198 



NATURE 



[June 27, 1907 



nnd at a most moderate price, should be in the hands 

 of all who are interested in the fortunes of India. It 

 should remain for many years the most authoritative 

 source of information regardinij our jfreat eastern 

 empire. The Government of India and its official 

 editors and contributors are to be congratulated on 

 the completion of a work of national importance. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 



The Laboratory Book of_ Mineral Oil Testing. By 

 James A. Hicks, with introduction by Sir Boverton 

 Redwood. Pp. xii + 76. (London: C. Griffin and 

 Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price 2s. 6d. net. 

 Empiric methods of testing, however simple in prin- 

 ciple, are just those which require exact procedure in 

 practice; otherwise two equally skilful analysts, by 

 slight and apparently insignificant modifications, may 

 arrive at different results. As the flash-point and 

 viscosity methods, applied to the testing of mineral 

 oils, depend on specially designed apparatus used 

 under special conditions, it is essential that every 

 chemist should work under the same conditions, and 

 for this reason Mr. Hicks's little book will be grate- 

 fully appreciated by those who have to do with mineral 

 oil testing. In addition to a careful description of 

 various flash-point and viscositv apparatus and their 

 application, the book contains 'an account of colour- 

 testing and the use of sundry apparatus for estimating 

 pressure of naphtha vapour, detection of petroleum 

 vapour, capillarity testing, methods for estimating 

 melting points of paraffin, wax, and scale, and for 

 determining the calorific value of mineral oils. There 

 is also a table (which should be unnecessary) for con- 

 verting centigrade into Fahrenheit degrees, 'and a list 

 of all the apparatus required for oil testing, including 

 ^e name of the firm which undertakes to supply it. 

 The book is evidently designed to meet every require- 

 ment, and its appearance under the auspices of Sir 

 B. Redwood should be a guarantee of its practical 

 value and utility. j 3 q^ 



Theories of Chemistry. Being Lectures Delivered at 

 the University of California in Berkeley. By 

 Svante Arrhenius. Edited by T. Slater Price. Pp. 

 xii + :>i2. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 

 1907.) Price 5^. 6d. net. 



The nature and aim of this work are clearly stated 

 by the author in his preface. He writes :'— " The 

 present lectures were delivered at the University of 

 California during the summer of 1904. I have for a 

 long time wished to give a coherent account of the 

 development of theories in general chemistry. This 

 seemed to me the more desirable because the latest 

 extensions of this science are often, both by followers 

 and opponents, regarded as something wholly new 

 and quite independent of the progress in the past. 

 Many seem to hold the opinion that the new develop- 

 ments are the more to be admired, the less dependent 

 they_ are on the older chemical theories. In my 

 opinion, nothing could be less correct. It is just the 

 circumstance that the new theoretical discoveries have 

 developed organically from the old generallv accepted 

 ideas, that is to me their most promising feature." 



This is a somewhat unexpected view to be held by 

 perhaps the greatest innovator in modern chemical 

 theory, but there is no question that it has led to 

 the production of a most unusual and stimulating 

 book the perusal of which no scientific chemist can 

 afford to neglect. A detailed enumeration of the 

 chapters would do little to indicate their contents. 

 The subject-matter is familiar to all chemists— it is 

 NO. 1965, VOL. 76] 



the treatment which is of special value. The various 

 theories and hypotheses are critically examined and 

 exhibited in their proper relationship and subordina- 

 tion. The whole work bears the stamp of a mind of 

 uncommon power applied to the matter in hand with 

 a balance and sobriety of judgment no less rare. 



Life and Flowers. By M. Maeterlinck. Translated 

 by A. T. de Mattos. Pp. xii f 312. (London: 

 George Allen, 1907.) Price 55. net. 

 This volume contains a collection of essays of which 

 some have appeared in periodicals, others are pub- 

 lished in English for the first time. They are all 

 more or less directly concerned with life, from the 

 phantasy on the sun-dial to the eulogy on the boxer's 

 fist, but only the two last, on the intelligence of 

 flowers and perfumes, are relevant to the subject of 

 flowers. In the former of these. M. Maeterlinck 

 describes in his perspicuous language some of the 

 striking phenomena connected with fruit dispersal. 

 flower pollination, and movement in plants. The 

 accuracy of the word-painting bears witness to the 

 author's first-hand observation of many of the pheno- 

 mena, although, as he points out, except for his 

 original experiments with the species of -Salvia, the 

 results of which are not sufficiently advanced to 

 publish, the facts are taken from well-known sources. 

 The attribution of arithmetical powers to the Rue 

 and other such hyperboles mav be regarded as the 

 expression of a strong imaginative temperament. 

 The account of the pollination in Orchis pyramidalis 

 furnishes one of the best examples of the author's 

 faculty of description. 



LETTER TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part 0/ Naturb 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communicalions.] 



Unscientific Administration. 



In his letter of June =0, Mr. M. D. Hill refers to the 

 defective education of our schools and universities, and 

 seems to suggest that it is not the mass of the people 

 who are to blame for England's isolated position in her 

 national neglect for science. May I point out that in the 

 education of our future working classes equally unscientific 

 ideals still prevail ? 



The recent revie\v of Mr. Mair's book in Nature of 

 June 13 (p. 1471 under the title " Realistic School Mathe- 

 matics" shows that there is one Government department 

 which is striving to introduce thoroughly sound and prac- 

 tical, and therefore scientific, methods of teaching into 

 this country. But the training colleges in which teachers 

 for elementary schools are educated at the expense of the 

 State are tied down, by examination requirements, to 

 courses which cannot be described otherwise than as use- 

 less mechanical drudgery, with the result that the student 

 who obtains the highest class certificate of competency to 

 teach becomes thoroughly unfitted to appreciate or even 

 understand such a stimulating book as " .V .School Course 

 of Mathematics." The children who are taught by such 

 a teacher w'ill in time become the electors in whose hands 

 lies the duty of returning, a Conservative or Liberal 

 Government to power. I'niess the teachers are trained on 

 more scientific and practical lines, there is little prospect 

 of any Government being administered scientifically. 



One further point may be mentioned. In Germany and I 

 .■\ustria the Government confers titles of honour — Geheimratij 

 and Hofrat — on professors who have distinguished them- 

 selves by their researches. In Great Britain it is the | 

 universities which confer honorary degrees on prominent j 

 politicians. G. H. Bryan. 



