2l6 



NATURE 



[December 23, 1909 



it deals with the district north of the Thames from 

 Oxfordshire to Bedfordshire and the eastern counties. 

 It comprises seven articles, with the following- titles : 

 (i) Middlesex and Hertfordshire, by Mr. J. Hopkin- 

 son ; (2) Essex, by Mr. T. V. Holmes ; (3) The Pliocene 

 Deposits of the Eastern Counties, by Mr. F. W. 

 Harmer; (4) The Pleistocene Period in the Eastern 

 Counties, by Mr. Harmer; (5) Cambridgeshire, Bed- 

 fordshire, and West Norfolkj^ by Mr. R. H. Rastall ; 



(6) Buckinghamshire, by Dr. A. Morley Davies ; and 



(7) The Oxford and Banbury District, by Mr. J. A. 

 Douglas. 



In the articles relating to the several counties we 

 have admirable summaries of what is known of the 

 local geology, with discussions on some controverted 

 questions, and a good deal of new and original matter, 

 special attention being given in most cases to the 

 localities visited during excursions of the association. 

 .Accounts brought up to date are given of the classic 

 sections, such as those near Watford and Bushey, at 

 Ilford, Upminster, and Grays, at Shotover Hill, Ayles- 

 bury, and Upware. The Paleolithic gravels of Rick- 

 mansworth, and the derived sarsen stones lately found 

 there, are illustrated in photographic plates ; the Hert- 

 fordshire Bourne and the Colne swallow-holes near 

 South Mimms; the Dene-holes of Essex; the physio- 

 graphy of the Cambridge area; the relations of the 

 Jurassic and Cretaceous formations, and of the Shot- 

 over Sands and Lower Greensand, are among the 

 many topics discussed, apart from the more particular 

 descriptions of the strata and their fossils. The 

 vagaries of modern palaeontological nomenclature are 

 noticeable in different articles, as in the case of 

 Ammonites varians (p. 4) and Schloenbachia varians 

 (p. i68), to say nothing of some other names, the 

 changes in which form the most serious stumbling- 

 block to the student. 



The subject of glaciation is dealt with in several of 

 the articles, and more fully in that bv Mr. Harmer 

 on the East .-Anglian Boulder-clavs. His essay, illus- 

 trated by two maps showing the distribution of the 

 Drifts and the direction of movement of the ice-sheets, 

 is in itself an important contribution to the advance- 

 ment of science. 



The work will thus be of great practical value to the 

 field-student, and it must be consulted by everyone 

 interested in the progress of geology in this country. 

 -At the same time, for historical purposes, the original 

 records of excursions published in the Proceedings of 

 the association must not be neglected. 



Who's Who. 1910. Pp. xxiv + 2162. (London : A. and 



C. Black.) Price lox. net. 

 Who's Who Year Book for 1910. Pp. vii + 162. 



(London: A. and C. Black.) Price is. net. 

 The Writers' and .irfists' Year Book, igio. Pp. viii + 



127. (London : A. and C. Black.) Price is. net. 

 The Englishwoman's Year Book and Directory, 1910 



Edited by G. E. Mitton. Pp. xxvi + 382. (London : 



A. and C. Black.) Price 2S. 6d. net. 

 Ha^zell's .Annual for 1910. Edited bv Hammond Hall. 



Pp. lxiii + 608. (London: Hazell, Watson and 



Viney, Ltd.) Price 35. 6d. net. 



It would be difficult to select for the busy man a more 

 useful set of works of reference than the new issues 

 of the five annual publications under notice. Each one 

 of them is so well known that it is sufficient in every 

 case to say that, not only has there been no diminu- 

 tion of accuracy and interest, but the various editors 

 have all succeeded in adding to the completeness of 

 the books entrusted to their "care. 



The long obituary at the beginning of the book, 

 and the addition of some fifty pages to "Who's Who." 

 serve to indicate that there have been material changes 

 NO. 2095, VOL. 82] 



made in the new issue. " Who's Who Year Book " 



continues to be an indispensable supplement to the 

 larger work, to which, indeed, it is a really useful 

 key. 



Writers, artists, and photographers will find in the 

 third periodical information which it is difficult to ob- 

 tain elsewhere. 



The volume specially intended for women has been 

 revised very thoroughly. Full information is provided 

 concerning the part now taken by women in pro- 

 fessional and other work, and the book may be recom- 

 mended especially to schoolmistresses and parents 

 desirous of finding suitable avocations for girls leaving 

 secondary and other schools. 



.Among the new features of "Hazell's Annual" may 

 be mentioned the introduction of signed articles. For 

 example. Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., contributes an 

 article on the new physics. Sir Hiram Maxim writes 

 on the evolution of the flying machine, and Mr. C. C. 

 Turner on aerial navigation in 1909. 



The New Physics: .Sound. By Joseph Battell. Pp. 

 xvi + 274-l-xlvii. (Middlebury, Vt., U.S.A.: The 



.American Publishing Co. ; London : A. F. Bird, 

 1909.) Price 6s. 6rf. net. 

 Very few pages of this new treatment of physics need 

 be read before we reach the conclusion that " the old 

 is better." Mr. Battell's object in writing this book 

 is to give "a condensed but complete exposure of the- 

 errors in the present theory of sound." He has been 

 " for years opposed to all undulatory theories, as at 

 variance with the fundamental principles of creation, 

 and otherwise not only entirely, but very foolishly, 

 erroneous," and while anxious to give every credit to 

 such men as Koenig and Helmholtz, he comes to the 

 rescue of truth with a book to prove that "sound, like 

 light and odour, is composed of infinitesimal particles 

 of matter." It is really extraordinary how such an 

 effort as this can secure a publisher. No matter where 

 a reader begins, whether at the beginning, the middle, 

 or the end, the result is the same; it is iinpossible to 

 interpret the author's meaning. Here and there, it 

 is true, there are a few intelligible sentences, but in- 

 the main they are obscure and apparently unconnected 

 with what precedes and follows. .As an example of 

 this we may quote the following, and leave it to the 

 reader to gather what information he can. 



"That light is made by bodies made to make it, as 

 the Sim or a lamp ; or odour by things made to make 

 it, as a sweet pea or water lily, — that is, by things 

 having light-making or odour-making machinery, and 

 that they can make no other light or odours than those 

 they were made to make, or have the machinery to 

 make, — is no more true, than that nothing can make 

 .Soimd unless made to make it, or any sound except 

 what it was made to make, and that means any unJpat 

 it has the machinery to make it." 



The author is, without doubt, ingenious in his way 

 of making his particles submit to his theory. Perhaps- 

 this results from his acquaintance with horse-rearing. 

 (It should be mentioned that among Mr. Battell's other 

 publications are several volumes of the ".American 

 .Stallion Register.") For instance, in order to ac- 

 count for the fact that sound is not propagated in a 

 vacuum — at first sight a difficult thing to do on a 

 corpuscular theor\- — the author naively suggests that 

 the reason is the same as that which makes birds 

 unable to fly without air. 



Those who have read Mr. Battell's previous scien- 

 tific work, "Ellen, or Whisperings of an Old Pine," 

 will find this volume equally amusing, and from that 

 point of view the book is, perhaps, worth its price ; 

 but those buying it in the expectation of a reasoned 

 text-book for the study of physics will be disap- 

 pointed. 



