August 6, 1908] 



NA TURE 



Z^l 



with this subject. But there is a great deal of valuable 

 matter gathered here bearing on its properties, and it 

 may very usefully be consulted. 



(4) The somewhat inclusive title of the fourth 

 volume under review covers a course of lectures on 

 elementary physics and chemistry. Few alterations 

 liave been made from the earlier editions. A lecture 

 lias been added on liquid air. The book has found 

 manv friends, as we might have expected, and we have 

 no doubt it will find many more. 



(5) In this second edition of Dr. Mie's boolc a short 

 section on radio-active bodies has been added. When 

 it is stated that this occupies part only of a single 

 page, it will be clear that it is not a detailed account. 

 It is concerned only with the question of the composite 

 (lature of an atom and the transmutation of the ele- 

 ments. A few emendations have been made in the te.xt 

 to increase the lucidity. 



(6) A short lecture on the relation of physics to other 

 sciences, in the light of modern work on physical 

 chemistry and recent discoveries of the non-valent gases 

 and of radio-activity. While admitting the necessity 

 of specialisation, it is urged that a broad outlook 

 should be encouraged. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 



Refrigeration : an Elementary Text-hook. By J. 

 W'emyss Anderson. Pp. i.x+242. (London : Long- 

 mans, Green and Co., 1908.) Price js. 6d. net. 

 The increasing use of refrigerating processes in the 

 distribution and preservation of food, and also in many 

 important industries, has already called for a special 

 type of engineer who must possess a knowledge, not 

 onlv of machines and mechanism, but also of the 

 theoretical properties of heat. Nowadays, when the 

 market for electrical engineers is becoming uncom- 

 fortably crowded, young men would do well to con- 

 sider the prospects open to them as refrigerating 

 engineers. To those who wish to enter this profession 

 Air. -Anderson's book will be most welcome as an 

 introduction to the fundamental principles on which 

 modern refrigerating processes depend. 



The treatment of the subject is accurate and lucid, 

 and in all cases the necessary mathematical investiga- 

 tions are reduced to their simplest elements, many 

 numerical examples being added. The first three 

 chapters are devoted to a brief risume of the elemen- 

 tarv properties of heat, including radiation, conduction, 

 and convection. In chapters iv. and v. the elastic and 

 thermal properties of fluids are dealt with. A simple 

 explanation of the first and second laws of thermo- 

 dynamics is given in chapter vi. The remaining six 

 chapters are of a more practical character, special 

 attention being paid to the solution of problems which 

 arise in connection with refrigerating processes. Cold- 

 air machines, vapour machines, compression machines 

 and absorption plants are described in chapter vii. The 

 liquefaction of air is considered in chapter viii., and 

 ice-making in chapter ix. 



.\ very important branch of the subject is dealt with 

 in chapter x., where the methods of insulating and 

 cooling large chambers are described and illustrated. 

 Miscellaneous uses of refrigeration are considered in 

 chapters xi. and xii. ; in order to appreciate the extent 

 to which refrigerating processes are used industriallv, 

 it is only necessary to glance through the contents of 

 these chapters. Ice-making is in demand for general 

 purposes, and for .skating rinks and curling ponds. 



NO. 2023, VOL. 78] 



General cooling is used for keeping meat and other 

 food-stuffs, and for increasing the yield of butter from 

 milk. Special cooling arrangements are required for 

 keeping ammunition (such as cordite) in a proper con- 

 dition. The growth of plants and shrubs is checked, 

 and unripe fruit is kept so that it can ripen according 

 to the market, by the aid of suitable methods of 

 cooling. 



In general engineering, refrigerating processes are 

 used for drying the air supplied to blast furnaces, and 

 for hardening sandy or boggy soils in order that tun- 

 nels may be made or shafts sunk. Cooling processes 

 are also largely used in the brewing industsy. Mr. 

 .Anderson does not profess to treat of these applications 

 of refrigeration in detail, and the design of refriger- 

 ating machines is not dealt with; but the student com- 

 mencing the study of the subject cannot do better than 

 master the contents of Mr. .Anderson's book, after 

 which he will be in a position to understand the nature 

 of the problems which confront a refrigerating en- 

 gineer, and upon the solution of which his success will 

 depend. E. Edser. 



Ceylon. A Handbook for the Resident and the Travel- 

 ler. By Dr. J. C. Willis, Colombo Apothecaries' 

 Company. Pp. x+247+iv. (London : Dulau and 

 Co., 1907.) Price 5s. net. 

 The Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Ceylon 

 explains that he is the author of this handbook bv de- 

 fault. He was of opinion that a handbook was 

 needed, and having failed to persuade one better quali- 

 fied than himself to become the author, Dr. Willis 

 undertook to write the book himself. He gravelv in- 

 forms us in the preface that the idea was to write a 

 comprehensive work of about 1000 pages, and that 

 having devoted eight months of his leisure to writing 

 the agricultural section he found that this alone would 

 take 125 pages of the present book in print, whilst 

 on the same scale the entire volume would take him 

 ten years to complete. The chapter on agriculture 

 was therefore reserved as the basis of a separate 

 volume on tropical agriculture, and the nresent book 

 o( 244 pages was written with the assistance of many 

 friends and authorities in the island. 



The book includes a brief account of the natural 

 features of Ceylon, of its history and peoples, with 

 descriptions of roads, railways, towns and villages, 

 and of the principal industries, with chapters on sports 

 and games. It contains two small sketch-maps of 

 Ceylon, and is illustrated with numerous photographs, 

 many of which are excellent. As a whole the book i= 

 disappointing. It can, of course, lay no claim to com- 

 parison w-ith Emerson Tennent's famous w^ork, and 

 the author's style is crude and has none of the charm 

 of Sir Samuel Baker's. A great deal of information, 

 solid and trivial, is conveyed in a terse but loose gram- 

 matical style of which the following sentences are 

 examples : — " The Museum is closed for cleaning on 

 Fridays and admission is always free." "Water is 

 usually pretty bad in the low country and should 

 always be filtered before use, though if used for tea- 

 making unfiltered the boiling will have about killed 

 all germs." 



" The native who has lost his taste for his own art 

 is in regard to whatever style of art he adopts among 

 the most inartistic people on the face of the earth, as 

 one glance into anv native house furnished in Euro- 

 pean stvle will show. Many are in the worst style of 

 early Victorian, whereas a native house furnished in 

 the old native manner is a pleasing sicrht." 



.As the work of a man of science the book is dis- 

 tinctly disappointing, and is little, if any, improve- 

 ment on the Ceylon handbook to the St. Louis Exhibi- 

 tion, on which the author has largely drawn. The 



