October 27, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



613 



M. Boutaric points out that although in 

 nearly all optical matters French savants are 

 the pioneers, yet the French optical industry 

 is very small as compared with the German. 

 In an interesting paragraph he endeavors to 

 analyze the reasons for this success. " Here, 

 as in everything else, the Germans have been 

 saved by their deep sense of business. The 

 German industry demonstrates by a wise pub- 

 licity the worth of its goods, sometimes excel- 

 lent, but sometimes also copies of our models 

 and inferior to ours; their catalogues, well 

 edited and illustrated, are published in many 

 languages, and give full details of the instru- 

 ments they describe, their travelers, men of 

 parts, knowing intimately their instruments 

 . . . and trying to satisfy the wishes of their 

 customers." 



M. Boutaric points out that the collaboration 

 between the man of science and the manufac- 

 turer is far more close in Germany than in 

 France. In the former the man of science is 

 in intimate touch with the works, and is well 

 paid for his services. The foreman and ap- 

 prentices are trained in the theoretical side of 

 their subject in classes they are obliged to at- 

 tend. In the firm of Zeiss half the time spent 

 by the workers in the technical classes is 

 counted as time spent in the works. No steps 

 are neglected to perfect the organization as a 

 whole ; everything is done to make the machine 

 independent of a single individual. In 

 France the success and reputation of a firm 

 have too frequently depended on one individ- 

 ual. That some steps are being taken to 

 strengthen the optical industry in France is 

 shown by the fact that a large factory has been 

 built by La Societe frangaise d'Optique, 

 formed in conjunction with the firm of Lacour- 

 Berthiot, for meeting the competition of the 

 best German firms. M. Boutaric urges that if 

 the future of the industry is to be assured, new 

 blood must be introduced, young mechanics 

 trained, and a school of optics founded. This 

 school, for which M. Violle has pleaded, should 

 be divided into at least two sections: optics 

 proper and photography. In it practical 

 classes on glass grinding, etc., should be given 

 in conjunction with theoretical work. — Nature. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 A System of Physical Chemistry. By W. C. 



McC. Lewis. New York : Longmans, Green, 



and Co., 1915. 19 X 13 cm. ; 2 vols. Pp. 



vii + 552 ; xiv + 523. Price $2.50 net, each 



volume. 



In the preface the author says : " The scien- 

 tific treatment of any set of phenomena con- 

 sists in applying the minimum of general prin- 

 ciples or theories which can afford a reasonable 

 explanation of the behavior of matter under 

 given conditions; and predict its behavior 

 under new conditions. The principles referred 

 to as far as physics and chemistry are con- 

 cerned are the kinetic theory and thermo- 

 dynamics. In the kinetic method of treatment 

 emphasis is laid upon the actual molecular 

 mechanism of a given process; in the thermo- 

 dynamic method the emphasis is laid upon the 

 energy changes involved. Both methods should 

 be familiar to any one who undertakes the task 

 of original investigation. ... I have there- 

 fore divided the book into three parts, in which 

 the phenomena exhibited by systems in equilib- 

 rium and not in equilibrium are treated first 

 from the 'classical' kinetic standpoint only; 

 then independently from the thermodynamic; 

 and finally from the standpoint of thermo- 

 dynamics and the new or ' modified ' principles 

 of statistical mechanics." 



One obvious criticism of this plan is that 

 the same subject is treated more than once, 

 which seems a pity. The author has covered 

 an enormous amount of ground. He takes up 

 electrochemistry pretty thoroughly ; he has one 

 chapter on colloid chemistry, another • on 

 Nernst's heat theorem; a third on photochem- 

 istry, and a fourth on the quantum theory. In 

 a sense it is therefore a pretty comprehensive 

 treatise on physical chemistry, covering some- 

 thing the same ground as ISTernst's " Theoret- 

 ical Chemistry " but in more detail. The plan 

 of the book is an ambitious one; but the task 

 was rather more than the author could handle. 

 The treatment is essentially not critical and 

 the reviewer finds the book much less interest- 

 ing and inspiring than Mellor's " Chemical 

 Statics and Dynamics." 



Wilder D. Bancroft 



