542 
cerity expounded this unsatisfying solution, 
by pain we are “driven ever onwards.” Such 
consolations have stifled few cries or groans. 
The fact borne in upon all who were familiar 
with surgery in the pre-Lister days was that 
there was so much suffering to all appearance 
sheer waste; a heavy price was paid and noth- 
ing was gained; the way through discomfort 
and distress lay to more of both. And so we 
all instinctively place masters of the healing 
art, certainly those who have found new 
remedies and effective methods, among the 
great benefactors of men. They, and almost 
they alone, among inventors and discoverers 
have given much and taken from us nothing. 
One further reflection must have been pres- 
ent to many in the Abbey yesterday. Lord 
Lister’s discoveries and methods have opened 
up possibilities of still further advances, 
searcely dreamed of before. The surgeon 
whom our ancestors regarded as the most 
highly paid of executioners is seen to be the 
possessor of an art the future of which is 
limitless. Lister and his coadjutors have 
shown what are the enemies to be guarded 
against and how they are to be encountered. 
He has opened a way which will be pursued, it 
may be confidently expected, with signal re- 
sults. To use the words of the anthem yester- 
day, “ His body is buried in peace, but his 
name liveth for evermore”; chiefly, no doubt, 
for his beneficent discoveries, but partly also 
by reason of the memory of his character, for 
all time the type of the faithful servant of 
science. Good as well as great, modest, genial, 
zealous in the interest of his patients, seeking 
truth unweariedly and calmly, he will, we do 
not doubt, be the model and example of men 
who will carry the art of healing far beyond 
the point which it has to-day reached—The 
London Times. 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 
The Chemistry of the Radio-Hlements. By 
FrepericKk Soppy. Longmans, Green and 
Co. 1911. Pp. 92. 
There is probably no branch of modern sci- 
ence which has offered so great an attraction 
to the casual student as the subject of radio- 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 901 
activity, and there is certainly none which 
has afforded a more unrestricted field to the 
ambitious author who, with but little first- 
hand information, has been eager to popular- 
ize the views of others or to support enthusi- 
astically unsound doctrines based on a wholly 
insufficient knowledge of the fundamental 
principles or the value of experimental evi- 
dence. It is a pleasure therefore to be able to 
welcome the appearance of Mr. Soddy’s book, 
written as it is by one who.possesses so wide 
a knowledge of the topies treated and who has 
played so important and prominent a part in 
the development of the subject of radioactiv- 
ity. 
The book begins with a brief statement of 
the scope and objects of radio-chemistry. 
This is followed by a general discussion of the 
phenomena of radioactivity, the first discovery 
by Becquerel of the emission of characteristic 
radiations by uranium compounds, the general 
properties of these radiations, and the exten- 
sion of our knowledge which resulted from 
the pioneer work of Madame and Monsieur 
Curie. To the novice in the subject, the text 
at this point is likely to lead to a somewhat 
exaggerated notion of the part played by the 
Curies in the development of the general 
theory, but difficulties of this sort are apt to 
arise in any attempt at a condensed treatment 
of so complex a subject, and the author has 
succeeded in preparing a distinctly instructive 
outline in which the more important facts are 
presented in a clear and orderly fashion. The 
characteristic differences in the relative pec- 
manence or stability of the different radio-ele- 
ments are mentioned, the production by cer- 
tain of these of gaseous radioactive elements 
or emanations is described, and the properties 
of the emanations themselves are briefly con- 
sidered. Then follows a discussion of the in- 
teresting experiments on the radioactivity of 
thorium salts, which led to the formulation 
of the disintegration theory, and an outline is 
given of this theory in its more important 
phases. 
The next topic treated is the general nature 
of the three types of radiation, the alpha, the 
beta and the gamma rays. The characteristic 
