54 



NA TURE 



[May 2 1, 1908 



e.g. the difliculties which the author raises in con- 

 nection with the energy of wave motion. No good 

 can come of ignoring the vast number of papers that 

 have been pubHshcd dealing with such difficuhies. 



There are hundreds of books already written in the 

 same polemic spirit as " Nephilim." The author of 

 each of these books believes himself to be right and 

 everyone else to be wrong, and nearly every possible 

 perriiutation of the words " force," " energy," 

 "atom," "ether," "gravitation," and such like is 

 represented in the different meanings (if any) the 

 different writers attach to these terms. It would be 

 well if future would-be writers of such books would 

 try their hand at evolving some kind of order out of 

 this tangled mass of mutually contradictory tirades 

 before adding to the collection. 



he Principe de la Conservation de V Assise et ses 

 Applications. Bv George Matisse. Pp. 65. (Paris : 

 Libraire scientifique, A. Hermann, 1907.) Price 

 2.50 francs. 

 This small pamphlet describes clearly , and simply 

 certain applications of Carnot's principle to physical 

 problems. The unique feature of the book is indicated 

 in the title. The word " assise " groups together 

 certain variables which refer to distinct physical quan- 

 tities, but which enter into the equations of energy 

 in the same manner. The only equivalent English 

 word we can suggest is the word " fundamental." 

 The solution of many types of problem may then be 

 said to depend on the two principles of the conserv- 

 ation of the fundamental and the conservation of 

 energv. The differential of energy depends in general 

 O'l a product of the form xdy, the precise meaning of 

 X and dv depending on the kind of problem under 

 contemplation, electrical, thermal, elastic, mechan- 

 ical, or chemical, as the case may be. In these 

 several cases the "assise," symbolised above by dy, 

 is respectively electric quantity, entropy, volume, 

 length, and mass. Such quantities all obey the con- 

 servation law, which the author concisely defines in 

 these words : — Under the action of physical and 

 chemical phenomena there can be no creation of 

 electricity, of space (linear or cubical), of entropy, or 

 of matter. Four applications are given in which the 

 principle of the Carnot cvcle is ingeniously utilised. 

 The novel use of the word " assise " seems to be the 

 main feature of the pamphlet ; otherwise there is not 

 much which calls for special remark. 



The Case for the Goat. With the practical experience 

 of twenty-four experts. By " Home Counties." 

 Pp. X+162. (London: George Routledge and 

 Sons, Ltd., igo8.) Price 35. 6d. 

 It is hoped this little book may help to remove 

 ignorant prejudice against the goat, and induce small 

 holders, labourers, and many rural residents to keep 

 this valuable animal. The advantages to be derived 

 from the " poor man's cow " are very imperfectly 

 known in England, and the author sets himself to 

 show what they really are. Goat's milk, he points 

 out, is often as rich again as cow's milk; it may 

 practically be guaranteed to be free from the bacillus 

 of tuberculosis, and is a very valuable food for chil- 

 dren, especially for those who cannot digest cow's 

 milk. Moreover, the amount of milk goats yield, and 

 the ease with which food is to be found for them — they 

 will pick up a living in the hedgerows — ensures a 

 very cheap supply of food for rural owners ; while they 

 thrive as hand-fed occupants of back yards in the 

 suburbs, and require no more space than a big dog. 



The author complains that the Board of .Agriculture 

 does not see its way to include the goat in its agri- 



NO. 2012, VOL. 78] 



cultural census, treating it as a negligible quantity, 

 while a further bitter grievance against the Board is 

 due to its refusal to permit the importation of new 

 blood under guaranteed restrictions, when the goat 

 stock of the kingdom is suffering from in-breeding to 

 a deplorable extent. Less than a score of stock goats 

 are urgently required for this purpose, and the Board's 

 action is not inaptly described as " an oppressive 

 absurdity. " 



The different breeds of goats suitable for this 

 country, their management, breeding, and the sub- 

 stantial profit to be made out of them is clearlv set 

 forth. It is an interesting little book, and the author 

 surely proves his case. 



Confessio Medici. By the writer of " The Young 

 People." Pp. xi-i-158. (London: Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd., igo8.) Price 35. 6d. net. 



" Confessio Medici," a title which naturally recalls 

 that of another book by a great physician, need not 

 fear comparison even with Sir Thomas Browne's im- 

 mortal work, and surely no higher praise can be 

 accorded it. In a series of essays on such subjects as 

 " vocation," " hospital life," " practice," " retirement," 

 " the very end," &c., the author presents to the reader 

 a survey of the responsibilities, the foibles, the hopes, 

 the failures of medical practice. We wish that every 

 student of medicine during his student days would 

 read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest their practical 

 wisdom and happy ma.\ims, and many a practitioner 

 whose finer feelings have perhaps become blunted by 

 too close contact with a stringent life would rise up 

 the better from their perusal. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



IThe 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/ Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications .] 



Who Built the Aberdeen Stone Circles? 



In an article in Nature of .\pril 9 dealing with the 

 orientation of the Aberdeen stone circles. Sir Norman 

 Lockyer says : — " Another of the associated inquiries will 

 be to see if the area of the recumbent stone has also special 

 ethnological or craniological characteristics." It may be 

 of interest, in this connection, to point out that the short 

 cist skeletons in the anatomical museum of Aberdeen 

 University have been derived from an area coinciding very 

 closely with that of the Aberdeen stone circles. These 

 skeletons have been recently measured by Dr. Low (see 

 Proceedings of the Anatomical and Anthropological Society, 

 University of Aberdeen, 1902-6), and the measurements, 

 as I showed in a paper read before the British Associa- 

 tion at York, reveal the existence, in the early Bronze 

 age, in this district, of a race significantly different from 

 all the prehistoric racial types previously determined in 

 Britain. This race is hyperbrachycephalic, having an 

 average cephalic index of 85, and it is of short stature, 

 5 feet 3 inches. It differs from the Neolithic race, which 

 was markedly dolichocephalic, and it also differs from the 

 Bronze age race of the round tumuli, whose inde.x was 78 

 and stature 5 feet g inches. 



The origin of this prehistoric Aberdeenshire race, with 

 a cephalic index so much higher than that of all known 

 races in neighbouring countries, is at present one of the 

 unsolved problems of British ethnology. Its close associa- 

 tion with a special form of stone circles may help to throw 

 some light on the origin of these interesting monuments, 

 as well as on its own. J. Gray. 



London, S.W., Mav 11. 



