124 
NATURE 
[June 8, 1899 
powers of the intellect. Faraday’s career was a truly re- 
markable one, judged from almost every point of view. 
Deprived of all the advantages of a careful training in 
early life, and commencing the study of science at an age 
when the deficiencies of early education are not easily 
remedied, he yet, by strenuous effort and single-minded 
devotion to a high ideal, succeeded in working his way to 
the very front rank of the scientific workers of his day. 
Again, although in his time electrical theory was being 
largely developed by the great French mathematicians, 
and mathematical analysis was regarded as an_in- 
dispensible instrument of research, Faraday, without 
the use of a single symbol, succeeded in discovering those 
great fundamental facts on which the whole structure of 
modern electrical engineering rests, and in determining 
their exact quantitative relations ; he further succeeded 
in explaining many obscure phenomena which had eluded 
the grasp of the great continental mathematicians. As 
Clerk Maxwell discovered, he was no mathematician, 
yet achieved results apparently only attainable by such 
methods. 
In the small volume before us the account of Faraday’s 
researches is admirably rendered, and is presented in a 
connected manner, which enables the reader to follow the 
trains of thought that suggested to Faraday many of his 
experiments. Of peculiar interest are those negative 
results which must now be regarded as dim foreshadow- 
ings of later discoveries—such as the attempt to discover 
whether a magnetic field had any effect on the refrang- 
ibility of light when applied to its source. 
But interesting as is the account of Faraday’s researches 
to those with a moderate knowledge of physics, the general 
reader will probably prefer to confine his attention to the 
earlier and later chapters in the book, in which Faraday 
is presented to us from the purely human standpoint. 
The extracts from his letters—some of which now appear 
for the first time—give us interesting glimpses of his 
inner life. His warm human sympathies, his delight in 
the beauties of nature, his deep and life-long attachment 
to his wife, his sturdy adhesion to the religious sect in 
which he had grown up, his relations to illustrious con- 
temporaries—are all topics full of interest to the general 
reader ; and they are handled in a manner well calculated 
to rivet his attention and enlist his sympathy. We con- 
gratulate Prof. S. P. Thompson on having successfully 
brought out and emphasised the quaker-like simplicity of 
Faraday’s character, and the remarkable freedom from 
complexity in which he kept his life, notwithstanding the 
height of his fame. 
Untersuchungen tiber Strukturen. By O. Biitschhi, 
Pp. viii + 411; Atlas to ditto; Plates 27. (Leipzig: 
W. Engelmann, 1898.) 
IN this work the author sets forth in great detail the 
results of investigations, extending over six years, upon 
the minute structure of various bodies, products, for the 
most part, of the activity of living organisms. The 
object of these researches was to extend, and to put to 
the test, certain conclusions reached by the author in 
1892, in his well-known work on the structure and 
physical constitution of protoplasm. In an appendix 
to the work in question he gave an account of some 
observations upon the minute structure of certain sub- 
stances, such as gelatine and egg albumen, which exhibit 
the phenomena of swelling or of coagulation, and came 
to the conclusion that these substances possessed a 
minute structure which was finely honeycombed or 
alveolar (“ Wabig”), In the present work these ob- 
servations are renewed and greatly extended, both as 
regards minuteness of detail and in the variety of 
material. Besides researches upon gelatinous and 
coagulable substances such as gelatine, celloidin, 
albumen, and so forth, the author has studied the minute 
structure of various spheerocrystals, of natural and 
NO. 1545, VOL. 60] 
artificial cellulose structures, of starch granules, and 
finally of a number of natural products of animal tissues, 
such as chitin envelopes, spongin fibres, matrix of hyaline 
cartilage, and other similar structures. 
To give an adequate account of these exhaustive re- 
searches, which cover more than 400 pages in the setting 
forth, is impossible in a short space ; and it is to be 
regretted that the author has not anywhere given for the 
benefit of his readers a general summary or review of the 
results obtained by him. The book is, in fact, a col- 
lection of separate investigations, of which preliminary 
accounts have already appeared during the past seven 
years, bound up with an introduction and two discussions. 
In the introduction, the author gives an account of the 
order and sequence of his researches, and describes his 
methods of investigation, especially with regard to the 
technique of micro-photography. The two discussions 
deal with the question of the reality of the structural 
images obtained with the highest magnifications, and 
with certain phenomena of polarisation. On the other 
hand, the many interesting and important results obtained 
by the author have to be sifted out by the reader from a 
great mass of facts and arguments, which is no easy 
matter for those not specially conversant with the sub- 
ject. It may be briefly stated, however, that in all the 
substances investigated Biitschli finds a distinct alveolar 
structure, which in the case of coagulable bodies is of the 
nature of a true foam (‘“Schaumig-wabig”), but which 
in crystallisable or sphzero-crystalline bodies is composed 
of an aggregation of minute globulites (“ Globulitisch- 
wabig”). Amongst the many interesting facts which the 
author brings forward, attention may be specially drawn 
to his observations upon colloids, which when fixed in a 
state of tension develop appearances very similar to those 
seen in karyokinetic figures, suggesting the conclusion 
that the nuclear spindle is an expression of the effects of 
tension, rather than of actual differences of material be- 
tween filar and interfilar substance. ‘The author’s results 
are supported by an atlas containing twenty-seven plates 
of beautifully executed micro-photographs, as well as by 
numerous figures in the text. All those who are interested 
in this very important field of investigation, to which 
Biitschli has devoted so many years of patient and 
laborious research, will welcome the appearance of this 
work, constituting as it does a solid contribution of facts 
which cannot lightly be brushed aside by those who may 
be opposed to his theories. E. As M. 
A Manual of Library Cataloguing. By J. Henry Quinn, 
Librarian Chelsea Public Libraries. Pp. 164. (London : 
Library Supply Company, 1899.) 
THIS book is in several respects favourably distinguished 
from others of its class that have recently seen the light. 
The animosities of the library world are not imported 
into its pages, and in several ways the writer deprecates 
the subordination of practical common sense to a display 
of learning. He does not, for instance, condemn the 
unfortunate reader in search of the works of George 
Sand to remember that her real name was Dudevant, 
and to look under that heading. The book is avowedly 
not designed for workers in a learned institution, but is 
most admirably adapted for those engaged in cataloguing 
the contents of an ordinary library. Mr. Quinn’s rules 
are set forth with singular clearness, and endowed with 
a wise elasticity. He is on the whole in favour of the 
“ dictionary ” system, wherein each book may be found, 
under a single alphabetical arrangement, under its title, 
the name of its author, and the particular portion of 
human knowledge with which it deals, but he also gives 
an adequate account of the system of “ classified cata- 
logues.” An appendix gives most valuable help to the 
librarian in his dealings with the printer of his cata- 
logue, and gives completeness to a most valuable little 
work. 
