96 



NATURE 



[November 26, 1908 



leaves the ground in May, . . . and the frost does 

 not appear in the fall until about September 20." 

 Mr. F. S. Lawrence's experiences with wheat in the 

 Peace River country (latitude 585° N.) provide valuable 

 information (pp. 101-105). Spring wheat has fully 

 matured here in eight)--six days. The word 

 " muskeg " is used freely by witnesses, and is not i 

 very lucidly explained on p. 12?; it appears to be 

 a poor wet kind of soil, which may be as much 

 as 6 feet in depth, and is generallv to be avoided. 



The simple and unvarnished statements of the 

 various witnesses furnish a manly contrast with the 

 prospectuses of company-promoters, and from them 

 we gather that timber and minerals will probably 

 form the main attraction for new settlers. The evi- 

 dence of Mr. A. von Hamerstein (pp. 36-4-i) is full 

 of delightful touches. Like Mr. Lawrence, he speaks 

 highly of the Peace River valley, but remarks sadly 

 of the climate of the Athabaska district : — " They 

 say it may change, but up to this time it has not 

 changed." He mentions places where small areas 

 of good soil occur, but says that at Fort Chipewyan 

 " a little garden stuff is raised, on soil brought there 

 liv the Sisters in pails." His account of the moral 

 defects of the wolverine, among which is an objec- 

 tion to taking poison, should delight the naturalist. 

 This animal has hung behind in the march of evolu- 

 tion, for " the horse and other animals have de- 

 veloped, but the wolverine has kept his original 

 shape." 



We close the book with renewed admiration for 

 those who are engaged in making Canada. There 

 is to be no "boom"; no hardships are to be con- 

 cealed; the settler is invited to follow the trapper 

 and the Indian, and to see if he can make more out 

 of this enormous tract than they have done. In lati- 

 tudes below those of Stockholm and the Orkneys, 

 or even as far south as Belfast or Newxastle-upon- 

 Tyne, he is called on to meet the rigours of a con- 

 tinental winter. But he is encouraged by diagrams 

 showing the length of summer days and the shortness 

 of summer nights, themselves as starless as the days; 

 and the cover that encloses so much plain speaking 

 is labelled " Canada's Fertile Northland." Success 

 should surely come to those who have this high faith, 

 ajid tell no untruths while spreading it. 



G. A. J. Cole. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 



The Functional Inertia of Living Matter. A Con- 

 tribution to the Physiological Theory of Life. By 

 Ur. D. F. Harris. Pp. xi+136. (London: J. and 

 A. Churchill, 1908.) Price 5^. net. 

 The book before us deals, mainly from the physiologico- 

 jjhilosophical standpoint, with a property of living 

 matter which has excited the interest of biologists, 

 and which, indeed, has been the field, not only of 

 much speculation, but also of much experiment. The 

 fact that certain forms of living matter, whether they 

 are_ integral parts of a highly-developed and differ- 

 entiated organism, or whether they consist of more or 

 less apparently undifferentiated protoplasm, either do 

 not respond at all or respond only after varying in- 

 tervals of time to certain stimuli has long "been 

 NO. 2039, VOL. 79] 



known, and the condition of the protoplasm in ques- 

 tion during this time has long been investigated by 

 biologists. VVe use the term apparently undifferentiated 

 advisedly, since, as has been often pointed out, it is 

 sometimes a matter of extreme difficulty to know 

 whether, when dealing with the infinitely simple, we 

 are not really dealing with the infinitely complex. 



Dr. Harris's brochure is an elaborate, for the most 

 part literary, examination of this subject, and quite 

 apart from the conclusions he draws from his investi- 

 gations is of considerable interest, and will well repay 

 the reading. In a short review of this nature it would 

 be quite impossible to consider in even approximate 

 detail the facts related in the book, the observations 

 upon which they rest, or the interpretations to which 

 they are open. The property of living matter upon 

 which the non-response to stimuli or the so-called 

 latent period preceding response depends is termed by 

 the author functional inertia. He at first introduces 

 this term, so well known and accurately applied bv 

 physicists, somewhat apologetically, as perhaps com- 

 plicating physiological nomenclature; in reviewing the 

 literature of the subject, however, he finds many pre- 

 cedents for the use of the term inertia as describing 

 the resistance offered by living matter to any change 

 in its condition. Perhaps to others, as was actuallv 

 the case to the reviewer, the first cause to occur to 

 one's mind, of failure on the part of living matter to 

 react to stimuli, is fatigue. Dr. Harris discusses 

 fatigue and its bearing upon functional inertia. 



In a short summary the author postulates that 

 functional inertia is as fundamental, primary, and 

 primitive a property of protoplasm as its opposite, 

 irritability, and that the phenomena of vitality cannot . 

 be adequately conceived in one of these properties 

 exclusively. 



We would conclude our remarks upon Dr. Harris's 

 work by simply saying that it is interesting and sug- 

 gestive, and well worthy of careful perusal, not only 

 by those interested in the many observations relating 

 to the phenomena of the latent period accompanying 

 the stimulation of living matter, but also by those 

 interested in the larger if less accurately conditioned 

 field of biophysical philosophy. F. W. T. 



The Elementary Tlieoty of the Symmetrical Optical 

 Instrument. By J. G. Leathern. Cambridge 

 Tracts in Mathematics and Mathematical Physics, 

 No. 8. Pp. vi + 74. (Cambridge : University Press, 

 1908.) Price 2S. 6d. net. 

 Making a Cambridge tract is a feat, performed in 

 this instance with a finish of which the writer 

 may well be immensely proud. The Gauss theory 

 of refraction through a series of media bounded by 

 spherical surfaces having the same optic axis admits 

 of being handled with that deftness which is the 

 most marked characteristic of the Cambridge mathe- 

 matician, and which is here admirably exemplified. 

 All the essentials of the Gauss theory are condensed 

 into some fifty octavo pages, and so clearly set out 

 that the average mathematical student should have 

 no difliculty in absorbing the whole in a few hours, 

 to forget it, not impossibly, with equal readiness. 



For, in spite of some reference to concrete instru 

 ments and some remarks on certain facts of ob- 

 servation not generally recognised, the book remains 

 — unavoidably, perhaps, in view of its aim and its 

 limited space — essentially academic. It will be grate- 

 ful to the student, and appreciated by the mathe- 

 matician already familiar with the matter it presents, 

 but we fear there are few designers of symmetrical 

 optical instruments, in this country at least, to whom 

 it will appear attractive — in spite of the avoidance 

 of the now familiar continued fraction. In its very 



