January 14, 1909] 



NATURE 



307 



"The Economic Open-air Chalet for the Hygienic 

 Treatment of Consumption and other Diseases. By 

 R. Foster Owen. Pp. i6. (London : Bailliere, 

 Tindall and Cox, igo8.) Price is. net. 

 Much attention lias of late been bestowed on the 

 open-air treatment of consumption and other tuber- 

 culous diseases, but residence in sanatoriums is expen- 

 sive and only possible for the well-to-do, and the 

 provision of shelters and homes suitable for the poor 

 is deserving of much consideration. The booklet 

 under review describes the construction of a cheap 

 shelter, and the author claims that by the enlarg-e- 

 ment and multiplication of such shelters, colonies for 

 the tuberculous poor could be founded at comparatively 

 small cost. 



The chalet described is constructed wholly of wood, 

 is elevated 3 feet above the ground, and built upon 

 piles of wood. If considered desirable the supports 

 may be of brick with a foundation of old pitch 

 and tar. The superstructure is surrounded by 

 a veranda and approached by a flight of steps of 

 wood. The veranda is of sufficient width to admit 

 of a chair or lounge for the patients to sit or lie 

 out in any weather, and is protected by a sloping, 

 overhanging roof, w-hich covers the whole veranda. 

 The walls are permanently open in panels, chin 

 height (as a rough measure), and fitted with a simple 

 mechanism allowing of the erection of panel shutters 

 should it at any time be found necessary. In case of 

 severe wind, rain, snow, or of intense cold, this pro- 

 vision may be of service. It will, of course, only be 

 used as the doctor-in-charge shall direct, for it must be 

 remembered that the poor have to be taught to over- 

 come their innate dislike to fresh air, which is only 

 too frequently misnamed draught. 



The interior of the economic chalet is divided into 

 cubicles, with an ante-room for lavatory purposes. 

 For patients of the working class an open ward is 

 best, with separate washing-room and lavatory. The 

 corners of the chalet are rounded off, and the walls 

 perfcctlv smooth and washable. The roof is provided 

 with two large dormer windows for the admission 

 of light, at each side of chalet. The author will be 

 pleased to supplv particulars as to cost, &c. 



R. T. H. 



WcU-I^ebcn-Seele. Kin System der Naiiirphilosophie 

 in gemeinfasslicher Darstellung. By Max Kasso- 

 witz. Pp. iv-l-364. (Vienna : Verlag -von Moritz 

 Perles, 1908.) Price 5 Kr. 

 The author tells us in the preface that he has de- 

 voted his intervals of rest during a ten months' tour 

 through the most beautiful countries of Europe to the 

 production of a popular exposition of the three 

 tremendous subjects the names of which form the 

 title of his book. This information puts the critic at 

 ■■m obvious disadvantage, for he is tempted to view 

 indulgently, and as merely the natural efflorescence 

 of holiday spirits, the reckless demolition of respect- 

 able opinions and the amazing logical feats that 

 characterise Dr. Kassowitz's progress through his 

 theme. But the reader (like Quintilian) can only stare 

 and gasp when he finds, on the seventh page from the 

 end, that the author regards his work as an attempt 

 to purge the scientific interpretation of nature from 

 th'_- " metaphysical " elements that at present clog it. 

 It is true that by the a\-oidance of metaphysics he 

 means something quite different from a restriction to 

 positive statements about the actually observed 

 course of phenomena, for he does not feel himself 

 debarred from deciding on a priori grounds such ques- 

 tions as the infinite divisibility of matter and the in- 

 heritance of acquired characters. 



His cardinal maxim is that an assumption or hypo- 



NO. 2046, VOL. 79] 



thesis is not to be entertained if it is not " ana- 

 logous to experience," and it leads him to such 

 arguments as the following. We never find motion 

 apart from matter; consequently, if motion has 

 passed over from one thing to another it must have 

 been carried by moving matter. Again, since we 

 know no homogeneous continuous substance, there 

 can be none; therefore the transference of motion, 

 even through the asther, must (from the foregoing 

 proposition) involve the agency of an infinite series of 

 atoms of increasingly higher order. Once more, there 

 can be no natural selection, for this would imply some- 

 where a supernatural knowledge of the future useful- 

 ness of the selected variation. One would have 

 thought that the glare of the fallacies involved in these 

 arguments would have shone even through the 

 delicious obfuscation of a walking tour. 

 Abhandtungen iiber theoretische Pliysik. By Prof. 



H. A. Lorentz. Vol. i., part i., pp. 298. Price 10 



marks. Part ii., pp. 299-490. Price 6 marks. 



(Leipzig : B. G. Teubner, 1906-7.) 

 On December 11, 1900, Prof. Lorentz celebrated the 

 twenty-fifth anniversary of his doctorate. His physical 

 researches thus e.xtend over rather more than a quarter 

 of a century. In editing them for publication, Prof. 

 Lorentz has aimed at bringing them into the form of 

 a connected series, and a great many modifications and 

 alterations have been made with the view of rendering 

 the collection more useful in the light of recent develop- 

 ments. A number of papers of minor importance have 

 been omitted and changes of notation have been freely 

 made; instead of adopting a chronological order, the 

 author has classified his papers according to subject- 

 matter, and several new and hitherto unpublished 

 results now find their way into print for the first 

 time. 



Vol. i. is divided into two parts, the first dealing 

 with dynamics, hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, and 

 kinetic theory — in short, molecular physics ; the second 

 with crystallography and physical optics. The follow- 

 ing papers are now published for the first time : — 

 Regions in n dimensional space (1905) (p. 151); the 

 second law and its relation to molecular theory; sym- 

 metry of cr^'stals ; boundaries of crystals (all three 

 based on Prof. Lorentz's lectures) ; propagation of light 

 in an arbitrarily moving medium (not previously pub- 

 lished) ; propagation of waves as rays in a non-absorb- 

 ing medium (1906). The papers are now printed in 

 the language in which they were originally published. 

 As Prof. Lorentz points out, Dutch physicists find it 

 necessary to publish their papers in one of the three 

 principal international languages, and Prof. Lorentz 

 did not consider it necessary to translate all the papers 

 into one common language. G. H. B. 



The Wonderful House that Jack Has. A Reader 

 in Practical Physiology and Hygiene. For use in 

 School and Hojne. Bj^ Columbus N. Millard. Pp. 

 xiii + 359. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; 

 London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1908.) Price 3^?. 

 This well-printed, well-bound, and well-arranged book 

 adds yet another to the long list of popular physi- 

 ologies. The author endeavours to convey, without 

 difficult technicalities, all the main points of the 

 physiology of the body — the building of it up from 

 food materials, digestion, the stomach, milk, animal 

 foods, food habits, breathing habits, stimulus, cloth- 

 ing, e^'esight, hearing, rest and sleep, infectious 

 diseases, &c. The expositions are very simple and 

 attractive. There are many illustrations. Each 

 chapter has a set of questions appended, and there is 

 a glossarv of terms, obviously meant for the most 

 elementary pupils. The book may be thoroughly re- 

 commended as a good class book. 



