August 22, 1907] 



NATURE 



415 



But the worst of a pessimistic outcry about the 

 over-rapid development of science is that it is talien up 

 by the j^reneral public, one section of which is always 

 hoping- that what is unintelligible is really meaning- 

 less, and may be safely ridiculed or ignored. So it has 

 happened that a strange sentence in Prof. Smithells's 

 address, which I will quote directly, is made the text 

 for a singular attack by a leading article writer in 

 the Timca of August 6 apparently against the Cam- 

 bridge school of mathematical and' experimental physi- 

 cists, which for a long time now has been in the eyes 

 of the world one of the scientific glories of this island. 

 The quotation is as follows :• — 



" There is never more cause for anxiety than when 

 we see a mathematical theory awaiting the delivery 

 of the confirmatorv facts; and there is nothing more 

 important for chemistry than the continual recruiting 

 of that old guard which will be ever ready to stand to 

 arms on the appearance of an eager theorist." 



Now it is an old and recognised tradition that 

 mathematical prediction of a fact to be subsequently 

 confirmed by experiment is the highest achievement 

 of science. The clearer the prediction, and the more 

 rigorous the subsequent verification, the greater should 

 be the jov among all those who wish for the advance- 

 ment of natural knowledge. 



That the theory should be completely intelligible to 

 those comparatively ignorant of mathematics, until 

 the fact has been arrived at experimentally, is not 

 to be expected ; and that a few should suppose that 

 the prediction is only really forthcoming after the 

 event — which is when they first hear of it — is also not 

 unnatural. But the preparation of a theoretical niche 

 for a fact, either just discovered or just on the verge 

 of being discovered, is a piece of work involving the 

 highest faculty of scientific insight; and it is to be 

 hoped that the public arc not going to be misled into 

 a depreciation of the work of all except those who, 

 very rightly, collect an assemblage of facts. 



There is room for workers of all kinds towards the 

 progress of science, and the encouragement and 

 countenance of the public is one of the conditions ; for 

 often enough the difficulties of the work itself are more 

 than discouraging, and if uncertainty as to its recep- 

 tion or appreciation bv the contemporary human race 

 is to be added, then it is to be feared that the discour- 

 agement may in some cases become complete. Such a 

 catastrophe actually happened in the case of Thomas 

 Young; but it was not the outcome of a meeting of 

 the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 Probably the real Intention of the president of Sec- 

 tion B was to caution certain physical chemists, and 

 perhaps to restrain or rebuke some of the Ostwald 

 school in his own section ; a matter well within his 

 jurisdiction. Indeed, if he only wishes to express dis- 

 like at an attempted replacement of ordinary dynamics 

 by a vaguer "energetics," he will find sympathisers 

 among the physicists ; as witness the following quota- 

 tion from an article by the late G. F. FitzGcrald in 

 Nature for March 12, 1S06 (reproduced in his collec- 

 tion, " Scientific ^^'ritings," p. 387). with reference to 

 an article by Prof. Ostwald called " Emancipation 

 from Scientific Materialism." I must add, however, 

 that FitzGerald was a keen admirer of the work of 

 Prof. Ostwald in general, though in this particular 

 doctrine, especially on its negative side, he did not 

 consider that he was on a hopeful path. The quotation 

 is as follows : — 



" There are so many vague fallacies underlying it, 

 that it would hardlv be worth answering, only that 

 there is considerable risk that others, chemists especi- 

 ally, may be carried away by the arguments of one 

 whom they rightly value as a leader in their own 



domain, when he descants positively about the realm' 

 of mechanics." 



For the present purpose I need not enter upon a 

 discussion of this matter : there is doubtless much that 

 can be said on both sides. If the president of Section 

 B had so expressed himself as to drive home this kind 

 of caution among the members of his own section, 

 without appearing to refer to better known and more 

 immediately prominent subjects of debate, I should 

 have said no word ; and I desire it to be clearly under- 

 stood that I am not now expressing any opinion oa 

 this subject. But, unfortunately, that is not how his 

 address has been regarded from outside, nor is it the 

 interpretation to which certain phrases, such a& 

 "chemistry of phantoms," "exuberance of mathe- 

 matical speculation," readily lend themselves. It is in 

 the hope that damaging misunderstanding may be 

 avoided that this article is written. Oliver Lodge. 



T' 



A TRIAD OF SPORTING BOOKS.' 

 O the author of the volume standing first on the 

 given belovi', the wilderness from time to 

 time calls with such persistence and force that to hear 

 is practically to obey; and, whether to shoot wild 

 goats in the Taurus,' to collect vultures" and eagles' 

 eggs in Asia Minor or Spain, or to track the lordly 

 moose and the branching-antlered caribou in the wilds 

 of the far North-West, Mr. Selous returns _\ear after 

 year with unabated zest to the roving life of hi& 

 earlier South African days. That the public benefits 

 from this restless disposition can scarcely be denied, 

 for although he cannot be credited with anything 

 special in "the matter of literary style, the author of 

 " Recent Hunting Trips " writes with that freshness 

 and verve that almost transports the reader to the 

 very scenes of his adventures and triumphs. Nor is 

 this all, for Mr. Selous is essentially of a generous 

 nature, and it is but seldom that he returns from one 

 of his sporting trips without some important additiorj 

 accruing to the national museum. 



In the volume now before us, the author gives an 

 account of his experiences during several shooting 

 trips to British North America, undertaken between 

 the years 1900 and 1906 (inclusive) in search of moose, 

 caribou, and wild sheep; these, which include two 

 visits to Newfoundland, comprising the whole of his 

 hunting in this portion of the New World. In the 

 preface, Mr. Selous records his opinion with regard 

 to the closure to the sportsman of the central districts 

 of American Alaska — an opinion worth quoting, as it 

 has a bearing on so-called game-preservation in other 

 parts of the world. .'Mthough the sportsman, who 

 would be content with a few good trophies of male 

 animals to add to his collection, is completely shut out, 

 the game is by no means protected. The Indians, 

 for instance, armed with modern weapons, _ can 

 apparently shoot as they will, and spare no animals 

 of either sex or of whatever age which come in their 

 way, while meat-hunters of European blood are no 

 less destructive. Although the Indian doubtless has 

 the justification that he shoots, in part, at any rate, for 

 his own maintenance, yet it is he and his whitefellow- 

 countrymen who, in the author's opinion, will ulti- 

 mately bring about the extermination of the game 

 with which the land now abounds, unless the whole 

 system of game legislature is altered, and that 

 speedily. 



I " Recent Hunting Trips in British North America." By F. C. Selous. 

 Pp. 400 ; illustrated. (London: Witherby and Co., 1907.) Pricej6j.net. 



"Game and Game Covens." By John Simpson. Pp. 83; 16 plates. 

 (Sheffield ; Pawson and Brailsford.) London : County (Sentlemen's Asso- 

 ciation, Ltd., 1907.) Price i5.r. 



'• How' to Fish : a Treatise on Trout and Trout-fishing." By W. E. 

 Hodgson. Pp. xii-f 377. (Londorr: A. and C. Blacl', 1907.) Price 3^. 6r/. 



NO. 1973, VOL. 76] 



