NATURE 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1902. 
TRIANGULATION OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
Geodetic Survey of South Africa. Vol. it. Report on 
a Rediscussion of Bailey's and Fourcade’s Surveys 
and their Reduction to the System of the Geodetic 
Survey. By Sir David Gill, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., 
&c., H.M. Astronomer at the Cape. Pp. xx + 257. 
(Cape Town, 1901.) 
HE Geodetic Survey of Cape Colony and Natal was 
carried out in the years 1883-92 by Colonel Morris, 
C.B., C.M.G., R.E., under the direction of Sir David Gill, 
and the results were published in the report issued 
in 1896. 
The present volume is entitled vol. ii. of the Geodetic | 
Survey, although, as Sir David Gill points out, its con- 
tents are not strictly of a geodetic character. As, how- 
ever, many of the points are connected with stations of | 
the Geodetic Survey, “with all the accuracy required 
for astronomical geodetic stations, it has been considered 
convenient to preserve the results in the same series of 
publications.” 
- This vol. ii., then, is a discussion of the secondary 
triangulation carried out by Captain Bailey, R.E., in the 
years 1859-62, and of that executed by Mr. Fourcade, 
of the Forestry Department (in 1893 ?). 
lations extend along the southern coast of South Africa 
from Cape Town to East London, a distance of about 
550 miles, and have an average width of about 75 miles, 
covering an area of some 40,000 square miles. The 
probable error of an observed angle of Bailey’s triangu- 
lation is about + 20; of Fourcade’s, +085. The 
number of points fixed is 133. 
The history of the computation of Bailey’s work is | 
somewhat curious. In 1862 the Survey party embarked 
at Algoa Bay for England in a coasting steamer. The 
vessel struck upon the rocks off Struy’s Point and became 
457 
Survey (the report of which is now out of print) have 
been reprinted in the present report, which contains the 
whole of the accurate trigonometrical data in the Cape 
Colony and Natal which had been completed up to the 
year 1901. It may be hoped that the day is not far 
distant when this work will be used as the basis of the 
much-needed, long-delayed topographical survey. 
Sir David Gill ends his preface with a remark which 
several national surveys might take to heart with 
advantage :— ; 
“Tt is also of supreme importance that regular 
inspection of the Survey beacons should be instituted, 
and steps taken to provide for their repair and 
maintenance... it is most necessary in the public 
| interest that these invaluable land-marks, which have 
a total wreck. The original observation books were all | 
lost. Fortunately, copies of abstracts of angles had 
been supplied to the Admiralty Surveyor, then at work 
on the Coast Survey, and other abstracts with a diagram 
had been sent to the Surveyor-General, to the Govern- 
ment of British Kaffraria, and to private individuals and 
surveyors, and from these a report was compiled by 
Captain Bailey and presented to the Cape Parliament in 
1863. On the completion of the Geodetic Survey, how- 
ever, it became obviously necessary to harmonise Bailey’s 
work with the geodetic triangulation. 
Throughout the length of the secondary work there 
are many sides which are common to it and the geodetic | 
triangulation. Thesecondary triangulation has therefore 
been broken up into a number of small manageable 
figures. In these figures the number of equations of 
condition averages about ten, and in the reduction the 
geodetic triangulation is considered errorless, and its 
sides and angles enter as fixed quantities. 
The net result is an important addition to the triangu- 
lation of South Africa. The volume is all the more 
valuable for the fact that the results of the Geodetic 
NO. 1715, VOL. 66] 
cost so much in labour, skill and care to establish, should 
| in future be more carefully preserved.” 
It may be noted that this is a duty which in India has 
long been recognised and carried out by the Govern- 
ment. ¢. F. CLoss. 
VITALITY. 
keligio Medici, &c. By a Student of Science and Medi- 
cine. Pp. viii+216. (London: Good and Co., 1902.) 
HE reader of this book is at first sight beset by two 
prejudices ; the title, as printed on the back of it, 
| “ Religio Medici,” is one which a great writer has made 
These triangu- | 
his own, a writer whose weight and intensity stand in 
contrast with the diffuseness and repetition of the present 
author ; and secondly, the type is so small and defective 
that the labour of perusal is out of all proportion, so the 
reviewer is apt to think, to the value of the contents. A 
distant imitation of Sir Thomas Browne’s conciseness 
would have halved these contents, at least ; and thus re- 
duced the cost of production by means better than inferior 
print. At the hundredth page our eyes gave out ; but, 
after a glance at the remainder, we think in the first 
moiety one may read the whole. 
The main purpose of the author is, by an argument 
which is similar to that of Dr. Lionel Beale, if not 
identical with it, to assert that “vitality” or “life 
power” belongs to the spiritual as opposed to the physical 
or material category, the realm of life being separate 
from the realm of matter. The end or purpose of this 
argument is not, of course, to be flouted because it cuts 
at the root of modern conceptions from which such 
entities have been dismissed; nay, even if the author 
regards force as something acting upon matter, as a 
bellows upon sand, it does not become us to throw his 
book aside because we have outgrown or parted company 
with such opinions. Evidently the author is not only an 
earnest and high-minded thinker, but also an accomplished 
scientific observer. His skill in the use of the microscope 
and its methods is probably considerable. But, while 
our minds are open and our respect for the writer is 
great, before we occupy our space with so vast a discus- 
sion we must have reasonable expectation of getting close 
to the points of issue. Of this approximation we see 
little hope. In the first place, it is inconceivable that 
modern conceptions will ever be put on the shelf that 
older opinions may be taken up again in their former 
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