486 



NATURE 



[February 24, 1910 



index throws no lip^ht on the subject, ^^'hat is the 

 structure of the skin ? A page near the end of the 

 book, without a single figure to explain the heavv 

 vocabulary, is all we are vouchsafed. The treatment 

 of histological and embryological data is almost use- 

 less. A drawing of a sagittal section of the head 

 raised hopes of a description of the course taken by 

 the air in the act of breathing, but on examination 

 the drawing itself is seen to be incomplete and to 

 illustrate the tear-duct. 



What is wanted in a modern monograph is no 

 exclusively anatomical study of individual bones and 

 muscles, expressed in a deterrent vocabulary, but a 

 treatment seasoned with morphological and physiologi- 

 cal "salt." This series is intended to help beginners, 

 but a more strange method of doing so it w-ould be 

 hard to imagine. We trust that future volumes of 

 this collection of monographs will be planned with a 

 little more insight into the needs of biological 

 students, and written with some feeling of the beauty 

 as well as of the complexity of the subject. 



The Irish Fairy Book. By Alfred Perceval Graves. 

 Illustrated by George Denham. Pp. XV+3S5. 

 (London : T. Fisher Unwin, n.d.) Price 6s. 



There is a greater demand for fairv books than there 

 is for works on folklore, and the readers differ 

 greatly in taste and requirements. Some fairv books 

 are_ worse than useless to the folklorist, books in 

 which the authors treat their sources in a thoroughly 

 irresponsible fashion. On the other hand, those who 

 could handle such materials discreetly, learnedly, and 

 reverently cannot be induced to write fairy books. 

 But such books must be written, and Mr. Graves has 

 produced one which is in every respect commendable. 



Apart from a helpful preface and one short poem 

 by the author or compiler, the book is a symposium 

 by Irish writers of folk-tales, and a bare list of the 

 writers' names shows the comprehensiveness of the 

 work :— O'Grady, Kennedy, Allingham, Croker, 

 Gregory, Zeats, O'Looney, Ewing, Ferguson, Joyce, 

 McClintock, Carleton, Campbell, O'Kearney. Loveri 

 Curtin, Wilde, Le Fann, Mangan, Hyde, Sigerson! 

 Hull, Larminie, Boyd, Hopper, with Tennyson's 

 "Voyage of Maeldune " as a fitting conclusion. The 

 book is just what it was intended to be — delightful 

 reading. 



Many of the tales are in proper form for scientific 

 examination, being evidently faithful records of oral 

 traditions, which, with Mr'. Denham's apt illustra- 

 tions, are as "readable " as anv in the collection. All 

 the stories are replete with useful facts of folklore. 

 The frequent identification of Druidism with magic 

 is very impressive. As in Welsh folklore, the fairies 

 are in high glee at the seasonal festivals. Puck, for 

 instance, is definitely associated with November. 

 Lugnassed, Lug's marriage— the old name for the 

 August festival— survives in dialect as "Lunacc day 

 in harvest." _ That the framework of the tale is the 

 calendar is in most cases fairly obvious, and one 

 regrets that the compiler offers' the reader no clue 

 to such an interpretation in a preface where other 

 theories are mentioned. John Griffith. 



Space and Spirit. A Commentary upon the Work of 

 Sir Oliver Lodge entitled "Life and Matter." 

 By R. A. Kennedy. Pp. 64. (London : C. Knight 

 and Co., Ltd., igog.) Price is. 6d. net. 



This is a commentary on Sir Oliver Lodge's work, 

 " Life and Matter," which was written primarily as a 

 counterblast to Haeckel's "Riddle of the Universe." 

 Its author agrees with Sir Oliver in regarding Spirit 

 NO. 2104, VOL. 82] 



as the ultimate Reality, of which the Universe is a 

 manifestation; but he differs on a few points of detail. 

 Moreover, though Spirit is the "unknown reality," 

 there is another irresolvable Absolute, viz. Space. 

 There is a Spacial universe and a Spiritual universe. 

 The former may only be a branch or out-leaking of 

 the latter, but the two cannot be identified. Mr. 

 Kennedy is, therefore, not a monist, even of the 

 spiritual variety; he recognises two entities, and not 

 merely two aspects of the same substance. (But is it 

 not self-contradictory to speak of two universes?) 



The most vital detail on which the author disagrees 

 with Sir Oliver Lodge is that of the nature of Li''e. 

 Sir Oliver, combating Haeckel's explanation of life 

 (which gets out of the difficulty by attributing a kind 

 of life to the atoms, in fine pelitio principii style). Sir 

 Oliver, we say, supposes life to flow into the carbo- 

 hydrate molecule from a supernal life-reservoir, as 

 soon as the molecule becomes sufficiently complex to 

 accommodate it or to "let through" the properties 

 which life can manifest. The,' materialist's view is 

 that the complex aggregate has generated the life; he 

 does not stop to ask what generated the complex 

 aggregate ; and Mr. Kennedy thinks that Sir Oliver 

 is rather similarly inclined to leave the formation of 

 the organism in its early stages to chance. "The 

 right view surely is that life is in operation from first 

 to last, and in fact generates the organism." 



In discussions of these questions which lie on the 

 borderland between science and philosophy, it is often 

 apparent that divergences are verbal only. It is 

 probably thus to some extent in the present instance. 

 Certainly, life does not manifest itself except through 

 complex molecules, but Sir Oliver does not leave the 

 formation of those molecules to "chance." Rather, 

 he would say that all matter allows intelligence and 

 will to shine through — somewhat as taught by two 

 men as different as .Shelley and Prof. William James— 

 from the spiritual sun which is Reality. But he is 

 still right and consistent in denying Haeckel's as- 

 sumption that atomic forces explain life, however 

 agtrregated. 



The booklet is well written, and the argument is 

 extremely acute and suggestive throughout. 



Introduction to the Preparation of Organic Com- 

 pounds. Bv Prof. Eniil Fischer. Translated by 

 Dr. R. V. Stanford. Pp. xix-l-i7S. (London: 

 Williams and Norgate, 1909.) Price 4s. net. 



Emil Fischer's "Anleitung zur Darstellung organ- 

 ischer Priiparate " first appeared in 1883 in the form 

 of autograph copies for the use of his students in the 

 Erlangen Laboratory, and represents the first pub- 

 lished introduction to the practical study of organic 

 chemistry. The increasing demand led to its appear- 

 ance in book form in 1S87, and from it an English 

 translation was made by A. Kling, which reached a 

 second edition in 1895. 



The book has apparently been more popular in 

 Germany than here, for the present translation i^^ 

 made from the eighth German edition. This is no 

 doubt due to the publication of more comprehensixi- 

 and elaborate treatises on the same subject by English 

 writers. But whatever the cause, the modest propor- 

 tions of the volume before us do not diminish it- 

 practical value, as both teachers and students who 

 have used it will readily admit. In this last English 

 edition a second part is added, which is drawn from 

 the author's researches on physiological chemistry, 

 and is intended more especially for medical and 

 biological students. The book is neatly bound, and 

 printed in good type. J. B. C. 



