Apbil 16, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



619 



present uncertainties as to the place of na- 

 ture study in our educational system are to 

 no small extent due to the emphasis on such 

 vague purposes which appeal to few who have 

 not the naturalist's outlook to nature. 



Most of the book is devoted to the practical 

 problems of class-room management, mater- 

 ials and arrangement of the course of study. 

 All these chapters are good introductions for 

 the beginner, and especially for students in 

 normal schools. Nine of the ten chapters on 

 materials are devoted to animals and plants, 

 and the tenth deals with xwpular astronomy. 

 Just why the author has chosen the heavens 

 as the only representative of the physical side 

 of nature is not apparent to the reviewer. 

 The signs of the times indicate that here is a 

 weakness, and that the nature study which 

 may win a permanent place in our elementary 

 education of the future must have a well- 

 balanced mixture of the biological and the 

 physical The physical is extremely impor- 

 tant for interpreting the biological aspects of 

 nature, and to most people it makes a more 

 convincing appeal from the standpoint of 

 every-day life. 



The outline of a course in nature study is 

 based on no apparent underlying principles, 

 but like most other outlines published is 

 simply a list of topics taken at random. All 

 principles of continuity, correlation and log- 

 ical development seem to be neglected. Of 

 course there are those naturalists who urge 

 that nature study should be free from every- 

 thing resembling the formal work common to 

 the school room; but that kind of nature 

 study has decided limitations and has made 

 little permanent progress in American schools. 

 Maurice A. Bigelow 



Teachees College, 

 Columbia Uhtvebsity 



Experimental Elasticity, a Manual for the 

 Laboratory. By G. F. C. Searle. 8vo, pp. 

 187. Cambridge University Press. 1908. 

 The character of this book can be best seen 

 from its origin. The author has been since 

 1890 director of the classes in practical phys- 

 ics of the Cavendish Laboratory, and has pre- 

 pared for his students manuscript notes giving 



the theory and description of the experiments. 

 He is now collecting these notes, and after re- 

 writing and amplifying them when needed, 

 they are to be published in a series of volumes 

 which will cover the usual field of practical 

 physics. It is appropriate that the first vol- 

 ume should be on experimental elasticity, a 

 subject in which Mr. Searle's contributions are 

 well known. 



The volume is divided into three chapters, 

 the first two chapters being theoretical and 

 the third chapter giving detailed descriptions 

 of the methods and apparatus of fourteen 

 experiments in elasticity. The theoretical 

 parts are generally elementary, but the use of 

 calculus methods is not avoided. The theo- 

 rems and methods of thermodynamics are also 

 used. The sections using these more ad- 

 vanced methods could, however, be easily 

 omitted without interfering with the use of 

 the greater part of the book. The "notes" 

 forming an appendix to the above three chap- 

 ters give discussions of some of the elemen- 

 tary theorems of mechanics and mensuration. 

 From this we can infer that the more ad- 

 vanced sections may have been added later to 

 make the book more complete. The longest 

 of these " notes " is entitled Hints on Prac- 

 tical Work in Physics, and gives brief, pointed 

 directions on keeping note-books, making dia- 

 grams, methods of calculations, adding also 

 an occasional moral hint. Thus the following 

 might well be copied and framed for use in 

 many laboratories: 



A steady hand, a keen eye and a good command 

 of the body are essential in accurate physical 

 determinations; mere intellectual power avails 

 nothing by itself. Any rule of life which deviates 

 from temperance in all things (including work) 

 may be expected to render the hand less steady 

 and the eye less keen and so lead to inferior work. 

 University students whose fingers are deeply 

 stained with tobacco do not, as a rule, become 

 skilful observers, though they may show consid- 

 erable ability in other ways. 



Laboratory courses can not in general be 

 transplanted as a whole, since each laboratory 

 has its own' selections' of apparatus and experi- 

 ments — ^that is, if it is a live laboratory. In 

 the case of elasticity, the variations in forms 

 of apparatus are not great and not funda- 



