures in Oxford afterwards 

 took Orders, and among them we find three arch- 

 bishops. Tail, Whately and Thomson. In these later 

 days science is apparentlv not so necessary for the 

 education of the clergy. 



Abriss der Biologie der Ticre. By Prof. H. .Simroth. 



2 vols. Pp. 157 each. (Leipzig : Goschen.) 

 These little books correspond to the series issued in 

 this country by Messrs. Newnes, as the " Story of 

 Fish-Life " and the like. But Dr. Simroth, possessing 

 as he does a great knowledge of animal bionomics, 

 has condensed within two small volumes all the 

 essential facts of comparative physiology of animals 

 in a wav that is paralleled by no English work except 

 .Semper 's ". Animal Life." L'n fortunately the 

 Germans, with few exceptions, do not arrange and 

 select their elementary science in a way that assists 

 the beginner. .Vlmost on the first page we meet with 

 " idioplasma " and "chromosomes," a fact which is 

 eloquent of the distance between writer and learner. 

 Whilst this work is one of great value to teachers, 

 it is well to understand that it is useless to those be- 



NO. 1804, '^'OI- 70] 



ginning the subject. The reviewer, however, as one 

 who has known the stimulating character of Prof. 

 Simroth's teaching, gladly acknowledges the sugges- 

 tive and clear way in which the influence of gravity, 

 light, heat, and other radiations are referred to. 

 These, and the concluding chapters on reproduction, 

 rudimentarv organs, and habitat, are well worth the 

 attention of those who have already acquired a 

 practical knowledge of biology. 



From India to Fergana. Description of a Journey 

 made in i8g8 by Lieut. -Colonel V. T. Novitskiy, 

 being part of vol. xxxviii. of the Memoirs of the 

 Russian Geographical Society. Pp. 297 ; w-ith a 

 map and 18 photographs. (St. Petersburg, 1903.) 

 Starting from Srinagar, the author went first to Leh ; 

 thence, proceeding in a northern direction, he crossed 

 the Karakoram Plateau, reaching the Karakash River, 

 or Khotan-daria, at the Chinese post Shahi-dula. 

 Then, instead of taking one of the usual passes across 

 the Raskem Range, the Russian traveller went through 

 a more western, formerly unknown pass. Karlik- 

 davan, which proved to be extremely difficult, especially 

 in the gorge of the Tagra-su. Descending next to the 

 vallev of the Ulyuch-su, the party soon reached 

 Kargalyk, in Kashgaria, and Yarkand, and went to 

 Russiari Turkestan, following one of the usual 

 routes. The author gives very good descriptions of 

 Kashmir and of the dreary Karakoram Plateau, about 

 15,000 feet high in its high valleys, which are covered 

 with alluvial deposits from old desiccated lakes, and 

 are surrounded with bare mountains reaching an alti- 

 tude of 24,600 feet in the .Ak-tash group of peaks. 

 He describes further the Alpine zone, intersected with 

 wild gorges, which is usually known on the maps as 

 the Raskem Range, but represents in reality aninter- 

 mediate zone between the plateau and the plains of 

 Kashgaria. He gives detailed lists of the plants he 

 collected and of the birds he saw, and also most striking 

 photographs, artistically reproduced. A map of the 

 Pamirs and the surrounding regions, 27 miles to the 

 inch, and a very interesting cross-section, based on 

 the author's barometric measurements, are added to 

 this valuable work. 



Dissertations on Leading Philosophical Topics. By 

 .Alexander Bain. Pp. vi + 277. (London: Long- 

 mans, Green and Co., 1903.) Price -js. 6d. net. 

 This volume consists of fifteen essays on logical, 

 psychological and ethical topics that have been pre- 

 viously published in the pages of Mind or elsewhere. 

 Nevertheless a special interest attaches to it because 

 the essays represent the maturest conclusions of the 

 late Prof. Bain upon subjects to which he had devoted 

 his attention with so conspicuous success throughout 

 his long and distinguished career, and were designed 

 by him to supplement the two great works on 

 psychology which ill-health prevented him from again 

 reissuing. The essays exhibit all that wide learning, 

 that clearness and vigour of intellect, and that width 

 of svmpathy and interest which gave Bain's works on 

 psychology a place in the foremost rank and secured 

 for him a world-wide reputation. Very characteristic 

 are the two essays in which he insists on the import- 

 ance for psychology of physiological considerations 

 and psvcho-Dhvsical'experiment, and at the same time 

 defines their scope and their true relations to the 

 introspective method. The volume concludes with an 

 essay on the examination-system that assumes ever 

 vaster proportions in this country in spite of many 

 denunciations. Here Bain, recognising the necessity 

 of examinations, appears as an advocate of improve- 

 ment in the art of examining and of restriction rather 

 than abolition of the system. 



