266 



NA TURE 



[January 18, 1906 



" purpose is that of which all determinate sequence is 

 the phenomenal expression." " Naturalism proclaims 

 that I am just a little bit of nature, differentiated from 

 the rest, a minute cluster of phenomena in relation 

 with the total remainder of phenomena, a tiny, if 

 somewhat complex configuration under the influence 

 of the major configuration of the universe." But " I 

 cannot do away with the conviction that there is 

 something within me which unifies and relates and 

 orders the configurations, something which is the 

 source of my conception of causal agency. It is what 

 I understand by purpose." ..." But why should 1 

 suppose that the causal agency which, as purpose, 

 underlies my own private and peculiar configuration, 

 is of a different order of being from that of which 

 nature at large is a manifestation. Just in so far as 

 I am one with nature, and therefore in physical re- 

 lationship with other manifestations in terms of matter 

 and energy, is the purpose of my being one with the 

 purpose which underlies the manifestations of nature, 

 and am I in spiritual relationship with a wider and 

 richer purpose which is thus manifested." 



We agree so heartily with this higher teleology that 

 we have no criticism to offer. We doubt, however, 

 whether it is necessary to deal so generously with the 

 naturalistic interpretation in its mechanistic expression 

 as the author has seen fit to do. It may be well 

 methodologically to deal with it as an ideal, but we 

 cannot help feeling that its realisation is very far from 

 being within the sphere of practical politics. Our 

 other difficulty is that we cannot think of the concept 

 purpose except as related to personality, except as an 

 attribute or aspect of a larger reality still, which 

 thinkers of all ages have spoken of as " Spirit." 



J. A. T. 



TWO BOOKS ON THE SOIL. 



Bodenkunde. By E. Ramann. Second edition. 

 Pp. xii + 431. (Berlin: Springer, 1905.) 



Soils and Fertilisers. By Prof. H. Snyder. Second 

 edition. Pp. x + 294. (Easton, Pa. : The Chemical 

 Publishing Co., 1905.) Price 1.50 dollars. 



DR. RAMANN 'S treatise on soils, which has 

 grown out of an earlier book on forest soils 

 published in 1895, is of very different type and design 

 from such books on the same subject as have appeared 

 in English. In the first place, a considerable portion 

 of the book is occupied with a somewhat generalised 

 and academic consideration of the soil, its origin, its 

 relation to climate and vegetation, its types, &c, 

 in all of which the point of view of the geographer, 

 the geologist, or the botanist is more to the fore 

 than that of the farmer. Soils and their constituents 

 and properties are classified and described as though 

 they were a set of museum specimens, with little or 

 no reference to their behaviour in the field. Indeed, 

 the author has rather a passion for classification, and 

 the work contains too many generalisations and de- 

 finitions of the following kind, which are accorded 

 the dignity of large type. 



" Bodenkrajt i-. the sum of all the chemical and 

 physical properties of the soil. Fruchbarkeit is the 



NO. 1890, VOL 73] 



relation between Bodenkraft and the development of 

 plants. Ertragsvermogen is the relation between 

 Fruclibarkeit and climatic factors in their action upon 

 plant colonies or single kinds of plants." 



Such definitions sound well in lecture, and serve 

 to fill the industrious listener's notebook, but they 

 do not help him much in the study of the real thing. 



Similarly, in those sections of the book dealing with 

 the examination of soils, we get directions for the 

 carrying out of this or that determination — chemical 

 analysis, water capacity, specific heat, &c. — but of 

 the interpretation of the results we hear nothing at 

 all. We are not, in fact, instructed how to add up 

 that sum which is to indicate the fertility of the soil. 

 But in its own special line Dr. Ramann 's book cannot 

 fail to be useful to our workers at the scientific study 

 of soils. It is particularly good in dealing with the 

 part of the subject most neglected in Britain, the 

 physical properties of soils, and the portion in which 

 Dr. Ramann is perhaps specially interested — the study 

 of forest soils — contains an excellent summary of work 

 that is almost unknown here. Such matters as the 

 growth of forest soils, the effect of the leafy covering 

 on the chemical composition, the temperature and the 

 water content of soils, are dealt with at length ; as 

 again in later chapters are the questions of zones 

 and types of soil and their delimitation upon soil 

 maps. As a book of reference to modern German 

 research on the soil (French and English investigations 

 are practically ignored) Dr. Ramann 's treatise will 

 be of considerable service to the specialist ; for the 

 agricultural student or the farmer it will not serve. 



Prof. Snyder's little book has been constructed out 

 of a series of notes supplied to the students of his 

 classes at the University of Minnesota, expanded 

 somewhat and made more complete by the addition 

 of descriptions of laboratory experiments upon soils 

 and fertilisers. Essentially, however, the book still 

 consists of notes which will serve to remind the 

 student of the matter dealt with in the lectures ; they 

 lack both the filling in and the elucidation that comes 

 from the lecturer himself. Too many things are 

 mentioned and left without any adequate explanation, 

 as though the author were afraid to pass them by 

 wholly without notice, yet knew at once that he could 

 11. ii jllc.rd the time or space necessary to develop 

 them properly. The result is a book which fulfils its 

 original purpose of lecture notes, but when taken by 

 itself is dull and difficult to read, and, as we would 

 contend, a mistake educationally. A text-book should 

 not be a miniature encyclopaedia, and though the 

 teacher is well advised in making occasional ex- 

 cursions into higher work beyond the average reach 

 of his students, it should be done by working out 

 principles, and not by scrappy enumerations of more 

 advanced investigations. 



But instead of criticising a book for what it is 

 not, it is fairer to try and appreciate what it does 

 accomplish. Prof. Snyder is a well known member 

 of the band of American experiment station workers 

 who have done so much to advance the application 

 of science to the everyday practical side of farming, 

 and have succeeded in making the United States 



