Febbtjaet 19, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



297 



clear and positive achievements of the last 

 half century. 



I almost apologize for calling attention to 

 another sentence in the quotation : " The insti- 

 tute, on the other hand, is handicapped by an 

 improper location and insufficient funds to 

 compete successfully against Harvard." 



The readers of Science ought to be assured 

 that while Technology needs, and would gladly 

 receive, gifts for its growing work, it has so 

 far been able to make both ends meet without 

 serious difficulty. The new president. Pro- 

 fessor Maclaurin, experienced in education on 

 three continents, comes to the institute with 

 complete enthusiasm for its special ideals. 

 A body of eight thousand alumni and past 

 students stand ready for loyal service. The 

 institute is now contemplating a move from 

 its present location, which it will soon outgrow, 

 to a new and ample one where a group of 

 buildings worthy of its dignity will be erected. 

 " The Old Technology, with its old traditions 

 and its old ideals, new built on a new site," 

 as acting President Noyes recently phrased it, 

 vnll not " compete against Harvard " ; but it 

 will welcome the McKay school of applied 

 science as a worthy ally in the great war 

 against ignorance that we are all waging to- 

 gether. C.-E. A. WiNSLOw 



THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG IN POPULAR SCIENCE 

 BOOKS 



To put in simple and elegant language de- 

 scriptions and explanations of natural phe- 

 nomena is to offer every one that knowledge 

 and understanding that broadens our sym- 

 pathies; that increases our interest in the 

 world about us ; that makes us more contented 

 and more useful human beings. No nobler 

 work than this can any man do — the work that 

 Tyndall, that Sir Eobert Ball, that Darwin 

 and many another devoted follower of nature 

 loved so much and did so well. The popular 

 books that men like these produce can never 

 be too numerous, nor can the publisher devote 

 to them more of his beautifying art than they 

 deserve. 



Unfortunately, however, there is another 

 class of books with natural phenomena for 



their titles; books, of which the one under 

 review is typical, attractively written and 

 prettily illustrated, but filled with false ex- 

 planations — counterfeit mental coin palmed 

 off on the innocent, to their inestimable harm. 

 Such books do not spread knowledge, nor do 

 they even leave the mental tablets of the un- 

 informed receptively blank, but, on the con- 

 trary, scribble all over them an almost inerad- 

 icable jumble of errors, which must somehow 

 be got rid of before the unfortunate victim 

 is ready even to begin to learn the truth. 



Surely the author of a book treating of a 

 scientific subject must know that he knows 

 what he is talking about, or know that he 

 doesn't know. In the first case, let his ex- 

 planations be simple, clear, complete. In the 

 second let him have sufficient judgment to 

 leave attempted explanations alone, for they 

 are sure to be wrong, and therefore harmful. 



But the fault is not alone with the author. 

 The publisher is expected, and properly so, to 

 guarantee, to the best of his knowledge, the 

 accuracy of the books he offers for sale. And 

 this, it would seem, should impose upon him 

 the duty of submitting all manuscripts of 

 popular nature-books to competent specialists. 

 In this way "Water Wonders Every Child 

 Should Know," ' like many another of its 

 kind, might easily have been made the excel- 

 lent book that at fitrst glance it appears to be, 

 instead of the thing of blunders it actually is. 



This little book is beautifully got up, 

 attractively written and filled with many of 

 Mr. Bentley's choicest snow and frost photo- 

 graphs, but as it now stands it can be recom- 

 mended to those only who already have a 

 knowledge, sufficient to protect them from its 

 errors, of the subjects, dew, frost, snow, ice 

 and rain, of which it treats; and to them 

 simply for its beautiful pictures. But these 

 latter are so numerous and so beautiful that 

 it is to be hoped that there will soon be a new 

 and properly revised edition, one that can be 

 recommended for the accuracy of its explana- 

 tions as well as for the beauty of its illustra- 

 tions. 



W. J. Humphreys 

 ^ Jean M. Thompson, " Water Wonders Every 

 Child Should Know," Doubleday, Page & Co., 1907. 



