362 



NATURE 



[September 23, 1909 



ditions of men each a specialist in his own particular 

 department of science; and if it is found that doctors 

 disagree on points of detail, it is claimed that an 

 examination of their views will have the beneficial 

 effect of making the student think for himself instead 

 of merely taking what is written for granted. The 

 mere learning machine, who is frequently devoid of 

 powers of clear exposition, probably exists in every 

 country, but he is not the kind of man to be en- 

 couraged. This volume consists of articles on science, 

 by Emile Picard ; pure mathematics, by Jules 

 Tannery; mechanics, by P. Painleve; general 

 physics, by H. Bouasse ; chemistry, by A. Job; 

 morphology, by .\, Giard ; physiology, by F. Le 

 Dantec; medical sciences, by Pierre Delbet ; psycho- 

 logy, by Th. Ribot ; sociology and social science, by 

 E. Durkheim ; morale, by L. Levy Bruhl ; and history, 

 by G. Monod, all under the editorship of Dr. P. F. 

 Thomas. 



(4) Prcf. \'olkmann's pamahlet is an address de- 

 livered at the graduation ceremony of the Albertus 

 University on January i8. It deals with the materi- 

 alistic philosophy of the nineteenth century, with 



^-phenomenology and monism, and with the idealism of 

 Kant, whose connection with the university in ques- 

 tion is too well known to require mention. 



(5) Dr. \aber deals in a pleasant and chatty way 

 with many points in the history of Greek and Egyptian 



■geometry. The discussion is in no way confined to 

 the proposition now more generally known as " One 

 Forty-Seven," which forms the title of the book, but 

 we have sections dealing with " Pi " and its supposed 

 value V 10, with spirals and limagons and their appli- 

 cations to angle-trisection and cube-duplication, with 

 the history of the " Golden " or median section, and 

 ■finally with the " pentalpha," or pentagonal star, and 

 the dodecahedron. "Spirals in nature and in art" 

 areceive considerable attention, and are illustrated by 

 ^numerous figures. It would be impossible to dwell 

 -at length on the historic side of the book. If it has 

 rone fault, that fault is a certain diffuseness and lack 

 ■of definiteness. By this we mean that in some places 

 'it is not very certain what conclusions the author is 

 seeking to prove. But possibly that is because the 

 author is endeavouring to give a general idea of what 

 mathematical thought was like in the Pythagorean 

 times, and to do this he reasons largely from conjec- 

 ture where historic evidence is wanting. He cannot 

 certainly be accused of being long-winded, his sections 

 being very short and concise, and his language terse. 



(6) "To save appearances" (o-mffii/ to (paivofuva 

 or to account for observed facts was the object of 

 Greek philosophy, which forms the motto of Prof. 

 Duhem's book. Not less is it the object of the 

 modern physicist. In tracing the development of 

 physics from the time of Plato to that of Galileo a 

 good many points may be observed which have left 

 their traces on modern physical theory. We notice, in 

 Prof. Duhem's words, that where we now speak of 

 physics, the Greek and Mussulman philosophers and 

 the men of science of the Middle Age spoke of astro- 

 nomy ; that the laws of motion of celestial bodies were 

 studied ages before anyone thought of applying similar 

 methods to terrestrial (or "sublunary") bodies; that 



NO. 2082, VOL. 81] 



the first discussions of the phenomena of the material 

 world were metaphysical, and that optics and statics 

 were the earliest subjects to form the basis of mathe- 

 matical theories. We observe with interest the division 

 of physics into two branches, one dealing with celestial 

 and the other with sublunary bodies, of which the 

 first was regarded as infinitely more perfect than the 

 second, and was for this reason wrongly supposed to 

 be only accessible to divine intelligence, while the 

 latter or terrestrial physics was supposed to be summed 

 up in the work of Aristotle. And we reflect that even 

 nowadays the once supposed easier task of " saving 

 the phenomena " of sublunary matter is the one which 

 physicists as a rule shirk. It is true that electricity 

 and not astronomy is the subject now usually under 

 investigation, but in either case the philosopher turns 

 his thoughts to the ether as the seat of the phenomena 

 under investigation, and finds that the hypotheses 

 necessary to " save " these phenomena are greatly 

 simplified owing to the omission of irreversible effects. 

 It is not claimed by Prof. Duhem that his is the first 

 attempt at a history of physics as distinct from mathe- 

 matics, but as a general account of the subject in a 

 moderate compass it would be difficult to write a 

 better book. 



(7) Prof. Gino Loria's book needs little comment. 

 Its merits can be summed up in a few words. It is 

 a book with which no geometer can afford to dispense. 

 It is a bibliography of geometry classified under such 

 headings as "Geometry up to 1S50," "Algebraic 

 Curves," " Differential Geometry," " Non-Euclidian 

 Geometry," " Geometry of Multi-dimensional Space." 

 Every page is filled with references, and the number 

 of papers and memoirs which have been consulted in 

 the preparation of the book must be counted by 

 thousands; indeed, if we mistake not, the mere names 

 of authors contained in the index number well into 

 the four figures. The second edition appeared in 

 1896, and in this third edition the author has added 

 an appendix of about 120 pages dealing with the 

 progress of geometry during the last ten years. In 

 the epilogue, the author compares geometry to a 

 fertile region the vegetation of which still offers 

 numerous prizes in the form of flowers and fruits to 

 the explorer and cultivator. If this analogy be pursued 

 a little further, the need had arisen for a flora of the 

 new territory, and no better botanist could be found 

 for the purpose than Prof. Gino Loria. 



IRE FLUIDS OF THE BODY IN HEALTH 



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Pp. viii+186. (London: Archibald Constable and 



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ALL important as the cells and cellular tissues of 

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