June i, 1905] 



NA TURE 



99 



the idol, several small clay doves and serpents' heads, 

 all of coarse terra-cotta, and a fragment of a pithos, on 

 which a double-axe and disc are modelled in relief." 



This important find has since been paralleled by Dr. 

 Evans's discovery at Knossos of a similar shrine of the 

 snake-goddess with fine glazed faience figures, re- 

 ferred to in Nature (vol. Ixx. p. 482). But Miss Boyd 

 was the first to discover the Minoan snake-goddess, of 

 whose existence we had no inkling before the excav- 

 ations at Gournii. 



Another good find, of which Miss Boyd gives a fine 

 facsimile plate, was the head of a bull in terra-cotta, 

 a typically " Mycenaean " object, paralleled by the 

 famous silver bull's head found by Schliemann at 

 Mycenae, and the Egyptian representations of golden 

 protomae of bulls being brought as gifts to the court 

 of Thothmes III. by the Mycenaean (or rather 

 " Minoan ") ambassadors from " Kefti " (Crete). 



Miss Boyd's work has contributed results to 

 Mycensean lore which are of the highest importance, 

 results upon which the officers of the American Explor- 

 ation Society at Philadelphia, which dispatched her 

 expedition, are to be heartily congratulated. 



H. R. Hall. 



ELECTRICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE. 



MaxiveU's Theory and Wireless Telegraphy. By H. 

 Poincare and F. K. Vreeland. Pp. xi + 255. (Lon- 

 don : A. Constable and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 

 10s. 6d. net. 



Alternating Currents. \ol. i. By A. Russell. Pp. 

 xii + 407. (Cambridge: The University Press, 1904.) 

 Price I2S. net. 



What Do We K-noui Concerning Electricity? By 

 Antonia Zimmern. Pp. vii+140. (London: 



Methuen and Co., n.d.) Price is. 6d. net. 



Modern Electricity. By J. Henry and K. J. Hora. 

 Pp. 355. (London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1905.) 

 Price 5.S. net. 



Modern Electric Practice. Vol. v. Edited by M. 

 Maclean, Pp. vi + 287. (London : Tlie Gresham 

 Publishing Co., 1904.) Price 9s. net. 



Electricity Control : .4 Treatise on Electric Switch-Gear 

 Systems of Electric Transmission. By Leonard 

 Andrews. Pp. xv + 231. (London : Chas. Griffin and 

 Co., Ltd., 1904.) 



THE electrical engineer who wishes to keep pace 

 with the development of his profession and de- 

 sires to know something more than that which con- 

 cerns only the particular branch in which he is engaged 

 has a very hard task before him at the present day. He 

 must, in the first instance, endeavour to keep an eye 

 on the technical literature — the innumerable journals 

 and proceedings, the monthly magazines, and the 

 weekly papers — of at least four countries in three dif- 

 ferent languages. This is in itself a task of no mean 

 difficulty, which is heightened rather than diminished 

 by the various " abstracts " available. So rapid is the 

 multiplication of journals and papers that one is 

 tempted to think that the best advice to give a student 

 would be to read nothing, as if he tries to read much 

 he will waste more time over what is of no value to him 

 NO. 1857, VOL. 72] 



than he will spend wisely on the one useful article in a 

 thousand; one is tempted still more to wish that a 

 rigorous technical censorship might be instituted which 

 would allow nothing to find its way into print but that 

 which was of permanent value to the world. In this 

 way the amount of technical literature might be 

 brought within reasonable limits by being reduced to, 

 say, one-tenth of its present volume. 



If this is true of the matter which is published in 

 journals — which has, at least as a rule, the merit of 

 originality — it is still more true of the matter which 

 appears in the form of technical text-books. We 

 imagine these books find a ready sale, else we cannot 

 account for their publication ; yet we do not know by 

 whom they are read except the reviewers. This is 

 exemplified by the six volumes before us, all of which 

 have appeared within the last few months. With the 

 exception of the first two, we would venture to say that 

 it would have been just as well, and possibly even 

 better, had they not been published. We do not mean 

 thereby that they are bad books, though one of them 

 we think, should not be left about where young elec- 

 tricians might see it ; but they are not of merit enough 

 to justify the expense of their publication or purchase. 

 Take, for example, Miss Zimmern 's little volume; it 

 is tastefully bound and clearly printed on good paper — 

 there is something in its appearance strongly sugges- 

 tive of a book of minor poetry. Add to this that it is 

 pleasantly written and that there is nothing very 

 seriously wrong with its statements, and its merits are 

 summed up. On the other hand, we are confident that 

 it would fail in its object of explaining the complex 

 theories of modern electricity to the " general reader " ; 

 he might put down the book with the feeling that his 

 knowledge had been increased, but it w-ould be a mis- 

 taken notion. It requires genius of a very rare kind, 

 such as was shown by Faraday in his " Chemical His- 

 tory of a Candle," or by Prof. Perry in his " Spinning 

 Tops," to write a book of this kind; we intend no dis- 

 paragement to the writer of this volume by saying that 

 such genius is not shown in 'it. 



Messrs. Henry and Hora's volume is of another 

 stamp ; in a preface which reads like a publisher's 

 advertisement, the authors state that " the work will 

 be found eminently practical, scientific, and accurate." 

 We have found it quite the reverse, and feel sorry 

 for the " apprentice " or " artisan " who " gains a 

 complete knowledge of the fundamental principles of 

 electricity " from its pages. This is a book which no 

 self-respecting electrical censor, however lenient, would 

 have allowed to appear in print. 



The two last books on the list are not without merit 

 or value, but it is at best of an ephemeral kind. Of 

 " Modern Electric Practice " we have already expressed 

 our views in writing of the previous volumes ; the pre- 

 sent one does not depart from the same high standard 

 in production, and the three articles in section iv., deal- 

 ing with boilers, engines, and auxiliary plant, are well 

 written and well illustrated. The article on electro- 

 chemistry and electrometallurgy is less satisfactory. 

 We must confess, however, that the inaccuracies 

 noticed in previous volumes make us, unjustly per- 

 haps, suspicious of the figures and data in the one be- 



