4 S 



NATURE 



[September [g, [918 



The divided into five sections (with 



gi aphs) : general gas data, am- 

 ta, nitric acid data, hydrogen purifica- 

 tion data, and miscellaneous data. 



It will uffice to s:i) thai in no other publica- 



tve found so adequate and Up-tO-date a 



summary of results. One wishes thai other 



"i physics and chemistry could be 



treated in a similarly comprehensive manner, and 



the whole issued as the British answer to 



"Landolt." It would he large, and doubtless ex- 

 pensive, hut imagine its utility! And we need 

 not despair, for we have now got an English 

 Baedeker— blue — and that is only a beginning. 



It is not clear from the copy before us to what 

 extent the publication will be available to the 

 general public, or how it may be obtained, or 

 what its cost will lie to the would-be purchaser. 

 We trust that there will be no difficulties on these 

 scores, for, both for its own worth and as an 

 earnest of many more good things of the same 

 kind. I lie present volume deserves a Wide circula- 

 tion. 



BIOLOGY AND WAR.* 



pROF. RAYMOND PEARL makes in the lecture 

 J- before us an interesting examination of the 

 biological philosophy of war. The primary imple- 

 ments are not mechanisms, but biological entities 

 —men. The primary problems of war are bio- 

 logical problems — why do men fight, what kinds 

 of men make the best fighters, what conditions 

 conduce to the most effective fighting, and what 

 are the probable consequences of the fight to the 

 winner and the loser? "In general, why men 

 deliberately plan wars is because they are different 

 biologically, in structure, habits, mental outlook, 

 thought, or other ways, and wish to preserve in- 

 tact their differentiations." The group differences 

 have an emotional context of passion, and the 

 modern physiologists have shown us " why rage is 

 more generally followed by fighting than by 

 judicial arbitration." As to the belief, held with 

 particular tenacity in Germany, that warfare is in 

 > ith the process of nature selection which 

 has made on the whole for progressive evolution, 

 it must he pointed out that "nowhere in nature 

 does iatui I selection, as indicated by modern 

 careful study of the subject, operate with any- 

 thing like that mechanistic precision which the 

 German political philosophy postulates; . . . 

 much less does natural selection operate in a 

 rigid and mechanical manner with reference to 

 human affairs; . . . military results are not, in 

 fact, measured in terms of biological survival." 

 I h( plain fact in the matter is that the proudly 

 ruthless philosophy of Treitschke and Bernhardt 

 is not only immorally cruel, hut also immortally 

 stupid. " 



Vs to the widespread tear thai this war will 



have a serious dysgenii hi , limination 



so many exceedingly desirable types, Prof. 





: given before the Washington Acadom on May 9, 



Washington Acad. Sci., vol. viii. (1918), No. . i. pp. 341-60. 



I55I, VOL. I02] 



Pearl points "in thai the racial qualities are con- 

 tinued in tin females, that many fighters have 

 left progeny before they fell, that a large propor- 

 tion of the total male population is not involved 

 in the war, and so on. Nevertheless, it seems to 

 us that Prof. Pearl is very optimistic in conclud- 

 ing thai "an) putative, deleterious, sel. . 



effeel " oi the present war "on the races con- 

 cerned will he insignificantly slight." Most 

 readers of Vvii re will, we believe, know person- 

 ally of several highly distinguished and markedly 

 original men, whose deaths on the field have left 

 the race, whatever statisticians may sav , very 



definitely the poorer. These unique patterns may 



recur perhaps ; for the present they are gone; and 

 we know not how to replace them. 



NOTES. 

 Tin council of the South African Association for 

 ih. \ilvan< ■emi'iii of Science has resolved to institute 

 a Sit David Gill memorial fund, to accumulate for a 

 number ol years until an amount has been raised 

 adequate for some purpose to be decided upon. Mr. 



R. T. A. Innes, Union Observatory, Johannesburg, 

 has consented to act as the secretary and treasurer 



of the fund, and intending subscribers are invitei 

 communicate with him. 



Proc II. ('. H. Carpenter, the president of the 



Institute of Metals, has been nominated to fill the 

 office for a fm ther ; ear. 



Dr. II. S. Hele-Shaw, F.R.S., and Signoi 

 Marconi have been elected honorary fellows of the 

 Society of Engineers (Inc.). 



Sir John Marshall, Director-Genera) of Archaeology 



in India, lias, in consequence of illness, been granted 

 leave of absence, during which his deputy will he Dr. 

 Spooner, Superintendent of Archaeology, Eastern 

 Circle. 



A (ommiiiii ,in explosives investigations has been 

 selected by the U.S. National Research Council at 

 the request ,,f the American Seeretarv of War and 



the Secretary of the Navy. The commit! nsists 



of Dr. ('. E. Munroe, of the George Washington 

 University (chairman); Mr. L. I.. Summers, of the 

 War Industries Board; Lt.-Col. YV. C. Spruance, jun., 

 of the Ordnance Department of the Armv ; and Lt.- 

 Commdr. T. S. Wilkinson, of the Ordnanci Depart- 

 ment of the Navy. 



Dr. J. N. ROSE, ,i curator of the division of plants, 

 the U.S Na mal Museum, has gone on a botanical 

 expedition to Ecuador on behalf of the National 

 Herbarium, the L'.S. Department of Agriculture, the 

 New York Botanical Garden, and the Graj 

 Herbarium. 



Dr. Oj it Vnderson, petrologisl at the U.S. t.n,- 

 physical Laboratory, has resigned his position, having 

 been appointed Government geologist and director of 

 rimental silicate laboratory at Christiania. 



Ox Si pti nl" 1 j there died in a nursing home in 

 London, only three months after her " Life of Sophia 

 Jex-Blake" had been published. Dr. Margaret Todd, 

 the authoress. Dr. Todd was known to mam readers 

 as "Graham Travers," under which notn de plume her 

 five noveK were written. Dr. Todd, born in 1859, 

 was educated at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Berlin, 



