5o6 



NA rURE 



[September 21, 1905 



It will be gathered that the author takes a point 

 of view which is not that of the majority of physicists 

 who have investigated these subjects. Revolutionary 

 opinions may prove a valuable tonic to the orthodox 

 in physics as in other matters. It is not because he 

 is heterodox that we are not satisfied by Dr. Le Bon's 

 book. It is because he seems to us to fail in grasp 

 of the subject, to confuse phenomena which are 

 essentially different, and to be blind to evidence which 

 does not support his hypotheses. 



K belief in the evolution of matter is fast becoming 

 not only possible but inevitable. Dr. Le Bon has 

 written readable speculations about that evolution, 

 and here and there has thrown out an interesting 

 idea ; but the evidence on which that belief must be 

 founded is not that put forward by him. His 

 book calls to mind the advice offered by a famous 

 Lord Chief Justice to a brother judge, that it was 

 sometimes safer to give one's conclusions without 

 the reasons which had led to them. 



W. C. D. W. 



THE F/EROES AND ICELAND. 

 The Faeroes and Iceland; Studies in Island Life. 

 By N. Annandale. With an appendix on the Celtic 

 Pony by F. H. Marshall. Pp. vi + 238; illustrated. 

 (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1905.) Price 45. 6d. 

 net. 



THE name of Mr. Nelson Annandale has been of 

 late years so intimately associated with the 

 Malay Peninsula and its zoology and ethnology that 

 it comes somewhat as a surprise to find it on the title- 

 page of a work dealing with such totally different 

 surroundings as those of the Faeroes and Iceland. 

 It appears, however, that between the years 1896 and 

 1903 the author spent several summer holidays in 

 these remote islands, and contributed a series of 

 articles on his experiences to Blackwood's Magazine 

 and the Scotsman, and that it is these delightful 

 articles, in a more expanded and elaborated form, 

 with the omission of certain purely technical details, 

 which form the basis of the work before us. 



.\s Mr. Annandale suggests in his opening chapter, 

 most persons probably regard the Fasroes as little 

 more than mere Arctic rocks, teeming with sea-birds, 

 in the ocean ; and they will accordingly be surprised 

 to learn that, as a matter of fact, although lying 

 nearly a couple of hundred miles to the north-west 

 of Shetland, they enjoy a climate warmer than that 

 of many parts of Scotland, while their vegetation, if 

 rarely more than a few inches high, is as luxuriant 

 as the shallowness of the soil and the winter storms 

 will allow. The buttercups, too, seem larger, and 

 the bushes of a brighter green, than on the main- 

 land. These islands have also to be regarded as 

 desirable spots, for it appears that although a few 

 years ago they possessed a couple of dozen police- 

 men, the moral of the population has been so excel- 

 lent that the services of these guardians of the peace 

 were found no longer necessary, and the force has 

 consequently been disbanded. A truly remarkable 

 record ! 



NO. 1873, VOL. 72] 



The first two chapters deal with the people of the 

 Faroes and their mode of life, and will be found to 

 contain a number of interesting observations on their 

 ethnography and the implements of the islanders. 

 The invasion of Iceland by the Moors in the seven- 

 teenth century forms the subject of a third chapter, but 

 perhaps the most interesting part of the whole book is 

 that dealing with the wonderful bird-cliffs of the 

 Westman Islands, and the clever manner in which 

 the natives capture puffins and other birds in nets. 

 The fulmar appears, indeed, to be verjf valuable to 

 the Westmaners, supplying them with both food and 

 light. Other chapters deal with Iceland and its pro- 

 ducts, and the insects and domesticated animals of 

 both that island and the Faeroes. 



Mr. Annandale deserves, indeed, our most hearty 

 congratulations, and has succeeded in producing a 

 most admirable little work which may be perused 

 with interest alike by the general reader and by 

 those who have enjoyed, or expect to enjoy, the oppor- 

 tunity of visiting the islands he so happily describes. 

 Whether similar congratulations should be extended 

 to Dr. Marshall for his share of the work we are not 

 fully assured. That gentleman seems, indeed, to be 

 under the impression that no one save Profs. Ewart 

 and Ridgeway has viritten in this country on the 

 origin of the horse. Otherwise he would have 

 scarcely credited the former with being the first to 

 regard Przewalsky's horse as a variety of Equus 

 caballiis. Neither would he have omitted to notice 

 that an earlier name than przewalshyi has been 

 suggested as referable to this animal, and also 

 that Prof. Ewart 's E. celticus is probably inseparable 

 from the earlier E. hihernicus. Moreover, he might 

 have pointed out that it is difficult to understand 

 how Prof. Ridgeway's new name of E. c. libiciis can 

 stand for the barb, when the Arab horse has long 

 since received a technical name of its own. 



R. L. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Le Systeme des Poids, Mesures ct Monnaies des 

 IsraMites d'apres la Bible. By B. P. Moors. Pp. 

 62 + 1 plate of figures and 6 tables. (Paris : k. 

 Hermann, 1904.) 

 The first part of this work consists of an inquiry 

 respecting the numerical value adopted by the 

 Israelites at the time of Solomon for the constant t, 

 the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its 

 diameter. M. Moors obtains the greater part of his 

 material for this investigation from the dimensions of 

 the " molten sea " in Solomon's temple, as stated 

 in I. Kings, vii., 23-26, and II. Chronicles, iv., 2-5. 

 These dimensions have led some writers — notably 

 Spinoza and Hoefer — to the opinion that the Israelites 

 knew of no nearer approximation to t than the whole 

 number 3. The specification of the molten sea is not, 

 however, sufficiently complete to determine its shape 

 with any degree of certainty. Some commentators 

 have considered it as cylindrical, others have followed 

 Jo«ephus in ascribing to it a hemisphfrical form, 

 whilst Zuckermann suggests a combination of 

 cylinder and parallelepiped. The author of this work, 

 who is firmly of opinion that the Israelites accepted 

 a value for tt very close to 3- 142, has found it necessary 

 in support of his argument to assume that the molten 



