September 17, 1908] 



NATURE 



475 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 



The Influence of Alcohol and oilier Dru^s on Fatigue. 



The Croonian Lectures delivered at the Royal 



College of Physicians in 1906. By Dr. W. H. R. 



Rivers. Pp. viii+136. (London: Edward .Arnold, 



1908.) Price 6s. net. 

 In these the Croonian lectures delivered before the 

 Royal College of Physicians, London, in 1906, the 

 author details the results obtained in an experimental 

 research on the influence of certain drugs — caffeine, 

 alcohol, cocaine, strychnine, and tobacco — on 

 muscular and mental fatigue. The method employed 

 for estimating muscular fatigue was by means of an 

 ergograph, the latest form of Kraepelin's modification 

 of Mosso's instrument, the records being obtained 

 graphically in the form of an ergogram, and repre- 

 senting the movements of one joint. Mental fatigue, 

 or more precisely the fatigue of attention, was studied 

 by McDougall's method, in which the subject has to 

 hit a succession of dots which pass before him across 

 a slit. Many factors which may influence the results 

 were recognised and allowed for, such as the effects 

 of attention, interest in the work, conversation, the 

 habitual use of the substances experimented with, 

 e.g. caffeine in tea and coffee, alcoholic drinks and 

 smoking, &c. The disturbing influence of such 

 factors was very well shown, for example, in the case 

 of tea and coffee — withholding these beverages before 

 commencing the experiments with caffeine was found 

 to be followed by a loss of energy, so that the earlier 

 ergographic records became untrustworthy as in- 

 dicating the effects of caffeine when administered. 

 The flavour of the drugs also had to be disguised, so 

 that the subject was unaware when he was or was 

 not taking them. 



The general results obtained may be summarised 

 as follows : — caffeine in moderate doses (about o'3 

 gram of the citrate) increases the capacity for both 

 muscular and mental work, the stimulating action 

 persisting for some time, and not being followed by 

 any depressant action. Excessive doses, however, 

 after a transitorv stimulant action, are followed by a 

 depressant action so marked that the drug in such 

 circumstances becomes an accelerator of fatigue ; in 

 fact, caffeine may be a dangerous remedy in cases of 

 prolonged fatigue. 



.\lcohol in small doses (5-10 c.c.) seemed to pro- 

 duce little effect, in larger doses (20-40 c.c.) the action 

 was variable; in a subject not used to alcohol, sweat- 

 ing, giddiness, and other symptoms often ensued; 

 the muscular work was at first increased, afterwards 

 diminished, but there was a good deal of irregularity 

 in the results, and this portion of the research is 

 being continued, and the problem is one of great 

 complexity. The capacity for mental work on the 

 whole seemed to be lowered. 



The researches carried out by Dr. Rivers are of 

 great interest and importance, and it is to be hoped 

 that they will be continued and extended to the other 

 drugs mentioned. 



Tlie Moral Ideal; a Historic Study. By Julia Wedg- 

 wood. New and revised edition. Pp. xi + 504. 

 (London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibncr and Co., 

 Ltd., 1907.) Price lox. 6d. net. 

 The first edition of this book was published twenty 

 years ago. It is indicative of the soundness of the 

 original work as well as of the completeness of the 

 revision that the numerous interpolated references to 

 recent events and contemporary thought seem never 

 to have an adventitious but always a natural and 

 integral connection with the context in which they 

 appear. The book is intended to be a contribution to 

 the " history of human aspiration," which the author 



NO. 2029, VOL. 78] 



regards as " the clue to all history," believing that 

 " a partial and incomplete revelation of what men 

 have sought to be tells us more of their true nature 

 than does the most exhaustive record of what they 

 have accomplished." From this point of view she 

 gives a number of studies of the moral ideals which 

 may be taken as characteristic of the races whose 

 life has at different times formed part of the main 

 stream of human progress. The spiritual histories 

 of Egypt, India, Persia, Greece, and Rome are re- 

 viewed in succession, and an attempt is made to 

 signalise the elements of cardinal importance which 

 each has contributed to the moral development of 

 Europe. Chapters follow dealing with the evolution 

 of the moral consciousness of Christianity otit of the 

 mingled elements of eastern and western origin, while 

 in a final study the author seeks to determine the 

 relation of these earlier aspirations to the moral life 

 of the present day, and considers, in particular, the 

 relations between moralitv and modern science. 



In her earlier chapters' Miss Wedgwood appears to 

 have followed the recognised authorities upon oriental 

 history and religion, but from the point where she 

 reaches the studv of Greek ideals she depends largely 

 upon her own reading and observation, and displavs 

 a fund of erudition as striking in profundity as it is 

 engaging in quality. The variety and beauty of her 

 illustrations from manv literatures would alone suffice 

 to make her pages interesting and impressive even 

 if they were not decorated by the writer's own 

 eloquence, sweetened by her catholic svmpathy, and 

 illuminated by her splendid moral enthusiasm. 



Electricity: What is it? By W. Denhani Verschoyle. 



Pp. X11 + 2S9. (London: Swan Sonnenschein and 



Co., Ltd., 1908.) Price 2s. 6d. net. 

 The main object of this book is to sustain the con- 

 tention that something more than the usually accepted 

 electrical idea is needed if we would aim at solving 

 the many problems which exist around us. 



To solve these problems on the modern electrical 

 theory, it is generallv recognised that we still require 

 as postulates :— (i) Positive electricity, (2) negative 

 electricity, (3) an attractive force between them, (4) 

 jether, (5) gravity, (6) life. " There seems at present 

 no possibility of' further consolidation in these pre- 

 mises ; they remain, as between themselves, isolated 

 facts, having no relation to one another. We cannot 

 express life in terms of positive electricity, for in- 

 stance; or gravity, in terms of positive and negative 

 eltctricity " (p. 232). 



The author of this book, however, startmg merely 

 with three postulates, (i) absolute energy, (2) ather, 

 (3) some form of interaction between them, develops 

 a theory which claims to admit of the main facts of 

 natural phenomena being arranged "in a homo- 

 geneous and inter-related series." The fundamental 

 (though by no means new) conception of the theory 

 is that of the gvron. The author supposes all matter 

 to be made up of little planetary systems composed in 

 their last analvsis of gyrons which are themselves 

 simply aether in an extremely energetic state of 

 motion. The gvrons and systems of gyrons are sup- 

 posed to resemble small discs in rapid rotation about 

 a central axis, and in consequence capable of giving 

 rise to three entirely distinct types of aether motion or 

 force. These are called (i) the .Alpha force, (2) the 

 Beta force, (3) the Gamma force. Gravity and cohesion 

 are different forms of the .Alpha force; X-rays, light 

 and heat are forms of the Beta force; electric and 

 magnetic forces come in the category of the Gamma 

 force. 



It is not very clear how the author arrives at the 

 existence of these forces emanating from the gyron, 



