460 



NATURE 



[March 19, 190S 



a calculation on p. 67, where the maximum current 

 obtainable between two electrodes of constant poten- 

 tial difference, but variable distance, is deduced from 

 the condition that the differential coefficient of the 

 current with respect to the iime should be zero. 



French books are apt to err in matters of 

 typography, but such an abundance of misprints and 

 misspellings cannot be left unnoticed ; Prof. Town- 

 send comes in for specially hard treatment. On the 

 other hand, we are accustomed to expect Frencll 

 authors to redeem these deficiencies by a gracefuV 

 literary style ; but M. Manville's aberrations would 

 be hardly tolerated in England. It is with great; 

 regret that we have to express our opinion that '1 

 design contemplated so wisely should remain still i.i 

 need of successful execution. N. R. C. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



The Oceanic Laiigiiages : iheir Grammatical Struc- 



titrc, Vocabulary, and Origin. By Dr. D. 



Macdonald. Pp. xv + 352. (London : Henry 



Frowde, 1907.) Price los. 6d. net. 

 In this volume. Dr. Macdonald sets forth the pro- 

 position that the Oceanic languages originated in 

 the Arabian peninsula, and are thus cognate with 

 the Semitic tongues. The primitive Oceanic he regards 

 as a sister language of Arabic, Himyaritic, Ethiopic, 

 Assyrian, Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic, and 

 Efate, Samoan, Malagasy, Malay, &c., as cousins of 

 the modern Semitic dialects. He regards the people 

 speaking the Oceanic languages in Madagascar, the 

 Malay Archipelago, Melanesia, and Polynesia as one 

 great, though diversified, race or people, and the 

 languages themselves as constituting one great fainily. 

 This unity of race is, however, negatived by the 

 known ethnological data. 



Although entitled "The Oceanic Languages," the 

 work is mainly a dictionary of the Efate language 

 of the New Hebrides, preceded by a discussion on 

 the phonology, triliteralism, word-building, pronouns, 

 and particles of the same language. These gram- 

 matical elements are compared with those of the 

 Semitic languages taken collectively, so as to show 

 a correspondence of forms. There is no attempt to 

 give a comparative grammar of the Oceanic 

 languages, though some few languages of the region, 

 mainly Malagasy, Malay, other New Hebrides 

 dialects, and Polynesian, are dealt with partially. In 

 the absence of a comparative treatment of the Oceanic 

 languages, some statements, such as those relating 

 to the loss of gender in Oceanic pronouns (p. 75), 

 the modern use of plural pronouns for singular, the 

 representation of the Semitic nunation by final «a 

 or n in Malagasy and Malay (p. 92), are open to 

 doubt, and cannot be accepted without some adequate 

 proof being given. 



The work is well printed, but it would have been 

 better to print all the Semitic words in Roman character 

 instead of occasionally using the Ethiopic, Syriac, 

 Arabic, or Hebrew characters without transcription. 

 In the preliminary (grammatical) part of the book 

 there is a large amount of cross-reference, by which 

 the illustration of some statement has to be sought 

 in hundreds of places in the body of the book. In the 

 dictionary, comparison of the Efate words is more 

 fully made with the Semitic than with the Oceanic 

 tongues, and here there are also numerous cross- 

 references. 



In conclusion, it may be said that the similarity 

 of form in words and particles which Dr. Macdonald 



NO. 2003 ■^"OL. yj] 



has shown in Efate and Semitic is no proof that 

 they were originally the same, and exactly the same 

 method has been employed to affirm the relationship 

 of the Oceanic languages to Aryan, Australian, and 

 .•\merican. The history of the Oceanic languages, as 

 a whole, must be traced out before the apparent 

 affinities of one of them can be held to establish 

 a relationship of the whole group to some other 

 linguistic group. S. H. R. 



Searchligh'ts : their Theory, Construction, and Ap- 

 plication. By F. Nerz. Translated by Charles 

 Rogers. Pp. vii + 137. (London : Archibald Con- 

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

 The use of searchlights has rapidly extended during 

 recent years, with the result that the want of a good 

 treatise, dealing with their principles of construc- 

 tion and the methods of using them, has made itself 

 acutely felt. The volume at present under review 

 is a translation of the treatise on searchlights in 

 Prof. Voit's " Sammlung elektrotechnische Vor- 

 trage," but much new matter has been added, so that 

 it now forms an epitome of the latest practice. After 

 dealing with the optical principles utilised in the con- 

 struction of searchlights, special attention being paid 

 to parabolic mirrors, the performance of searchlights 

 and the methods of testing their mirrors are dis- 

 cussed. The applications of searchlights in the field, 

 in land fortresses, for coast defence, and on battle- 

 ships then receive attention. For field purposes a 

 light equipment is now obtainable, consisting of a 

 waggon carrying a petrol motor and a dynamo, 

 coupled to another waggon which carries the search- 

 light and a transportable tower for elevating it. 

 Searchlight equipments for fortresses may be either 

 fixed, partially movable, or wholly movable; each 

 type receives adequate consideration. 



For coast defence, special arrangements, such as 

 dispersers, are sometimes required, and these, in their 

 turn, necessitate special protecting devices. Search- 

 lights are indispensable to a battleship ; without their 

 aid a night attack of torpedo boats could not be re- 

 pelled, hence the application of searchlights to naval 

 purposes receives very careful consideration. The 

 details of construction are then described and illus- 

 trated, attention being paid to the different forms of 

 arc lamp, their method of control, and the various 

 optical accessories which form part of a complete 

 equipment. The scientific principles utilised are so 

 carefully and lucidly explained that they will be 

 readily understood by one who has previously had 

 little acquaintance with them. Various forms of 

 transportable power supply are described and illus- 

 trated in the last chapter, and the book ends with an 

 appendix which briefly describes the physical units 

 used in photometry. No book could meet the want 

 which led to its compilation better than this one does. 



E. E. 



Beyond Good and Evil. Prelude to a Philosophy of 



tlie Future. By Friedrich Nietzsche. Authorised 



translation by Helen Zimmern. Pp. XV + 26S. 



(Edinburgh and London : T. N. Foulis, 1907.) 



Price 55. net. 



" All prudent, worldly wise men follow more or 



less approximately the practice which Nietzsche 



teaches, notwithstanding the opposite principles which 



they perhaps profess to hold," says Mr. Thomas 



Common in an introduction to this translation, and it 



will interest and instruct those who are unfamiliar 



with Nietzsche's philosophy to read what the 



philosopher has to say here on the natural history- of 



morals and other subjects. No reader will complain 



that there are not questions enough for thought 



raised. 



