'5(> 



NA TURE 



[December 9, 1909 



have to infer from them the character of the physical 

 realities which are their stimuli, must be erroneous. 

 Prof. Stout's criticism appears to show that Prof. 

 Alexander's doctrine cannot be sustained as it stands, 

 but the fact that it can be put forward by a writer of 

 such philosophical eminence is an interesting sign of 

 the influence which Avenarius is at last beginning to 

 exercise on British philosophy. 



Very similar tendencies are revealed by Mr. A. Wolf's 

 interesting paper on "Natural Realism and Present 

 Tendencies in Philosophy." The interest awakened by 

 Bergson's striking book "L'Evolution Creatrice " is 

 witnessed to by Mr. Carr's disquisition on Bergson's 

 theory of knowledge, and Mr. G. T. R. Ross's 

 treatment of the satisfaction of thinking. Prag- 

 matism, as one would expect, does not go un- 

 represented. Dr. Schiller inflicts one of those castiga- 

 tions which are becoming periodical with him on 

 rationalism in a paper on " The Rationalistic Concep- 

 tion of Truth," and the subject also figures prominently 

 in a so-called symposium on pluralism, in which 

 different points of view are represented by Dr. 

 Schiller, Prof. Muirhead, and the writer of this 

 notice. The volume further contains an essay on 

 "The Mutual Symbolism of Intelligence and Activity," 

 by Mr. Foston, and a discussion between Prof. 

 Bosanquet, Dr. Sophie Bryant and Mr. G. T. R. Ross 

 on " The Place of Experts in Democracy." 



A. E. Taylor. 



An Introduction to the Study of Biology. By J. W. 

 Kirkaldy and I. M. Drummond. Pp. iv + 259. 

 (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1909.) Price 6s. 6d. 



This little book represents an attempt to deal, within 

 the limits of some 250 pages, with the study of 

 biology as exemplified primarily by the organisms 

 prescribed in the syllabus of the Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge Schools' Examination Board. The authors 

 have, however, realised the deficiencies of the type 

 system and endeavoured to " bridge over the gulfs " 

 by brief accounts of, or references to, a considerable 

 number of forms "allied" to the selected types. Thus 

 Monocystis, Haemamoeba, Bacillus, Chromulina, 

 Actinosph^prium, Globigerina, Rhaphidococcus, 



Arcella, Euglena, Noctiluca, Stylonichia, .Acineta, 

 Desmids and Diatoms are all introduced as allies of 

 the more familiar Protozoa, viz. Amoeba, Sacchar- 

 omyces, Spharella, Vorticella and Paramcecium. 



There is no doubt that a too rigid adherence to the 

 type-system does produce a very disconnected idea of 

 the animal kingdom, but we fear that the ordinary 

 schoolboy will think that it is bad enough to have to 

 make the acquaintance of the types without having to 

 shake hands with so many of their relations. No fewer 

 than sixteen types of animals and plants are dealt 

 with in more or less detail, ranging from the Amoeba 

 to the dogfish, and from the yeast to the sunflower, 

 besides chapters on the distinction between animals 

 and plants, the life-history of the frog, and the 

 physiology of the rabbit. 



The book contains numerous illustrations, for the 

 most part borrowed from very familiar sources ; a few 

 ar? original, but we cannot congratulate the authors 

 very warmly upon these. The picture of a crayfish 

 on p. 112 is extraordinarily crude. The book gives 

 an enormous amount of information gathered from a 

 very wide field, but it is far too concentrated to be 

 inspiring, and the authors do not appear to have 

 succeeded in putting the general principles dealt with 

 in a very clear light. We hope it is intended to be 

 read in connection with a course of practical work, 

 but we have not been able to find any reference to the 

 necessity for such a course. 

 NO. 2093, VOL. 82] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other pari 0/ Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



The End of the ^eag-Ze. 



Ir is well known that Charles Darwin began to advocate 

 his famous doctrine of evolution after his voyage on 

 board H.M.S. Beagle as naturalist, in the course of which 

 he went to South America, Africa, and Oceania, and 

 founded the theory of natural selection ; but it has been 

 a matter of regret among men of science throughout the 

 world that the famous old ship had passed out of sight. 

 As the result of careful inquiries, however, by Mr. 

 Shigetaka Shiga, a renowned geographer in Japan, it has 

 now been ascertained what was the ultimate fate of the 

 Beagle. 



Mr. S. Shiga has told the story to the editor of the 

 Yorodzu Choho, the most popular newspaper in Tokyo, as 

 follows : — " While I was attending the Sapporo Agri- 

 cultural School some twenty years ago, I read in the 

 Living Age, an American literary magazine, that the 

 Beagle had been sold in Japan. After my inquiry it was 

 found out that the warship had been bought by the Lord 

 Shimadzu, who had changed its name to Kenko-maru. 

 Afterwards it was purchased by the Naval Department, and 

 kept as a training ship of the Naval School in Tsukiji, 

 Tokyo ; but I had then no intention of preserving the 

 famous ship, and so took no notice of the matter. 



" This spring I heard Englishmen were sorry at having 

 lost all trace of the Beagle at the hundredth anniversary 

 of the great naturalist's birth. I then applied to a steward 

 of Prince Shimadzu, as well as Viscount Captain 

 Ogasawara, to get fuller particulars of the ship. Accord- 

 ing to the record of tlie Prince, the Kenko-maru was 

 certainly the Beagle that had been built of te.ak at Liver- 

 pool ; it was bought for 75,000 dollars in Nagasiiki on 

 July 23 in the first year of Gwanji (1.S64 a.d.). Viscount 

 Ogasawara informed me of the same fact, and added that 

 the Naval Department ordered several officials, Kawamura 

 (the late Count Sumiyoshi), Masuda, and Sato, to receive 

 the same ship from the Shimadzu clan at Shinagawa on 

 June 13 in the third year of Meiji (1S70). It was in 

 existence as a training-ship in the thirteenth year (1880), 

 and was re-named Yeiji-marii at Yokosuga in the fifteenth 

 year (1882). It was in May of the twenty-second year 

 that the ship was sold by auction for 3276 yen to the late 

 Kikusaburo Oaki the proprietor of the Oaki Ship-building 

 Yard. 



" After some inquiries about the Yeiji-maru at Oaki's, 

 I learned that the ship h.id been broken up at the 

 old Shinagawa Fort, and that her cabin had been pre- 

 served for three years, when it was lost sight of ; but 

 Mr. Keizo Oaki, the present owner, who superintended 

 the breaking up of the ship as the engineer-in-chief, has 

 had the kindness to make inquiry of the workmen engaged 

 in the work. The result is as follows. A part of the 

 ship was at length discovered. It was being used as a 

 stand for stones which have been piled up near the temple 

 of Suitengu, in the premises of the dockyard. Having 

 been taken out, it was found to be a part of the ribs of 

 the Beagle, 3-1; feet in length, i-i; feet in breadth, and of 

 teak. Thus a portion of the fragments of the famous 

 Beagle has at last been found." 



TOYOZI NODA. 



Ichinoseki, Iwate, Japan, October 27. 



The Maintenance of Forced Oscillati -ns of a New Tvpe. 

 In a paper " On a Class of Forced Oscillations " pub- 

 lished in the Quarterly fournal of Pure and Apttlied Mathe- 

 matics (No. 148, June, 1906), Mr. Andrew Stephenson 

 discussed mathematically a proposition which may be stated 

 in his own words thus : periodic non-generating force act- 

 ing on a system in oscillation about a position of stable 

 equilibrium exerts a cumulative action in intensifying or 

 diminishing the amplitude, if its frequency is contained 



