76 



NA TURE 



[May 



1907 



is far from being a mere abstract of the larger work. 

 Huxley's energy, industry and fixity of purpose are 

 brought into due prominence; while his intellectual 

 keenness and honesty, his intolerance of pretentious 

 ignorance, his appreciation of everything good in art 

 and literature, his jealousy for the right use of the 

 mother tongue, his admirable social and domestic 

 qualities, all have ample justice done to them in the 

 pages of this modest volume. 



The attentive reader will easily discern how it is 

 that among the great names of the Victorian epoch 

 few take a higher place than that of Huxley. 

 Eminent as an original worker in science, whose 

 investigations covered an unusually wide field, he 

 was scarcely less distinguished as a philosopher and 

 as a practical man of affairs. By dint of unwearied 

 industry, of a single'-minded love of truth and of a 

 nature at once candid and fearless, he made for him- 

 self a reputation in the intellectual life of the last 

 century which will outlive many of those that, for 

 the time being, bulked more largely in the public 

 view. 



In controversy, as Mr. Davis often reminds us, 

 Huxley was a strenuous but never ungenerous 

 adversary, though it sometimes seemed hard for him 

 to realise that his opponents might hold their con- 

 victions as sincerely as he did his own. The popular 

 notion of Huxley as an intellectual pugilist who 

 found his chief delight in propounding dogmas, the 

 more startling the better, in science and philosophy, 

 is scarcely borne out by the facts of his career. It 

 is true that in his own judgment he was " rather 

 prone to jump at conclusions," and when he felt 

 sure of his ground no man could speak with greater 

 confidence. But questions, even of the first magni- 

 tude, as to which the data were not in his opinion 

 sufficient for a solution, were by him left open to 

 the end. 



Perhaps the most conspicuous instance of this 

 truly " agnostic " attitude was the position he 

 took up in reference to Darwin's theory of natural 

 selection. Curiously enough, while his acceptance 

 of the fact of evolution was hastened, if not caused, 

 by the publication of the views of Darwin and 

 Wallace, he never committed himself to an un- 

 qualified approval of those views. He was converted 

 by, but not io, the doctrine of natural selection. 

 This, however, did not prevent him from acting as 

 Darwin's champion against attacks dictated by 

 ignorance and prejudice, nor from treating the 

 Darwinian hypothesis as " the most powerful instru- 

 ment of investigation which has been presented to 

 naturalists since the invention of the natural system 

 of classification, and the commencement of the 

 systematic study of embryology." 



It is probable that we here touch upon one of 

 Huxley's limitations. Unrivalled as he was in many 

 departments of biology, it is clear that field natural 

 history did not come to a great extent within his 

 sphere of mental activity. Had this been otherwise, 

 and had his attention been more directed to the study 

 which now goes by the name of bionomics, it seems 

 fair to conjecture that his views as to the validity of 

 NO. i960, VOL. 76] 



Darwin's theory might have undergone some modifi- 

 cation. 



There are certain slips in Mr. Davis's book which 

 should be remedied in a future edition. We note a 

 few, as follows : — Ephestia elatella (rede elutella) 

 is not a "small beetle," but a Phycid moth. In the 

 letter given on pp. 204-5, Huxley wrote " incon- 

 ceivable," where Mr. Davis has " conceivable " 

 with much detriment to the sense of the passage. 

 Finally, Duns Scotus we know, and Scotus Erigena 

 we know, but who is Scotus Erigenus? 



F. A. D. 



PHYSICAL AND INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 

 (i) Practical Physical Chemistry. By Dr. Alex. Find- 

 lay. Pp. xii-l-2.S2; illustrated. (London: Long- 

 mans, Green and Co., 1906.) Price 45. 6d. net. 



(2) Physical Chemistry in the Service of Medicine. 

 Seven addresses by Dr. Wolfgang Pauli. Trans- 

 lated by Dr. Martin H. Fischer. Pp. ix+ 156. 

 (New York : John Wiley and Sons ; London : Chap- 

 man and Hall, Ltd., 1907.) Price 5s. 6d. net. 



(3) Vorlesimgen tiber anorganische Chemi'e fiir 

 Studierende der Medizin. By Dr. Ernst Cohen and 

 Dr. P. van Romburgh. Pp. viii + 431; illustrated. 

 (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1906.) Price 15 

 marks. 



(i) O LOWLY but surely the necessity of systematic 

 ^^ laboratory instruction in the methods of physical 

 chemistry is being recognised. One of the causes 

 which may have contributed to the absence of such 

 instruction in many university courses of chemical 

 study has been the lack of a suitable practical text- 

 book. With the appearance of Dr. Findlay's work 

 this regrettable deficiency in laboratory literature can, 

 however, be no longer said to exist. The apparatus 

 required for the measurement of density, viscosity, 

 surface-tension, refractive index, molecular weight, 

 conductivity, transport numbers, electromotive force, 

 velocity of chemical change, solubility, transition 

 temperatures, and thermal changes is described, and 

 instructions for the carrying out of the measurements 

 are given in an easily intelligible form. 



The course is modelled on that of the Leipzig 

 school, which for many years occupied a unique posi- 

 tion as the Mecca of students of practical physical 

 chemistry. This is doubtless partly due to the 

 author's personal association with this particular 

 school. It may perhaps account for the omission of 

 several important types of experimental exercises. In 

 particular, electrochemical experiments involving the 

 estimation and separation of the metals and the pre- 

 paration of different classes of compounds afford many 

 valuable applications of physicochemical principles, 

 and the omission of chapters dealing with these 

 phases of the subject is regrettable. Some difficulty 

 may be experienced in interpreting what is meant by 

 the term " maximum apparent error " in the first 

 chapter. With a vocabulary of errors in which 

 relative, absolute, possible, probable, and apparent 

 errors may be spoken of, a careful definition of terms 

 is essential. In the dilatometric determination of 

 transition temperatures (p. 274), Glauber's salt is not 



