s8o 



y.-4 TURE 



[April 



190 5 



luwed b\- cliMpters on iron ores and fuels, primitive 

 method-.' of iron and steel production, pig iron and 

 il^ manufacture, the refining of pig iron m small 

 char"es, crucible and weld steel, the Bessemer pro- 

 cess,"- the open-hearth process, mechanical treatment 

 of'iVon and steel, physical properties of iron and steel, 

 iron and steel under the microscope, heat treatment of 

 iron and steel, electric smelting, and special steels. 

 The information given has been brought up to date 

 by reference to the latest books and to papers read 

 before the Iron and Steel Institute. The book is com- 

 mendablv free from misprints. The names of Brinell 

 and Legenisel are, however, wrongly spelt; and there 

 appears to be some inaccuracy in the statement that 

 .in American blast furnace producing Soo tons_ of 

 Bessemer pig iron in twenty-four hours would yield 

 ijoo tons of slag during that period. The author 

 probably intended to have said that the furnace would 

 yield 1200 lb. of slag per ton of pig iron made. 



l-'Energetiqiie et le Mechanisme au Point de Vue dcs 



Conditions dc la Connaissance. By Abel Rey. Pp. 



1X7. (P.-iris: Felix .Mean, 1908.) Price 2.50 



francs. 

 I\ a former work, recently noticed in these columns, 

 M. Rey analysed contemporary physical theories with 

 the object of showing that, in spite of profound differ- 

 ences of procedure, they all bear witness to a common 

 basis of assured e.xperiential fact. In the present book 

 lir considers the two rival points of view under which 

 modern theories are ranged — those of the Newtonian 

 mechanics and of the newer energetics — with the more 

 jjractical purpose of determining w'hether either of 

 them possesses intrinsic superiority over the other. 



There are two fundamental laws of progress in 

 l-ciiowledge — it advances by repeated assimilation of the 

 unknown to the known, and with constantly rhythmic 

 .illernation of generalisation and deduction. The pro- 

 gressive interpretation of the physical aspect of nature 

 bv the concepts of the traditional mechanics complies 

 with each of these laws, while energetics, which seeks 

 merely a single formula from which the established 

 particulars of experience may be formally deduced, 

 runs counter to both. Thus the former alone can be 

 permanently an efficient instrument of investigation. 



This, in brief, is M. Rey's thesis. It need be added 

 onlv that it is woi'ked out in a very interesting 

 manner, and with a competence that should render his 

 studv of equal value to the man of science and the 

 epistemologist. T. P. N. 



Abel's Laboratory Handhool; of Bacteriology. Trans- 

 lated from the tenth German edition by Dr. M. H. 

 Gordon; with additions by Dr. A. C. Houston, Dr. 

 T. G. Horder, and the Translator. (Oxford 

 Medical Publications.) Pp. xi + 224. (London: 

 Henrv Frowde, and Hodder and Stoughton, 1907.) 

 Price 5i'. net, 

 'J'hf. fact that Abel's handbook of bacteriology has 

 reached its tenth German edition is sufficient proof 

 that it fulfils a useful purpose, and the appearance 

 of this translation will render it available for British 

 .ind American laboratories. It is just the book for the 

 l.iboratorv table, giving the practical details which 

 .'ire so often required immediately to hand, and the 

 binding in glazed covers will render it less liable to 

 b" soiled. The work of British investigators is ade- 

 qii.'itely noticed, and the section on the examination 

 ol water, milk, shell-fish, &c., is contributed by Dr. 

 Houston, a sure guarantee of its trustworthiness. The 

 translation is sometimes a little clumsy, e.g. " salad " 

 potatoes (p. 26). The culture of the glanders bacillus 

 on potato is inadequately and incorrectly described, 

 and the proof reading has evidently been carelessly 

 done. 7hus NaCI, for NaCI, and HCL for HCl 



KC. 2008. VOL. 77} 



occur several times, and the iodine solution u-.ed \n 

 Nicolle's modification of Gram's method is stated ti» 

 have the following composition: — iK + 2Ki-r2oo .'Vq. 

 (for 1I+2KI + 200 Aq.). Apart from such smalb 

 blemishes, the book can be recommended as a most 

 useful laboratory guide. R. T. Hewlett. 



Die Bestimmung ti)id Vererhung des Geschlcchtes. 

 By Dr. C. Correns. Pp. v + 8i. (Berlin : Gebriider 

 Borntraeger, 1907.) Price 1.50 marks. 

 In this volume. Dr. Correns makes another contri- 

 bution to the subject that he has studied for main- 

 years, of hybrids and their hereditary characters. Ait 

 attnmpt is made to throw some light on sex tendency 

 in germ cells, to discover the stage at which the sex- 

 ;liaractcr is determined, and to find out whether >ex 

 'endency appears to conform to Mendelian laws, or, in 

 Mendelian phraseology, whether sex may not be a 

 consequence of gametic segregation. The method has 

 been to raise hybrids, using for one or both parents- 

 monoecious or dioecious plants. The earlier experi- 

 ments were made with the monoecious Bryonia alba 

 and the dioecious Bryonia dioica. When pollen of the 

 former was applied to stigmas of the latter, the result- 

 ing plants were female, some few showing traces u\ 

 moncecism. The converse produced half male- 

 hybrids, half female, but most of the latter showed a 

 tendency to monoecism. Sterility of this first gener- 

 ation put a stop to further experiments. A result was 

 also obtained by pollinating the flowers of Melandriiim 

 alburn with pollen from Silene viscosa. From his 

 interpretation of the results, Dr. Correns concludes 

 that sex determination is a simple inheritance pheno- 

 menon conforming to Mendelian law-s of segregation ; 

 that the females are homozygotes, the males are 

 heterozygotes. This last supposition is, however, 

 opposed to the idea postulated by Castle that no 

 se.x characters are homozygous. .Apart from the Men- 

 delian argument, the reader -v^'ill find some suggestive- 

 remarks with regard to the inheritance of sexual 

 characters. 



Lehrbuch der Physik. By Prof. H. A. I.orentz. 

 Translation from the Dutch by G. Slebert. Seci>nd 

 volume. Pp. iv + 621. (Leipzig: J. .\. Banh. iiio7-> 

 Price 10 marks. 

 This is a translation from the fourth Dutcli edition 

 Ol Prof. Lorentz's text-book. The mastery of the 

 author over the facts of physics is, of course. .-1 

 guarantee of the excellence of the exposition. Th( ■ 

 contents of this volume are connected with sound, 

 light, electricity, and magnetism. The treatment i^ 

 exceedingly simple; if we have any criticism to makt- 

 it is that most students, even though not taking up 

 physics as one of the principal subjects of their study, 

 would like to learn more than the book offers. In 

 other words, we think that in many places the treat- 

 ment is unnecessarily meagre. We are sure that the 

 chen-iist would like to be told more about theories cf 

 the voltaic cell. The large amount of work that has. 

 been done by physical chemists under the leadership 

 of Ostwald and Nernst is left absolutely unnoticed. 



We turn naturally to the chapter at the end on the 

 electron theory. Here, as elsewhere, what there is is. 

 excellent ; but we feel that we expected more on this 

 subject from Prof. Lorentz. There are so many 

 phenomena known now which are capable of being 

 simply described and used in illustration and support 

 of the modern fluid theory of electricity. This scantf- 

 ness will probably tell against the book competing- 

 with others of a similar grade, in England at any 

 rate. 



.\ collection of 72 examples appears at the end ; solu- 

 tions are not given to these. There are also fifteen 

 useful tables of data. 



