I 22 



NA TURE 



[June 7, 1906 



experiments — and in their present form they are 

 more likely to cause readers to underestimate than 

 to appreciate the great value of the work of 

 Lawes and Gilbert. Take, for example, the 

 " Practical Conclusions " which follow Chapter IV. — 

 *' Experiments upon Wheat." The chapter extends 

 to thirty-eight pages, and deals with some of the most 

 important work done at Rothamsted. The conclu- 

 sions are three in number, and in effect are as 

 follow :— (i) Wheat is in less need of direct manur- 

 ing than most other crops of the farm, and " can 

 usually be grown with the residues in the soil, especi- 

 ally if it follows a clover crop." (2) Manures for 

 wheat should be mainly nitrogenous, and nitrate of 

 soda is generally better than sulphate of ammonia. 

 (3) " When wheat is grown two or three times in 

 succession, about 1 cwt. per acre of some slow-acting 

 nitrogenous manure and 2 cwt. of superphosphate 

 should be ploughed before seeding, and a top-dress- 

 ing of I to 2 cwt. per acre of nitrate of soda should 

 be applied in February. Only on the lightest sandy 

 and gravelly soils will any return be obtained for the 

 use of kainit and other potash salts with wheat." 



These conclusions do not represent the" practical " 

 teaching of Lawes and Gilbert, and although it is 

 admitted that they are conclusions which may be fairly 

 drawn from the Rothamsted experiments on wheat, 

 we think the book would be improved by their 

 absence. 



Rothamsted has exercised a great influence on prac- 

 tical agriculture, but in perusing Mr. Hall's book we 

 have been impressed by the fact that the experiments, 

 important as they are, do not in themselves account 

 for the estimation in which Rothamsted has been 

 held by agriculturists. If, however, the reader turns 

 to the list of papers in appendix i. he will there find 

 the explanation of much of Lawes and Gilbert's in- 

 fluence. They began their experiments as students of 

 nature, and with the one object of adding to the ex- 

 isting knowledge of agriculturists. As their work 

 progressed they not only came to possess an 

 unrivalled acquaintance with the general facts 

 of agricultural science, but they gained a very 

 close knowledge of the business of the practical 

 farmer. They were thus able to find in their experi- 

 ments much that explained the farmer's difficulties, 

 and, as they were always careful to place their results 

 before farmers, their papers in the agricultural 

 journals soon attracted the notice of practical men. 

 .\s long- ago as 1856 a writer on Rothamsted says : 

 " These lessons the English farmers have learnt from 

 Mr. Lawes. They have accepted them with becom- 

 ing gratitude. They are practising them with in- 

 creasing confidence day by day to their great and 

 proved advantage." 



It was not the habit of Lawes and Gilbert to con- 

 fine themselves to Rothamsted data ; they drew freely 

 on other sources of information in compiling their 

 papers; and they wrote upon subjects rather than 

 upon experiments; to quote Mr. Hall, " The papers on 

 specific investigations often tend to be less accounts of 

 the experiment as a whole than discussion of such of 

 its results as bear upon the dominant idea with which 

 NO. 1 910, VOL. 74] 



Lawes and Gilbert were then engrossed." This habit, 

 possibly undesirable in a scientific report, was most 

 valuable to the readers of their general papers. To the 

 agriculturist, Lawes and Gilbert were known as 

 teachers rather than as experimenters, and while the 

 accuracy and extent of their experiments brought 

 them scientific fame, it was as interpreters of science, 

 as men who thoroughly appreciated both the scientific 

 and the practical aspects of their subject, that they 

 became leaders in the agricultural world, and for close 

 on two generations continued to be the trusted ad- 

 visers of the British farmer. 



T. H. MiDDLETON. 



EVOLUTION AND PHILOSOPHY. 

 Evolution the Master-key. By Dr. C. W. Saleeby. 



Pp. viii + 364. (London : Harper and Brothers, 



1906.) Price 7^. 6d. 

 TP\R. SALEEBY has written a very interesting book. 

 ^-^ The grand range and sweep of his reasoning 

 is remarkable. He deals, and generally very ably 

 though very briefly, with most of the profoundest 

 problems of science and philosophy. .As the title of 

 his book proclaims, his object is to apply the doctrine 

 of evolution to all problems and to show that, though 

 some entirely baffle human thought and reasoning, 

 yet to most there is a key, and one key only. They 

 must be studied from the evolutionary standpoint. 

 Each train of thought is pursued till its logical con- 

 clusion is reached. There is no stopping half-way. 

 When great principles are expounded. Dr. Saleeby does 

 not leave them in barren solitude, but boldly faces the 

 inferences that inevitably follow. He is, in fact, very 

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 are always alive and human, for he always traces 

 new thoughts and new discoveries to their originators. 

 In his admirations he is very hearty and genuine. 

 His heroes are the men who have advanced human 

 knowledge and helped to emancipate the human in- 

 tellect. Occasionally he rises to eloquence. 



.After part i., which is preliminary and general, our 

 author proceeds to inorganic evolution. The evolution 

 of sun and planets from a nebula, the gradual dissipa- 

 tion of the sun's heat, and the possible return to the 

 nebula state through collision with another celestial 

 body — all this is excellently described. .After this, radium 

 and the architecture of the atom come up for investiga- 

 tion. Part iii. deals with organic evolution, beginning 

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 and optimism. In part vi. Dr. Saleeby tackles the 

 difficult subject of dissolution. Though energy never 

 disappears, yet it is dissipated, and so becomes un- 

 available. Is the death of the whole universe in 

 prospect? .Are there alternate periods of evolution 

 and dissolution? Part vii. is occupied with evolution 

 and the religion of the future. 



In a book covering so wide a field it is inevitable 



