March 25, 1909 J 



NATURE 



95 



is described, on p. 91, as Thuya excelsa, a name 

 unknown to botanists. The author is unaware that 

 it is alreadj' described in the preceding- page under 

 its correct name, Ciipressiis nootkatensis. The note 

 on p. 77 about Douglas fir is misleading. The two 

 kinds of this timber, which are distinguished by the 

 Western lumberman, are " red fir " and " yellow fir," 

 the colour and quality varying with the rate of 

 growth of individual trees of the same species. The 

 statement that only 500 Wellingtonia trees are now 

 living is quite inaccurate, as this species occurs in 

 countless numbers in the southern part of its area 

 in the Sierra Nevada. 



Man)- more instances might be given of the care- 

 lessness with which this compilation has been made. 

 These errors detract seriously from the value of the 

 book to tlie student. The price is cheap, only six 

 shillings for 350 pages and 54 illustrations ; and the 

 practical man, for whom the work is intended, may 

 find it worth the money, in spite of its inaccuracies. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Biology and its Makers; with Portraits and other 

 Illustrations. By Prof. W. A. Locy. Pp. .xxvi + 

 469. (New York : Henry Holt and Co. ; London : 

 G. Bell and Sons, 1908.) Price los. 6d. net. 

 This is a carefully executed historical introduction to 

 the study of biology, and should prove very useful to 

 students. Its aim is to sketch the broad features of 

 biological progress, " and to increase the human in- 

 terest by writing the story around the lives of the 

 great leaders." Prof. Locy has shown shrewd judg- 

 ment and a praiseworthy restraint in his selection 

 of subjects, the result being that the student can get 

 from this book a general view of the development of 

 biology, yet with enough concrete illustration and 

 biographical information to be vivid. The author has 

 evidently gone to the original documents, and he has 

 had his reward; he has given us a book full of fresh 

 interest and suggestion. In the course of years Prof. 

 Locy has made a large collection of interesting por- 

 traits of biologists, many of which adorn the walls 

 of his laboratory at Evanston, and point a moral too. 

 Of this collection he exhibits a fine sample in this 

 volume. Some of the rarer ones are unfamiliar even 

 to biologists, and have been discovered only after long 

 search in libraries. 



The book is divided into two sections. " In the 

 first are considered the sources of the ideas — except 

 those of organic evolution — that dominate biology, and 

 the steps by which they have been moulded into a 

 science." The succession of chapters is as follows : — 

 Aristotle and his foundations ; Vesalius and the over- 

 throw of authority in science; Harvev and experi- 

 mental observation; the introduction of the micro- 

 scope and the progress of independent observation ; 

 the progress of minute anatomy ; Linnaeus and scien- 

 tific natural history; Cuvier and the rise of compara- 

 tive anatomy ; Bichat and the birth of histology ; the 

 rise of physiology — Harvey, Haller, and Johannes 

 Miiller ; Von Baer and the rise of embryologv ; the 

 cell-theory — Schleiden, Schwann, and Schultze; pro- 

 toplasm the physical basis of life; the work of Pasteur, 

 Koch, and others; heredity and germinal continuitv 

 — Mendel, Galton, and Weismann ; and the science 

 •of fossil life (a bad title). The second part of the 

 book deals with the evolution theory, and the last 

 chapter contains an interesting retrospect and pro- 

 spect. 



NO. 2056, VOL. 80] 



It is difficult to avoid misprints when dealing with 

 many names and titles ; we may note in illustration 

 the title of Lej'dig's treatise of 1864 (p. 102), Weiss- 

 mann (p. 109), Fleming (p. 256), Carl Pearson (p. 318), 

 Neumayer (p. 352), Downs as Darwin's home (p. 426). 

 Is it the case that Darwin spoke of " incredibly dull 

 lectures " at Cambridge? We doubt if it can be 

 said that Lamarck was the first to use a genealogical 

 tree to express relationship of types, for was not Pallas 

 earlier? But these are trifling blemishes in a whole- 

 some and interesting book, and we offer Prof. Locy 

 our congratulations. J. A. T. 



Psvcliologie als Grutidivissenschaft der Padagogik. 



Ein Lehr- und Handbuch unter Mitwirkung von 



Seminardirektor Dr. K. Heilmann, herausgegeben 



von Direktor Dr. M. Jahn. Fiinfte verbesserte und 



vermehrte Auflage. Pp. xii + 527. (Leipzig : Verlag 



der Diirr'schen Buchhandlung, 1907.) Price 7.50 



marks. 



" The psychological principles useful to the teacher 



could be written on the palm of the hand." This 



dictum of the psychologist who is himself the most 



brilliant teacher of his subject to the English-speaking 



world rises in the mind by force of inevitable contrast 



as one takes up this portentous volume. 



Five hundred and six large and well-filled pages 

 are the space which Dr. Jahn demands for the 

 exposition of the psychology that he and his 

 colleague regard as the necessary scientific founda- 

 tion for the professional studies of German peda- 

 gogues — and their estimate has been endorsed by 

 their public to the extent of five editions. No one 

 — at least in this country — could pretend that the 

 knowledge of all that is contained between these 

 covers is necessary to professional salvation. As Mr. 

 Benson has said, " A brisk, idle man with a knack of 

 exposition and the art of clear statement can be a 

 scandalously effective teacher." But if we are to have 

 practitioners of the art of teaching comparable ' in 

 point of professional culture with our engineers, our 

 architects, and our medical men, there is no doubt 

 that the topics discussed in this volume must become 

 much more commonly studied among us than they are 

 at present. 



To the student who reads German with fair facility 

 and is not in a hurry, Dr. Jahn's book may be warmly 

 recommended. It is lucidly, though not brilliantly, 

 written ; it is clearly and sensibly arranged, though it 

 preaches no strongly individualised doctrine ; it is en- 

 cyclopEcdic in range, and abreast of the present 

 development of the subjects it touches. The notes at 

 the end of each section, and the select bibliography at 

 the end of the book, will be found a very useful guide 

 to more extended reading — though the English and 

 French works recommended appear to be confined to 

 *hose thai have been translated into German. 



.4 Brief Course in Elementary Dynamics for Students 



of Engineering. By Ervin S. Ferry. Pp. xi+182. 



(New York : The Macmillan Co. ; London : Mac- 



millan and Co., Ltd., 1908.) Price s^- net. 



\ WORK on elementary dynamics written especially 



for engineers gives one reason to expect something 



rather different from the usual text-book on purely 



mathematical lines, but the present work does not 



appear to have any particular interest for an 



engineering student. We are asked to consider the 



usual problems of blocks sliding down inclined planes, 



particles moving in circles, ladders leaning against 



walls, and, in fact, we find all the usual paraphernalia 



which the mathematical schoolmaster has invented 



for teaching the subject. 



The work must therefore be regarded quite apart 



