24 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1201 



Tntrodiiction to Rural Sociology. By Paul 



L. VoGT. D. Appleton and Co., New York. 



1917. 



This book was written primarily as a text 

 for college students interested in the social 

 problems of small communities. The subject 

 matter is what one would expect in such a 

 book. The physical basis of rural life; the 

 rural population, its movements, its health 

 and its attitudes of mind; farmers' organi- 

 zations, both social and economic; the estab- 

 lished institutions dealing with country life, 

 e. g., the church and the school; and the re- 

 lation of the village to the open coimtry are 

 the principal topics discussed. 



Throughout the book it is very apparent 

 that the author has been at great pains to 

 make his work as accurate and comprehensive 

 as possible. In both respects he has suc- 

 ceeded admirably, and that, too, without be- 

 coming tedious. In fact, I think the com- 

 bination of the essentials of a text with a 

 pleasing exposition will recommend the book 

 to a rather large circle of readers outside of 

 the class room. 



A feature of the book especially worthy of 

 notice is the thorough discussion of the re- 

 lation of the village to the life of the open 

 cotmtry. The author fully realizes that there 

 can be no satisfactory development of agencies 

 for the betterment of rural life unless village 

 and farm cooperate and he has expressed this 

 view clearly and convincingly. 



No doubt reviewers will always feel that 

 sins of omission are frequent. I am happy 

 to say they are but few in the work under 

 discussion. To my mind the most important 

 omission is the failure to discuss the eugenic 

 problems of the rural population and to give 

 more attention to the natural movements of 

 population due to the varying birth rates and 

 death rates in different groups and in different 

 sections of the nation. 



In the numerous suggestions for the im- 

 provement of rural life occurring in almost 

 every chapter the author shows sound prac- 

 tical sense. He knows rural communities at 

 first hand. He knows their prejudices, their 

 apathy, their strength and their wealmesses. 



One feels that the spirit of the -m-iter would 

 go far towards allaying the suspicion and the 

 hostility so often encountered by those who 

 would help to make the rural community a 

 better place to live. 



Warren S. Thompson 

 University op Michigan 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



NOTE ON A WET CONDENSER SUITABLE FOR 



CONTINUOUS HIGH POTENTIAL SERVICE 



In certain investigations necessitating long 

 continuous production of a fat spark by means 

 of a closed circuit transformer (1 K.W., 110 v. 

 primary, 11,000 v. secondary) it was found 

 that the glass plate condensers usually pro- 

 vided for this purpose repeatedly broke down 

 owing to the heating under continuous per- 

 formance. It occurred to us to substitute the 

 ordinary glass with some glass having greater 

 heat-resisting properties. 



One liter, tall form, lipless " Pyrex " beak- 

 ers were accordingly covered with tinfoil as 

 carefully as possible, both on the inner and 

 outer surfaces. These were then mounted by 

 placing the edge into a groove in a board and 

 sealing in with rosin. Condensers of this kind 

 were tedious to make, and proved quite a prob- 

 lem to mount securely. The labor involved in 

 producing a set of the required capacity 

 stopped work in this direction. 



The final form of condenser which has 

 proved very serviceable for the work in hand 

 was that in which the " Pyrex " glass beakers 

 mentioned above constituted the dialectric, and 

 a nearly saturated solution of common salt 

 constituted the conductor plates. The beakers 

 were filled to within 2.5 cm. of the rim with the 

 solution, and were immersed to a similar 

 depth into the solution contained in an 

 earthen vessel, a 3 gallon crock. The beakers 

 measure 9 cm. in diameter, 19 cm. high, 16.5 

 em. effective height, thickness, about 1.2 mm. 

 The twenty beakers used were selected from 

 a stock of about 100 in order to avoid flaws, 

 particularly bubbles. The stock was a little 

 old and therefore probably not as good in even- 

 ness of surface and homogeneity of material as 

 that now being manufactured. It was not pos- 



