[axuary i6, 1913] 



NATURE 



539 



unfamiliar with the commonest vocabularies of 

 other departments of natural knowledge, but also 

 resjard the endeavour to create a comprehensive 

 interest in nature as a thing of little importance. 



There are, unfortunately, very few, if any, men 

 of science in these days of minute specialisation 

 who are capable of writing such illuminating 

 papers on scientific methods and results as those 

 in this volume and the collection which preceded 

 it. The papers are perfect models of scientific 

 exposition : simple, yet not childish ; informative, 

 but not tedious ; bright without being flippant ; 

 sparkling with human interest and original 

 always. Thirty-one main topics form the 

 subjects of the chapters of the present 

 volume, and upon all of them the author writes 

 with freshness and breadth of knowledge 

 that command admiration. For the student of 

 science whose work is running in a narrow groove 

 the papers provide a pleasant antidote ; and to 

 readers engaged in other activities they will be a 

 revelation. 



One minor point is worth mention. Sir Ray 

 Lankester, writing on the work of glaciers, refers 

 to glaciated rocks that have "the form of rounded 

 humps, compared to a sheep's back, and hence 

 called ' roches moutonnees.' " We thought that 

 several years ago Prof. Grenville Cole had shown 

 this interpretation to be incorrect, for the reason 

 that de Saussure, who first used the term, meant 

 to suggest a resemblance of the rocks, not to a 

 flock of sheep, but to the wigs styled in his day 

 inontonnies. 



An Analysis of the Church of St. Mary, Cholsey, 



in the County of Berkshire. By Prof. F. J. 



Cole. Pp. viii + 62 f 23 plates. (Oxford : B. H. 



Blackwell; London: Henry Frowde, 1911.) 



Price 55. net. 

 The professor of zoology in the University College 

 of Reading teaches, in this book, a valuable lesson 

 to church architects and archaeologists, "that only 

 an investigation by methods of precision can 

 bring the study of the parish churches within the 

 cognisance of serious research." Ecclesiastical 

 architecture is now quite a dead art. It has lost 

 the living touch with nature. Of its true natural 

 basis even Dr. Cole has nothing definite to say. 

 Still, he has discovered the nearest thing to it, 

 and is well qualified to teach his lesson. The 

 case may be put in stronger terms, but let Dr. 

 Cole speak : 



" But, unfortunately, the morphological method 

 is hardly, if ever, carried to its legitimate extreme. 

 The amateur, finding it easy to classify his detail 

 according to the Norman, Early English, Decor- 

 ated, and Perpendicular convention, cultivates 

 the deadly shade of that architectural Upas. ' Yet 

 that way perdition lies.' On the other hand, the 

 professional architect gives us a set of drawings, 

 of the greatest value let it at once be said, but 

 unaccompanied by any attempt to wrest the secrets 

 from the building he has been measuring." 

 (Pref. iv.) 



It is the author's insistence on exact measure- 

 ment that will lead the student "to the bed-rock 

 NO. 2255, VOL. 90] 



of ascertained fact." It is measurement, more 

 than fashions or "styles," that differentiates 

 periods in architecture. But while the author has 

 succeeded in making out successive periods by 

 measure, it seems not to have occurred to him to 

 consider why certain measures were adopted, and 

 why they should differ with the lapse of time. To 

 some extent, the value of orientation is recognised, 

 but it is to be hoped that the author's next " attempt 

 to wrest the secrets " from St. Mary's, Cholsey, 

 or any old church, will be to show that the in- 

 dividual measures represent celestial spaces or 

 distances, and that the orientation is the key to 

 the structural symmetry. John Griffith. 



Experimental Physiology. By Prof. E. A. Schafer, 

 F.R.S. Pp. viii-f-iii. (London: Longmans, 

 Green and Co., 1912.) Price 45. 6d. net. 

 Experimental physiology is a convenient, but 

 not very logical, name for that part of physiology 

 which is not chemical. The present little book 

 is a handy guide to the student in the practical 

 class. It is the outcome of many years' experi- 

 ence in the teaching of such classes, and will form 

 a trustworthy laboratory companion. The descrip- 

 tions of the experiments are clear and concise, and 

 a special word of praise is to be accorded to the 

 excellent diagrams which accompany the text. 

 The great bulk of the work which the student 

 can himself perform is necessarily limited to the 

 pithed frog. Experiments on living animals under 

 ansesthesia can only take the form of demonstra- 

 tions. Experiments on man himself are not 

 restricted by law, and the present-day tendency of 

 the physiological teacher is to increase the number 

 of exercises which the students can perform upon 

 themselves or upon each other, and to diminish 

 the importance of the humble but still necessary 

 frog. W. D. H. 



The Centenary of a Niiieteenth-Centiiry Geologist 

 — Edward William Binney, F.R.S. By James 

 Binney. Pp. 58. (Taunton : Barnicott and 

 Pearce, 1912.) Price 2S. 6d. net. 

 Edward Binney was born on December 7, 1S19, 

 and died in December, 1881. He was three times 

 president of the Literary and Philosophical Society 

 of Manchester, was president of the Manchester 

 Geological Society, and in 1856 was elected a 

 fellow of the Royal Society. With Young and 

 Meldrum he commenced the manufacture of 

 mineral oils from Boghead coal obtained from 

 Bathgate, near Linlithgow, in 1850 ; and in four- 

 teen years — when the patent had run out — a net 

 profit of 6o,oooL was made. 



Mr. J. Binney's little book is a tribute to a suc- 

 cessful man of business and a keen student of 

 nature. Prominence is given to details of litiga- 

 tion of little interest to scientific readers ; and 

 filial regard will perhaps account for the remarks 

 as to the want of acknowledgment by Williamson 

 of what he owed to Binney in the study of fossil 

 plants. Whether local printers or the author are 

 responsible for the neglect of elementary rules of 

 punctuation throughout the book is not for us to 

 decide. 



