174 



NA TURE 



[August 5, 1922 



and growth. They also attempt to establish a parallel- 

 ism between form and movement, considering that the 

 same factors acting through the same mechanisms are 

 concerned with both. In the origin of form and in the 

 origin of movement, physics and geometry are working 

 in unison with chemistry. 



Immunity, Abderhalden's " ferments of defence," 

 anaphylaxis, agglutinins, hemolysins, precipitins, the 

 secretions of the interstitial glands of the reproductive 

 organs, and hormones in general receive attention. 

 Interesting experiments of tropisms, of fertilisation 

 by chemical means, of experimental parthenogenesis, 

 and of plant grafting, extend the scope of the book. 

 The authors consider that the substances which kill 

 are at the same time the substances which give life ; 

 thus, a tumour is submitted to the same physico- 

 chemical determination as a developing organ. 



The attempt to co-ordinate in a readable and in- 

 structive form the recent discoveries of biological 

 interest is certainly successful, and the book is inexpen- 

 sively though well arranged. 



Aristotle in English. 



The Works of Aristotle translated into English. De 

 Caelo, by J. L. Stocks ; De Generations et Corruptions, 

 by Harold H. Joachim. (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 

 1922.) 10s. net. 



THE great Oxford version of Aristotle could 

 scarcely have begun to deal with that philo- 

 sopher's physics and cosmology at a more opportune 

 time than the present. It is only a year or two since 

 Prof. Whitehead, speaking with all the authority that 

 belongs to his utterances on such a subject, warned us 

 that the first explicit beginnings of the " bifurcation " 

 which has infected nearly all subsequent philosophising 

 about Nature and natural science, are explicit in 

 Aristotle, and that the duty of the Naturphilosoph of the 

 present day is to put himself back at the Pythagorean 

 standpoint represented by Plato's " Timaeus " and 

 study the " passage " of nature with a mind freed from 

 the prejudices begotten of a substance-attribute meta- 

 physic. 



This weighty modern endorsement of Bacon's old 

 complaint that Aristotle corrupted natural science at its 

 sources by his " dialectic," must have set many who 

 know little Greek wishing to have the means of know- 

 ing more accurately than can be known from modern 

 summaries exactly what the Aristotelian interpretation 

 of Nature was. The translation of the " De Caelo " 

 by Mr. J. L. Stocks and of the " De Generatione " 

 by Prof. Joachim comes very opportunely to meet the 

 need, so far as Aristotle's astronomical and physical 

 doctrines are concerned. It is to be hoped that we 

 NO. 2753, VOL. IIO] 



shall not have to wait much longer for the versions of 

 the " Physics," the treatise which expounds the 

 Aristotelian mechanics of the universe, and the 

 " Meteorologica," which deals with the "sublunary" 

 department of cosmology. 



The University of Oxford may be highly compli- 

 mented on producing an English version of the two 

 historically very important works before us, which 

 may be taken by all but specialist scholars as equivalent 

 to the original text. In constituting the actual Greek 

 text, both translators have done excellent work in 

 removing a large number of the singularly infelicitous 

 alterations made by Prantl, the editor of the Teubner 

 editions. Mr. Stocks has given a very generous 

 amount of annotation to the explanation of his diverg- 

 encies from Prantl ; Prof. Joachim, having recently 

 published his own recension of the " De Generatione," 

 naturally makes his version avowedly from that text, 

 and thus escapes the necessity of critical notes. It is 

 perhaps a pity, in view of the appeal his version should 

 make to many who are scarcely likely to possess his 

 text and commentary, that he has not recorded quite 

 briefly at least the more important of his differences 

 from one of the standard texts, e.g. Bekker's. Of 

 course it is inevitable that the fuller and more argu- 

 mentative annotations of Mr. Stocks should at times 

 require him to take sides on disputable points of reading 

 or exegesis, and he himself would, no doubt, be the 

 first to admit that appreciation of the value of his 

 work does not imply agreement with all his decisions 

 on such issues. To agree or disagree in detail would 

 only be possible after a special minute study of Mr. 

 Stocks's notes in conjunction with the Aristotelian 

 text and the commentary of Simplicius. 



We note that on one very important point the exact 

 meaning of the original seems to have been miscon- 

 ceived. We believe it can be made clear that the kind 

 of motion of the earth stated in " De Caelo," ii. 293 b 

 30 ff., to be spoken of by Plato in the " Timaeus," is 

 not " rolling " of any kind. If that had been meant, 

 Aristotle would not have been so careful to say that 

 the " Timaeus " speaks of something different, " motion 

 at the centre." It is clear also that axial rotation can- 

 not be meant, for reasons into which space will not 

 permit us to enter. The poetical word used in the 

 "Timaeus" and repeated by Aristotle (ikXtcrdai) 

 appears properly to describe " to-and-fro " motion, 

 " oscillation," or " excursion " about a mean position. 

 If we suppose that Aristotle knew, as he could scarcely 

 help knowing, the correct interpretation of the Platonic 

 phrase, we see at once why he is so careful to distinguish 

 this movement of the earth " to and fro " about " the 

 middle " from all theories of movement " round the 

 middle." The point is important, because, in speaking 



