January 23, 1908J 



NA TURE 



!67 



racy a high one. Mr. Kermode may fairly claim to 

 have bestowed on the student a lasting possession, and 

 to have done for the Isle of Man what Dr. Anderson 

 and the late Mr. Romilly Allen did for Scotland. 



A word mast be said in conclusion as to the plates, 

 which greatly enhance the value of the work. They are 

 taken, not from photographs, but from reduced copies, 

 made with the greatest care, of full-sized drawings, 

 founded on rubbings of the stones. 



CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL TABLES. 

 Va)i Nostraiid's CJicmical Annual, 1907. Edited by 

 Dr. J. C. Olsen. Pp. x + 496. (London : A. Con- 

 stable and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 

 CHEMIC.\L and physical tables required by 

 various kinds of chemists have been collected 

 in this annual. Among the ninety-three tables it 

 contains are five-figure logarithms, constants of the 

 elements, some very complete tables of factors and 

 their logarithms for the calculation of gas, volumetric 

 and gravimetric analyses, constants of fats, oils and 

 waxes, the more important constants (molecular 

 weight, specific gravity, melting point, boiling 

 point, solubility, crystalline form and colour) of some 

 4000 inorganic and 5000 organic compounds, specific 

 gravities of solutions, vapour pressure, conversion, and 

 heat of combustion tables. The remainder of the book 

 is taken up with classified lists of the chemical papers 

 and books published since the beginning of 1905, and 

 an index. 



This matter forms a volume which has been much 

 needed, and will be most useful to all chemists. No 

 pains have been spared to make many of the tables 

 accurate and comprehensive, as, for example, 

 the abov-e-mentioned data for some 9000 com- 

 pounds. The classified list of chemical papers, on 

 account of its conciseness, should, if kept com- 

 plete, be quite useful even to those who have the 

 fuller abstracts of the Chemical and American Chem- 

 ical .Societies ; the list of books will be even more 

 valuable. 



L'n fortunately, references have been given only in 

 a few cases to the original observers of the data used 

 in the annual. In future editions such references 

 should be made more complete. The following quan- 

 tities are not defined : — electrical conductivities, specific 

 heat of gases (whether C,, or C„), and the various 

 " constants " and " values " for oils, fats and waxes. 

 To give Reichert-Meissl values without definition 

 when two sets of values are current is confusing. 

 The table of gas densities is quoted, unfortunately, 

 from Landolt-Bornstein-Meyerhoffer Tabellen, where 

 the densities are calculated on certain assumptions 

 (clearly wrong in the light of the work of D. Berthe- 

 lot, P. Guye, Lord Rayleigh and others) instead of 

 being the observed densities; further, the values found 

 by E. Morley for hydrogen and oxygen in his classic 

 work are not given. 



While laborious determinations are being made to 



improve the second decimal place of atomic weights, 



there are scarcely any other physico-chemical constants 



known to anything like the accuracy which atomic 



NO. 1995. VOL. 77] 



weights now have. The energies of many of the 

 workers on atomic weights might now with great 

 advantage be turned to improving the accuracy of 

 many other constants. Boiling points are an example 

 of this; scarcely any are known to o°'i, and many 

 current values for the same substance differ by whole 

 degrees. The boiling points of organic substances in 

 this book are from Beilstein, yet for five out of the 

 six esters we have tried, the very careful determin- 

 ations of Young and Thomas are not given. 



We have detected few misprints ; the logarithm of 

 201 1 is incorrect. The value of the inch in milli- 

 metres is given to eight places, or to 10-' cm. ; this 

 is less than the accepted value for the diameter of an 

 atom, and the minimum length visible. The boiling 

 point of helium is given as —267°; we were not 

 aware that it had been liquefied ; Olszewski failed to 

 do so bv cooling it to a calculated temperature of 



-270°. ' 



\\'e know of no other tables of this knid in English 

 which are so complete and so up to date as this 

 annual. It is convenient in size, and clearly printed 

 on good paper. The five-figure logaritlims are the 

 best arranged we have seen. T. H. L. 



.4 NEW TEXT-BOOK OF PSYCHOLOGY. 

 Elements of Psychology. By Dr. S. H. Mellone 

 and Margaret Drummond. Pp. xvi + 483. (Edin- 

 burgh and London : W. Blackwood and Sons, 1907.) 

 Price 5s. net. 



THIS book is the joint work of two authors who are 

 evidently well acquainted with the needs of the 

 examinee, as well as those of the more genuine 

 student of the science of psychology. It is therefore 

 not surprising to find in the preface the statement that 

 the book is intended as " a contribution to the teach- 

 ing of psychology." Every stone of offence is care- 

 fully removed from the learner's path. Even the 

 usual order of treatment is altered for his benefit. 

 After a few introductory chapters on the method and 

 subject-matter of the science, the student is brought 

 face to face with the most essential characteristic 

 of consciousness, viz, mental activity, and in its 

 most pronounced form — volition. Not until the 

 emotions and pleasure-pain have been treated with 

 like fulness and concreteness do the authors descend 

 to the conventional sequence of sensation, percep- 

 tion, &c. This order is determined by relative diffi- 

 culty of introspection, the prominent complexes of 

 mental life being taken before their more abstract 

 elements. 



It will thus be seen that the introspection standpoint 

 is avowedly adopted as the fundamental one. Al- 

 though the objective conditions of consciousness are 

 by no means neglected, no attempt is made to develop 

 that objective and functional view of mental life 

 which is so popular in certain quarters at the present 

 day, and, to the present writer's mind at least, seems 

 so full of promise. The standard authorities — Ward, 

 James, Stout, &c. — are closely followed, and to such 

 good purpose that the book forms an excellent 

 introduction to the study of these authorities them- 



