July 22, 1922] 



NA TURE 



parts, namely, the administration of contracts, office 

 management, book-keeping, and trade memoranda. 

 A glance at the table of contents will prepare the reader 

 for some interesting information regarding what goes 

 on behind the scenes. For example, among " methods 

 usually adopted by contractors to obtain business " 

 we find the following which refers to work undertaken 

 on a percentage basis : — " It is surprising how many 

 commissions of this character are secured by some 

 contractors, and often well proceeded with, before their 

 competitors are aware that - the work is in operation. 

 It must therefore be obvious that a good portion of the 

 time and energy of these enterprising contractors is 

 spent by keeping in touch with and studying the wishes 

 and the requirements of architects and others who 

 have work to place. These contractors are usually 

 most obliging and amiable gentlemen who see no 

 trouble in doing anything which will bring about 

 business." The author is equally candid in many 

 other matters, and it is impossible to read his book 

 without feeling that he is intimately in touch with all 

 the ramifications of his subject. The volume is a 

 mine of information on all matters connected with the 

 execution of building contracts, and will be of great 

 value both to contractors and students. 



Handboek der Algemeene Erfelijkheidsleer. By Dr. 



M. J. Sirks. Pp. x + 494, ('S-Gravenhage : M. 



Nijhoff, 1922.) 15 gld. 

 Text-books of genetics have lately appeared with 

 great rapidity. The most recent is that by Dr. Sirks, 

 now before us. It is a substantial and well-illustrated 

 volume, as good as its predecessors, covering the 

 ground which has been explored up to date. The 

 weakness of the book is that it attempts nothing new, 

 whether by way of presentation or analysis. In a 

 subject so new as genetics, something more than an 

 exposition of easily accessible records should be 

 demanded from a considerable text-book. The litera- 

 ture of horticulture and of animal breeding contains 

 abundant material, both illustrative of established 

 principles and suggestive of extensions, which has 

 not yet been drawn upon. An author need be at 

 no loss for novel themes of discussion, even if he has 

 no actual discovery to present. 



Dr. Sirks shows a disposition to limit his survey to 

 the publications of the modern period and to subjects 

 which have acquired topical familiarity. His treat- 

 ment, moreover, is occasionally uncritical. The reader 

 should have been told more explicitly that some of the 

 interpretations, given as accepted doctrine, are highly 

 speculative, and that some of the statements of fact 

 are greatly in need of verification. Reports, for 

 example, of the production of mutations as a direct 

 consequence of changed conditions should not be 

 accepted without a warning that, until the experiments 

 have been repeated on an ample scale and confirmation 

 obtained, evidence of this class has only suggestive 

 value. 



Manchester University Roll of Service. Pp. xvi + 274. 

 (Manchester : At the University Press ; London : 

 Longmans, Green and Co., 1922.) 105-. net. 

 The Roll of Service of the University of Manchester 

 contains 3765 names, of which 500 are those who lost 

 their lives on service during the war. In each of these 



NO. 2751. VOL. I 10] 



latter cases a brief account is given of the career, 

 including details of parentage, education, military 

 history, distinctions, and particulars of death. In 

 all, 842 distinctions were won, including two Victoria 

 Crosses. 



A preface to the volume has been written by the 

 Vice-Chancellor, Sir Henry A. Miers. The record is 

 very well arranged and produced, and serves as an 

 adequate reminder of the service rendered by members 

 of the University. It is also, to some extent, a 

 memorial to those who laid down their lives in the 

 common cause. 



James Stirling : A Sketch of his Life and Works, along 

 with his Scientific Correspondence. By Charles 

 Tweedie. Pp. xii + 213. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 

 1922.) 16.?. net. 



Mr. Tweedie's volume opens with an account of the 

 life of James Stirling, the distinguished mathematician 

 of the early eighteenth century. Next follows a 

 description of Stirling's contributions to mathematical 

 knowledge, chief among them being his enumeration 

 of cubic curves and the Methodus Differentialis. This 

 latter is a remarkable piece of analysis, considering the 

 state of mathematical knowledge at the time when it 

 was evolved ; it leads to the well-known expansion for 

 log (n !) associated with Stirling's name. About 

 three-quarters of the volume is occupied by copies of 

 letters exchanged (during the period 17 19-1740) between 

 Stirling and such contemporary mathematicians as 

 Maclaurin, Cramer, N. Bernoulli, Machin, Clairaut, and 

 Euler. In days before scientific journals were developed 

 new results were communicated by one worker to 

 another in such letters as these. Much care has been 

 expended by Mr. Tweedie in the reproduction of these 

 letters : his book would have been improved by the 

 addition of English translations of the French and 

 Latin ones and by further comments upon them. 



W. E. H. B. 



Contemporary Science. Edited, with an Introduction, 

 by W. B. Harrow. (The Modern Library of the 

 World's Best Books.) Pp. 253. (New York : Boni 

 and Liveright, 1921.) 95 cents net. 



The work under notice consists of a collection of 

 twelve essays on recent achievements in various 

 branches of science, by men who are masters in each. 

 All are written in a way which makes them intelligible 

 to readers whose special knowledge is not profound ; 

 yet even those who are engaged in advanced research 

 may find interest in perusing them. This applies with 

 special force to an excellent review of modern physics 

 by Prof. Millikan. Though perhaps none the worse for 

 the fact, the volume is a little unbalanced, articles of 

 general importance being placed side by side with those 

 dealing with such special topics as methods of gas 

 warfare, the physiology of the aviator, and the measure- 

 ment of brain-power. The inclusion of these is a 

 reflection of the preoccupations of war time ; and if 

 their interest has waned, they serve to mark points 

 in history. Atomic structure, engineering (Parsons), 

 enzvmes (Lister), duration of life, bacteriology (Flexner). 

 psychoanalysis and Einstein, will serve as clues to the 

 scope of the volume. 



