February 13, 19 13] 



NATURE 



643 



never touches on a metaphysical idea. Fortunately, 

 philosophers are becoming' more mathematical, 

 and i)ice tiersd ; so the absorption of science and 

 philosophy into poetry seems much less distant 

 than a century ago. G. B. M. 



A YEARBOOK OF SCIENCE. 

 Jahrbuch der Naturwissenschaften, igii-1912. 

 Edited by Dr. Joseph Plassmann. Pp. xvi + 

 452. (Freiburg im Breisgau and London : B. 

 Herder, 1912.) Price 75. 6d. 



THE twenty-seventh volume of this useful 

 publication is well up to the level of its 

 predecessors. In spite of the great expansion 

 of all the subjects treated, the size of 

 the work has not been increased. This 

 implies a more and more "intensive" treat- 

 ment, and a careful selection of topics. In 

 ph3sics, the 5000 odd new publications of igii 

 have been brought within the compass of forty- 

 eight short notes. The task of selecting one paper 

 out of every hundred must be a formidable one. 

 Dr. Heinrich Konen, to whom it fell, took care 

 to emphasise those which offer a certain amount 

 of novelty or practical utility, such as Lebedef's 

 shortest possible sound-waves (o"2 mm.}, which 

 are absorbed by 2i cm. of air; Rubens's longest 

 light-waves (o'ii6 mm.); Fury's prism with 

 curved surfaces; and Anderson's collodion copies 

 of Rowland gratings. 



The chemistry section is rather insufficiently 

 separated from the industrial section, and so it 

 happens that such things as the utilisation of 

 zirconia, and the preparation of illuminating gas 

 free from CO, are dealt with twice over. Dr. 

 Plassmann himself writes the section on astro- 

 nomy, and devotes considerable space to Martian 

 questions and the mass of the ring of planetoids. 

 Bauschinger's estimate of the latter, amounting 

 to about one-fiftieth of the mass of Mercury, is 

 supported on optical grounds. 



Among the subjects dealt with in meteorology 

 we find Wegener's stratification of the atmo- 

 sphere, wind velocities, sunspots and weather, an 

 aeronautical weather service, and Birkeland's 

 theory of terrestrial magnetism and allied pheno- 

 mena. The division of anthropology deals, 

 among other interesting topics, with the origin of 

 numbers and systems of culture, and the classifi- 

 cation of human skulls. Other sections deal with 

 mineralogy and geoIog\', zoology, botany, agricul- 

 ture and forestry, geography and ethnography, 

 medicine and hygiene, aeronautics, and the 

 various technical subjects. The latter include 

 mechanical engineering, electrotechnics, heating 

 and illumination, metallurgy, railwa}- manage- 

 NO. 22<0. VOL. qol 



ment, mining, ceramics, naval construction, freez- 

 ing plant, gas industry, and firearms. 



A calendar of astronomical events and an 

 obituary complete the work, which may be re- 

 garded as an almost indispensable work of refer- 

 ence. It should be stated that it is printed in the 

 Gothic type, and not in the Roman type now usual 

 in German scientific publications. 



GEOGRAPHICAL WORKS. 

 (i) The Elements of Geography. By R. D. 

 Salisbury, H. H. Barrows, and W. S. Tower. 

 Pp. ix + 616-1-7 maps. (New York : Henry Holt 

 and Co., n.d.) Price 1.50 dollars. (American 

 Science Series.) 



(2) A Geography of the British Empire. By Prof. 

 A. J. Herbertson and R. L. Thompson. Pp. 

 2564-3 maps. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912.) 

 Price 2S. 6d. (The Oxford Geographies.) 



(3) Forfarshire. B}' E. S. Valentine. Pp. viii 4- 

 160 4- 2 maps. (Cambridge: University Press, 

 1912.) Price IS. 6d. (Cambridge County 

 Geographies.) 



(4) The Lost Towns of the Yorkshire Coast and 

 other Chapters bearing upon the Geography of 

 the District. By T. Sheppard. Pp. xviii4-329. 

 (London: A. Brown and Sons, Ltd., 1912.) 

 Price 7s. 6d. net. 



(i) ' I ^HE American geography under notice 

 J. emanates from members of the depart- 

 ment of geography in the University of Chicago. 

 British writers of geographical text-books have yet 

 to follow German and American writers in work of 

 this advanced character. The present volume 

 forms, therefore, an interesting study, possessing 

 many virtues and certain faults. The writers have 

 followed general theoretical lines, avoiding those 

 of the ancient "cosmography" with its principle 

 of description according to countries. 



.A-fter a short general discussion of the earth 

 as a planet, and of its main features, we find a 

 proper importance awarded to climate and 

 weather, to which seven chapters are devoted out of 

 a total of twenty-one. After these the authors deal 

 with the oceans, then the "materials of the land" 

 (soils, minerals, etc.), and lastly land-forms, with 

 the consideration of the forces which shape them, 

 and their influence on human conditions and on 

 life generally. This is probably the best order that 

 could be followed, though throughout the long 

 section on climate there is some temptation to wish 

 that a few more leading facts concerning the 

 configuration of the surface and the other subjects 

 of the later sections had been transferred to an 

 introductory chapter, so that the student should 

 be, at the outset, more clearly it) possession of 



