126 



NATURE 



[Dec. 17, 1874 



history ended, the turn of the evil tempter has arrived, 

 and the good angel has retired, veiling his face with his 

 wing, and dropping (if angels can weep) a tear over the 

 calamity which he had no longer power to avert. 



In plain language, Mr. Chappell has been minded, in an 

 evil hour, to wander away from his legitimate domain of 

 Ancient History, and to indite a long disquisition on the 

 by no means kindred subject of Modern Science, treating 

 especially on the laws and phenomena of acoustics, and 

 their bearing on the nature and relations of musical 

 sounds. In this his aggressive spirit is again manifested. 

 All scientific men interested in the theory of music 

 know that within the last few years Prof. Helmholtz, of 

 Heidelberg, one of the first physicists of Europe, has 

 brought out a work, " Die Lehre von den Tonempfin- 

 dungen, als Physiologische Grundlage fiir die Theorie der 

 Musik," which, for the profundity of its knowledge both 

 of the physical and musical elements of the question; 

 for the novelty and importance of its views ; for the 

 skill and conclusiveness of its experimental demon- 

 strations ; and for its general masterly style, has deser- 

 vedly excited the admiration of all Europe. It has gone 

 through three editions in Germany, has been also pub- 

 lished in French, is now being translated into English, 

 and has served as the basis already of several other 

 Enghsh works, the author of one of which describes it 

 as " a profound and exhaustive treatise, which docs for 

 acoustics what the Principia of Newton did for astro- 

 nomy." Now, Mr. Chappell presumes to criticise this 

 work in a tone which clearly shows not only that 

 he is unaware of the reputation of its author, but 

 that he is under some strange hallucination as to 

 his own qualifications for setting up as judge in 

 the matter. He attributes to Helmholtz both theo- 

 retical ignorance and experimental error ; puts for- 

 ward his own confused notions as " the true (in offensive 

 opposition to Helmholtz's false) physiological basis for 

 the science of music ; " and sums up with the following 

 paragraph, which, comparing the scientific position of the 

 two writers, may certainly be considered a curiosity of 

 criticism : — 



" I am persuaded that the Tonciiipjindtnigcn is a hasty 

 book .... the value of time was too largely considered 

 in its composition, and some very necessary experiments, 

 such as those upon liarmonics, were omitted. But since 

 success has been so widely attained, it maybe hoped that 

 the author will find time to revise the next edition, and, 

 in doing so, that he will bear in mind an admirable motto 

 for men of science, Chi va saiio, va piano." 



A HASTV BOOK !— why, its very first sentence states 

 that it is the result of eight years' labour .' Experiments 

 on harmonics omitted ! — why, they form the substance 

 of the entire book, from beginning to end ! From these, 

 and many other misapprehensions of Mr. Chappell's, we 

 are led to doubt whether he can even have read the great 

 work he ventures so freely to criticise. 



Prof. Helmholtz has always maintained cordial re- 

 lations with this country, and in the name of English 

 science we think we owe him an apology that anything 

 like this should have appeared in our language under a 

 quasi-scientific guise. He will, however, know that his- 

 torians may rush in where philosophers would fear to tread, 

 and we need hardly assure him that no English scientific 



man, competent to judge of his work, would be in the 

 least likely to endorse Mr. Chappell's criticisms. 



We lament Mr., Chappell's mistake on another ground. 

 Practical musicians have generally but little knowledge 

 of the scientific data on which their art depends ; such 

 information is never taught in England to professional 

 students as any part of their musical education ; it is 

 studied almost exclusively by men of science and 

 amateurs. All right-minded persons would gladly desire 

 to promote the wider spread of knowledge of this kind ; 

 but we cannot but feel that when a practical musician 

 takes it into his head to attack scientific authorities who 

 are universally respected, and scientific doctrines which 

 are universally established, a great obstacle is thrown in 

 the way of that cordial sympathy and co-operation which 

 ought to exist between the two classes. On the one hand, 

 the scientific man will be angry at the perverse unteach- 

 ableness of the musician ; while, on the other hand, the 

 musician, who may easily mistake error for truth, will be 

 set against the theorist and be more disinclined than ever 

 to receive information from him. 



It would be an ungracious task to point out in detail 

 Mr. Chappell's errors ; we would rather recommend him, 

 instead of waiting for Prof. Helmholtz to " revise his next 

 edition," to read the work as it is, more thoroughly and 

 carefully, and with more respect for the character of its 

 author. And in the meantime, out of sincere good will, 

 we earnestly advise him to expunge all this irrelevant 

 matter ; it not only damages his valuable book, but, what 

 is worse for him, it tends to engender in the minds of the 

 best class of readers a want of confidence in his judgment 

 and accuracy as regards other things. 



FOSTER Ai\D BALFOUR'S "EMBRYOLOGY" 

 The Elements of Embryology. By M. Foster, M.A., F.R.S. 



and Francis M. Balfour, B.A. Part I, (London: Mac- 



millan and Co., 1874.) 

 " OTEP by step the simple two-layered blastoderm [of 



vJ the hen's egg] is converted into the complicated 

 organism of the chick." The separate cells of which it is 

 originally composed have, to all appearances, the most 

 uncomplicated relations one to another ; nevertheless, in 

 accordance with laws of which we have not the least con- 

 ception, under the influence of slight external warmth, 

 by a series of fissures, inflections, and developments in 

 special directions, they convert the store of albuminous 

 matei'ial that, together with them, is included within the 

 egg-shell, into an organism so elaborate as a fully deve- 

 loped bird, which can run about and feed itself imme- 

 diately it makes its appearance in the theatre of active 

 Ufe. The physicist, thoroughly acquainted as he may be 

 with all the principles of statics, dynamics, heat, light, 

 and electricity, finds himself quite at a loss to e.xplain or 

 to predict any single one of the numerous changes which 

 have taken or will take place in this blastodermic mem- 

 brane during any period, however short, that it has been 

 the subject of observation. Neither the chemist nor the 

 physiologist will find himself in any more advantageous 

 position, except that the latter, from previous e.xperience, 

 will be able to state dogmatically the succession of the 

 steps of the developmental process. We group these 

 phenomena, apparently so extra-physical, under the term 



