444 
of Abiogenesis has recently been discussed, the reticence 
shown in avoiding allusion to the subject is perhaps the 
most remarkable among the many remarkable characters 
of this great work. P. H. PYE-SMITH 


OUR BOOK SHELF 
Elementary Natural Philosophy. Being a course of nine 
lectures by J. Clifton Ward, F.G.S., Associate of the 
School of Mines. (London: Triibner and Co.) 
Tue attempt to crowd the Elements of Natural Philosophy 
into nine lectures cannot be otherwise than a failure. 
This is signally the case with the little book before us. 
We need hardly go farther than the table of contents to 
justify the statement. A single lecture is devoted re- 
spectively to Magnetism, Voltaic Electricity, Light, and 
Heat ; Pneumatics and Hydrostatics together occupy one 
lecture, whereas to Frictional Electricity and Sound are 
given two lectures apiece. Nor does the author confine 
himself to a simple summary of the leading facts in each 
of these subjects, he tries to rush over all the field occu- 
pied by larger text-books. Hence, important facts are 
often lightly passed over and comparatively trivial matters 
made unduly prominent. In Voltaic Electricity, for ex- 
ample, two pages are occupied with a description of the 
effects of electro-chemical decomposition, when seen on 
the screen by the aid of the solar microscope. We re- 
cognise here, and indeed on every page of the book, 
those lecture-experiments with w: ich Dr. Tyndall has 
made the students of the School of Mines so familiar. 
Mr. Ward has not only drawn largely upon his notes of 
those lectures, but he imitates Dr. Tyndall's language and 
style. 
Notwithstanding this, we are quite sure Mr. Ward has 
only himself to blame for the errors which even a cursory 
glance has revealed to us. On p. 85 we read “ Magnetism 
may be produced by /riction (of soft zron with loadstone 
or other magnet) by magnetic induction and electricity.” 
Magnetism is of produced by friction of soft iron. On 
pp. 36 and 37 Mr. Ward has fallen into a vulgar and 
serious error in explaining the electric wind. Speaking 
of the so-called electric fish, here is what he says :—“ If 
the interior of the Leyden jar be charged positively, 
negative electricity will be attracted to the head of the 
fish, from the somewhat blunt point of which it will 
stream and cause a movement from the knob ; while the 
gliding off of the repelled positive from the finer pointed 
tail, will counterbalance this movement, and keep the 
body in equilibrium.” The author also speaks of a lighted 
candle extinguished by the draft of electricity streaming 
froma point. This, of course, is grossly incorrect ; it is 
the movement of contiguous air particles charged simi- 
larly by contact and then repelled, that extinguishes the 
candle, or supports the gold leaf fish. 
Though there are some good points in this little book, 
we regret our inability to recommend it either to schools 
or students. We venture to think the author betrays his 
want of experience in teaching science by the over-crowd- 
ing of his facts; the first lecture, for instance, is accom- 
panied by thirty-three distinct experiments. Teaching— 
especially science teaching—requires “precept upon pre- 
cept, line upon line, here a little and there a little :’ other- 
wise there is an almost certain danger of the learner 
obtaining loose and superficial knowledge, the end of 
which is not sound instruction, but disastrous conceit. 
W. F. B. 
Essays on Darwinism. By J. R.R. Stebbing. (Longmans 
and Co., 1871.) 
Mr. Darwin, in his recent work, very truly observes that 
“ false facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, 
for they often long endure; but that false theories are 
comparatively innocuous.” Mr. Stebbing’s work can then 
NATURE 



[April 6, 1871 

do little harm, as it supplies us with no new “facts” 
whatever, whether true or false. The author is an advo- 
cate who serves Mr. Darwin with more zeal than discre- 
tion, and who seems but little, if at all, able to appreciate 
the arguments and objections adduced on the other side. 
Some who are already convinced of the truth of Dar- 
winism willread with pleasure a series of eloquent and- 
interesting essays in its favour ; but, though calculated to) 
confirm a disciple, they are singularly ill-calculated to |) 
convert an opponent. Before Mr. Stebbing again writes _ 
upon this subject we strongly recommend him to peruse 
carefully Mr. Grote’s “Examination of the Utilitarian 
Philosophy.” 



Das Wesen und die Ziele der Chemischen Forschung und 
des Chemischen Studiums. Akademische Antrittsrede 
gehalten von Dr. Rudolph Fittig. (Leipzig: Quandt 
and Handel, 1870. London: Williams and Norgate). 
So busy are the majority of German chemists in 
research, that it is seldom we are privileged to have their 
opinions on the object of the science, and the position it 
should occupy asa study. Dr. Fittig has availed himself 
of his appointment as Professor of Chemistry in the Uni- 
versity of Tubingen to deliver an inaugural address, in 
which these points are discussed with great clearness and 
ability. Starting with the assumption that the majority 
of men estimate the value of a science only by its power 
to satisfy want and contribute to the comfort of life, Dr. 
Fittig goes on to claim for chemistry from this point of 
view the first place among the sciences. “Where,” he 
asks, “is there another science which, in the application 
of its results to man, almost from his first breath to his 
last, is so true a companion as chemistry?” and he pro- 
ceeds to show that it is useful, not so much in explaining 
what the nourishing constituents of food are, as in dis- 
closing the laws of agriculture, and thus teaching us how 
to produce means of nourishment. Further, he points out 
that there is not an article of clothing for the preparation 
of which chemical knowledge has not been employed, 
and the same knowledge is necessary to show how the 
spread of disease may be prevented, and cured when it 
has taken hold. While these practical results are obtained 
by the study of chemistry, Dr. Fittig is careful to show that 
it is a total misunderstanding to suppose that its chief 
purpose is to discover brilliant colours or new medicines. 
Thus, without undervaluing the practical importance of 
the discovery of the aniline colours, it is nevertheless 
true that the splendid results obtained by Hofmann would 
have had the same interest for the chemist, had these 
compounds been colourless and without any technical use. — 
So we are told, “ The task of chemistry is to explain the 
composition of bodies and all phenomena resulting from 
change of this composition 7% order to derive the regular 
connection and cause of these phenomena, and therefore also 
of the natural laws which regulate the building up and 
decomposing of substances. . . . . Wearecompelied 
to multiply the number of substances already existing in 
nature, not for the sake of producing new bodies and 
benefiting the world, du¢ to discover the eternal laws of 
nature. He is no true chemist who only prepares new 
compounds without any definite aim (although, perhaps, 
he has prepared a large number of compounds hitherto 
unknown and possibly very beautiful in appearance), and 
his work has no direct value for science, and can only 
become valuable when employed by others in its true 
scientific sense. . . . . True scientific researches 
must never be given over to chance, they must be sys- 
tematically planned, begun with a clear consciousness of 
what is to be attained, and finished in the same spirit.” 
Dr. Fittig has done well to point out so clearly the true 
aim of the science of chemistry, and to disparage the false 
estimation of its value, which would make it simply a 
means of discovering bodies with some technical or useful 
application, And even in this direction, which must 
