662 



NA TURE 



[November i8, 1922 



good deal of information on dams), and a fairly full 

 index. 



Taken as a whole, the work undoubtedly maintains 

 its high reputation as a standard authority on the 

 subject of reservoir dam construction, and its wealth 

 of diagrammatic profiles from existing examples will 

 cause it to be of great value to the practising engineer, 

 as well as to the student who is seeking to acquire a 

 knowledge of first principles. 



Brysson Cunningham. 



Science and Progress. 



Progress and Science : Essays in Critic ism. By Robert 

 Shafer. Pp. xii + 243. (New Haven: Yale Uni- 

 versity Press ; London : Oxford University Press, 

 1922.) 125. net. 



THIS volume is almost entirely critical, mainly of 

 the doctrine that science has contributed to a 

 more rapid " progress " of the human race as a whole, 

 and that we may expect this progress to continue. 

 Much of the criticism is acute and many other writers 

 are cited — Prof. Bury, Mr. G. D. H. Cole, Mr. Tawney, 

 and Miss Follett ; but the main attack falls upon Mr. 

 F. S. Marvin, whose books, " The Living Past " and 

 "The Century of Hope," are largely quoted in the 

 initial chapter, which gives its title to the whole ; 

 he is dismissed in the concluding sentence thus : 

 " It follows that men such as Mr. Marvin are hardly 

 doing us any good, are promoting rather beliefs and 

 hopes which may in the end work an intolerable mis- 

 chief in the world." 



It is a challenge to optimism, or rather to meliorism, 

 based on science, and would have more justification if 

 the author could find any passage either in Mr. Marvin's 

 writings, or in any sympathiser's, indicating a belief 

 either that this progress was complete, or that it could 

 be expected to continue without the strenuous efforts 

 of mankind to carry it further and remedy its defects. 

 This Mr. Shafer does not attempt to do. We are. 

 therefore, reduced to asking him one or two quite 

 simple and direct questions as to his judgment of facts. 



1. Is it not a fact that the advance of science in the 

 last three or four centuries has. on the whole, led to 

 an enormous alleviation of human suffering and 

 an increase in the ;apa;it\ and the facilities for 

 happiness ? 



2. Has not this advance been accompanied by a 

 growth in the collective consciousness of mankind, 

 quite unparalleled in history ? And is not this growth 

 in the sense of " humanity " due. partly to the knitting 

 up of the world by the mechanical application of 

 science, partly to the fact that science is in itself a 



NO. 2/68, VOL. I 10] 



social thing and that its growth involves the co- 

 operation of multitudes of minds bent on the whole — 

 poison gas and weapons of war notwithstanding — 

 towards increasing human welfare ? 



3. If this is so, is it an evil or mischievous thin- to 

 try to realise these forces in the world and to feel that 

 they are with us in our individual efforts to promote 

 the same great ends ? 



It should be noticed that Mr. Shafer in his criticism 

 «il Mr. Marvin quotes exclusively from the two books 

 mentioned above, which are rather popular summaries 

 of great epochs of history, and does not refer to the 

 more philosophic treatment of the same topics in the 

 various volumes of the " Unity " series published by 

 the Oxford University Press. 



Our Bookshelf. 



The Union of South Africa. Department of Mines ami 

 Industries. The Geology of the Country around 

 Heidelberg; Geological Map of the Country around 

 Heidelberg. By Dr. A. W. Rogers. Pp. 84. 

 (Pretoria : The Government Printing and Stationery 

 Office.) 85. 6d. net, including map. 



The publication of the official description of the geology 

 of the Heidelberg district has been anticipated with 

 much interest by South African geologists. The main 

 features of the area have long been known on account 

 of the economic importance of the Nigel Reef. Mainly 

 owing to the pioneer work of Dr. Hatch, it was recog- 

 nised more than twenty years ago that the Heidelberg 

 district forms the south-eastern limb of the great 

 pitching syncline, on the northern limb of which lies 

 the Rand, and it may at once be said that the result of 

 the detailed survey fully confirms the accuracy of Dr. 

 Hatch's general conclusions. The gradual extension 

 of mining towards the East Rand and the sinking of 

 many bore-holes, some of great depth, have clearly 

 shown that the Nigel Reef belongs to the Main Reef 

 series of the Witwatersrand ; it is also shown that the 

 whole Witwatersrand system decreases regularly in 

 thickness towards the soutb and east, from about 

 25,000 feet near Johannesburg to 15,000 feet at Heidel- 

 berg. This is quite in consonance with the theory of 

 its formation as the delta of rivers coming from an old 

 land to the north-west. 



In this memoir the structure of the district is lucidly 

 described. The most remarkable feature is the great 

 Sugarbush fault, so called from its relation to the 

 Zuikerboschrand. This is a new discovery of great 

 importance. The fault is apparently nearly vertical, 

 with a down-throw to the south ; at one point in its 

 course, where it brings the Ventersdorp Amygdaloid 

 against the Hospital Hill Series, the throw must be 

 at least 16,000 feet. It therefore ranks as one of the 

 world's greatest dislocations. The fault is certainly of 

 pre-Karroo date, but its relation to the Pretoria Series 

 has not been made out. Probably, however, it was 

 later in date than the deposition of the whole of the 

 Transvaal system, and therefore possibly of early or 

 middle Palaeozoic age. R. H. Rastall. 



