102 



NATURE 



[October io, 1918 



i ! in .1 book written by a pupil of Arrhenius 



and O l ild thai the English work oi Prof. II. B. 

 which the vital influence oi moisture on 

 chemii hange has been brought out in so pictur- 

 esque and striking a form, receives (probably lor 

 time in a text-book of physical chemistry) 

 thing like adequate treatment. The author 

 was undoubtedly right, however, in putting these 

 classical experiments in the forefronl "I Ins argu- 

 ment when seeking to justify the great stress thai 

 has been laid upon the condition of si. Union by so 

 m.m\ workers in physical science. The work of 



Prof. Jones's colleague, Prof. Morse, on "The 



Osmotic Pressure "I Solutions" finds a natural 



place in this volume, and the principal results ol 

 this in\ estigation are qu ited. 



The principal features oi the theory of clectro- 

 lytic dissociation are described, but as the special 

 work of the author dealt largely with the existence 



Oi In dralcs in solution, the naked ion of the original 



theory is less conspicuous than is customary, and 

 more than usual recognition is given to the part 

 played by the solvent in electrolysis. There is 

 also an important chapter on colloidal solution, in 

 whii h a good account is given of the current posi- 

 tion as regards both theory and practice. A brief 

 chapter on " Solutions in Solids 'as Solvents " is, on 

 the other hand, both inadequate and misleading : 

 the formation of fusible alloys is quoted, without 

 any evidence whatever, as an example of this type 

 of solution. The whole effect of the chapter is 

 to show that the author did not attempt to keep 

 in touch either with crystallography, i.e. with the 

 physical chemistry of solids, or with the scientific 

 side of metallurgy, which affords so many 

 and such valuable illustrations of the applica- 

 tion of physico-chemical theory. The author's 

 summary in the final clauses of this chapter — 

 that "our knowledge both of pure solids and of 

 solid solutions is very meagre. We have 

 just scratched the surface, so to speak, of 

 matter in the solid stati ■" is singularly inappro- 

 priate, in view of the work of Moseley and of 

 Bragg, which has given us a knowledge of the solid 

 state that is in many respects more exact and more 

 detailed than our knowledge of solutions even after 

 than 100 years of controversy. This aspect 

 of ill. theory of solution is, however, really outside 

 the scopi of the author's work and interest, and 

 its vi : ,ion is not a serious fault in a book 

 avowi rned in* the main with the more ordi- 

 nary i id solution, and giving an excellent 

 account ol rtant subject. T. M. I.. 



THE FU1 ■..".'• SE I FISHERIES. 



■" '-a. By Neal Green. Pp. 



vii+ 178. (Lon VI ithuen and Co., Ltd.. 



tgr8.) I'm. 1 1 net. 



MR. GREEN 'S plainly written 



and (generall; 1 1 ite, short ac- 



- 1 nint of 1 he Bi itish it is quite the 



best of the modern works on tl .1 of which 



treats. One may regard .1 1 attempt to 



tte the future l>\ consider'. present 



. s, and also b\ coin 1 asl ing .idminis- 



1. J554, Vol.. I02 I 



tration herewith that of France, the United States, 

 and Germany. Political developments are noticed 



and their possible effects discussed : the Empire 



resources development schemes and the expected 

 economic boycott of Germany are policies which 

 the ant hoi regards ;is short-sighted and likely to be 

 disastrous to us. Tin- former proposals he 

 describes as "impracticable and unjust," and the 

 latter, he expects, will end in a great expansion 

 of the fisher) marines of both Norway and Ger- 

 many, and tiic depreciation of the British herring 

 fisheries : these theses are very well argued. 

 fishery organisation in foreign countries is 

 described succinctly and rather to the disadvan- 

 tage of France and Great Britain. "The 



administration of the fishing industry by the 



Norwegian Government is the best organised and 

 most intelligent of all European countries." 



"More than any other country, France protects 

 and subsidises the fishing industry in order to 

 provide a naval reserve . . . the constant inter- 

 ference of the Government ma\ be said to be the 

 chiei cause- of the unprogressive spirit among the 

 workers." America, Canada, and Japan have a 

 chapter to themselves, and a picture ol astonishing 

 energy and pu>.;rcss is presented. 



The contrast that is thus suggested is rather 

 disheartening: "To-day scientific research in our 

 fisheries is almost entirely absent; rt is, in fact, 

 probable that there are not three chemists em- 

 ployed in the whole industry; little is known of 

 the food values of different fishes or the consti- 

 tuents of the by-products, or the most efficient 

 and economical processes whereby the fullest 

 advantage can be obtained from those values." 

 The only big fish-preservation industry in Great 

 Britain, that of the salt-cure of herrings, employs 

 a process which has scarcely been modified 

 throughout four centuries; the English industry 

 of fish-canning is almost infinitesimal compared 

 with that of America, and Germany, before the 

 war, bought our fresh herrings greedily and 

 built up a fish-preservation trade worth five mil- 

 lions a year. "At present there is not [in Great 

 Britain a single million-pound business enga 

 in the industry. There is far more capital engaged 

 in the manufacture of soap than is used in the 

 exploitation ol the British fisheries." All this is 

 a picture of the condition of business enterprise 

 and administration and scientific research which 

 is very unlike that usually placed before the public, 

 and Mr. Green's book is the more interesting on 

 that a< count. J. J. 



TH1-: BASIS OF MENTAL IND NERVOUS 

 DISORDERS. 



Tlic Neurotic Constitution. Outlines "f n Com- 

 parative Individualistic Psychology and Psy 

 therapy. B\ Dr. A. Adler. Translated by Dr. 

 B. Glueck and Dr. J. E. kind. Pp. xxiii -451'). 

 (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1918.) 

 Price 11. s. net. 



THE views of Dr. Adler, though expressed at 

 length, lose in definition by being seen through 

 the rathei irregularl) refracting medium of the 



