488 



NATURE 



[June 24, 1909 



intricate f^colof^ical problems, is exceediiifjly favour- 

 able proline! for the development of an interest in 

 j:;eoIot,'v, not only from a purely scientific, but also 

 from a commercial standpoint. That such an interest 

 was abundantly manifest in the earlier half of the 

 last century is shown by records of numerous courses 

 of lectures at the various public institutions, and by 

 allonipts to found a gfeolofjical society both in 1840 

 and 1850. The latter venture lasted but a year, the 

 earlier not so long-. 



The present society, with the history of which the 

 handsome volume now under review is concerned, 

 ijrew out of a " Younjj Men's Society " connected 

 with Free St. Peter's Church. It was inaug^uratcd 

 on May 17, 1S58, by eight youngf men, and by the 

 end of its first summer and winter sessions had 

 achieved a membership of ninetj'-eight. Since then 

 the society has gone on and prospered. No provincial 

 geological society can show a better record of work 

 done or a more valuable series of Transactions than 

 the Glasgow society. This is partly due to the excep- 

 tionally favourable surroundings, and partly to the 

 fact that the society was able to secure contributions 

 from men like Lord Kelvin, Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 Prof. Lapworth, and others, some of which have 

 become geological classics. 



This jubilee commemoration volume begins with 

 a brief account of the geology of the Clyde district. 

 Then follows a notice of some of the earlier workers 

 in the geology of this area, amongst whom may be 

 mentioned the Rev David Ure, author of the 

 " History of Rutherglen and East Kilbride " (1793), 

 containing the first descriptions and plates of western 

 Scottish fossils; and John Craig, theologian, poet and 

 geologist. 



Chapter ii. contains a very full and interesting 

 account of the origin and early historv of the society, 

 reprinted from a paper by Mr. T. M. Barr in the 

 Transactions, vol. vii. The ensuing chapters contain 

 reviews of the fifty years' work of the society in 

 various branches of geological inquiry. Physical and 

 dynamical geology is dealt with by Prof. J. W. 

 Gregory, who gives a convenient summary of Lord 

 Kelvin's early papers. The chapter on stratigraphical 

 geology has been conlrlbutcd by Mr. P. Macnair, that 

 on mineralogy and petrology by Mr. Jos. Sommerville, 

 and that on glacial geology by Mr. John Smith. 

 Special praise must be given to the chapter on 

 palaeontological geology by Mr. James Neilson. This 

 is really a most valuable summary of western Scottish 

 palaeontology, especially of the Carboniferous rocks. 



Later chapters are devoted to biographical notices of 

 some of the society's more prominent members. There 

 is here quite a galaxy of famous names, amongst 

 which we note those of Lord Kelvin (president for 

 twenty-one years). Sir A. Geikie, Prof. C. Lapworth, 

 Dr. B. N. Peach, James Smith of Jordanhill, R. H. 

 Traquair, and Thos. Davidson, .-ill, with the exception 

 of the last-named, past-presidents of the society. 



The book is well got up and illustrated by a fine 



series of photographs of prominent members. The 



editing seems to have been excellently done, the 



only errors discoverable being the substitution of 



NO. 2069, VOL. 80] 



" stations " for " sections " in the quoted title of a 

 paper on p. 104. and the unaccountable omission of 

 the names of T. G. Bonney, H. Woodward, and 

 J. J. H. Teall from the list of honorary members at 

 the end of the volume. G. W. T. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 

 Unitds Electriques. By Le Comte de Baillehache. 



Pp. x+202. (Paris : Dunod et Pinat, 1909.) Price 



6 francs. 

 SoMK time before the Cambridge school of physicists 

 (which we have heard irreverently termed the " ion- 

 catchers ") had made even the man in the street more 

 or less familiar with molecular dimensions, a cele- 

 brated mathematician had been making some calcula- 

 tions as to atomic quantities. Me was much sur- 

 prised at the results he obtained. On looking over 

 his work he was unable to find any mistake, but, 

 nevertheless, felt sure something was amiss. At last 

 a humble physicist was able to point out to him that 

 he had forgotten to multiply by " v," his result being, 

 therefore, only some thirty thousand million times too 

 small, which put things more or less right. In this 

 case the enormity of the error made excited grave 

 suspicion, but it is not easy to say how many times 

 in ordinary practice grave errors may not have arisen, 

 for example, in the magnetic testing of iron, from 

 failure to remember that the C.G.S. unit of current 

 is not an ampere. 



Count Baillchachc's book is a useful and up-to- 

 date summary of practically all that is required to 

 be known by the physicist, engineer and technologist 

 about electrical units of all kinds, dealing with 

 matters even as recent as the Congress of Electricians 

 held in London during October last. 



Though nominally confined to electric units, the 

 book deals in a preliminary chapter with units in 

 general, and commences with definitions and a clear 

 account of the evolution of the various systems in use. 



A chapter on the metric system follows a fairly 

 complete history of the work done in the establish- 

 ment of the metre and the kilogram, and the deter- 

 mination of the volume of the kilogram of water. 



The bulk of the book consists of a description of 

 both the C.G.S. system and the various systems of 

 practical electrical units and standards, the equations 

 to their dimensions, their relations to one another, 

 with a number of conveniently arranged tables. 



Some account is also given of the legislation of the 

 various countries on electrical matters, and of the 

 labours of the various electrical congresses. 



Full historical details of the evolution of the ohm, 

 volt, &c., and the construction of the practical 

 standards of the same,, such as mercury-tube resist- 

 ances, the various forms of Clark and Weston cells, 

 &c., arc also found. 



The book appears to have been carefully compiled, 

 and we h.ave not detected any serious errors. We 

 cordially recommend it to practical physicists and 

 electricians. J. A. Marker. 



Traits de Mathi^matiques g^nfrales a I'tisage des 



Chimistcs, Physicictis, Ingitueurs, et des El&ves des 



FactilUs des Science. By Prof. E. Fabry. Pp. 



.\+440. (Paris : A. Hermann et Fils, 1909.) 



Price francs. 

 In 440 octavo pages of generously spaced printing, the 

 author gives trraiises on algebra, analytical geometry, 

 the calculus, including differential equations, and even 

 partial differential equations and mechanics. The 

 book is very interesting, as it is intended for persons 

 presumably not very mathematical, and there is hardlv 



