364 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1189 



■will of the people. I have only exercised the 

 constitutional right and fulfilled the duty of 

 a citizen in petitioning the government to 

 enact legislation which I believe to be in the 

 interest of the nation. For this I am dis- 

 missed from the division of philosophy, psy- 

 chology and anthropology, which I have made 

 the strongest in the world. Professors in 

 every university are terrorized, so that they 

 dare not exert their influence for peace and 

 good wiU. 



The people of all the European nations long 

 for peace, but are kept at war by the klepto- 

 cratic classes. In spite of the institutions and 

 the instincts which we have inherited from a 

 barbarous past, I believe that our people have 

 no heart for this war into which they have 

 been driven. But even if the nation should 

 become a mob mad for war, it is none the less 

 the business of each of us to do what he can 

 for righteousness as he sees it. If that is 

 forbid by force, then indeed we need a new 

 national anthem, such as Shelley once wrote- 

 for England: 



God prosper, speed and save, 

 God raise from England's grave 



Her murdered Queen 1 

 Pave witli swift victory 

 The steps of Liberty, 

 Wiom Britons own to be 



Immortal Queen. 

 — J. McKeen Cattell in a statement 

 printed in the daily press. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Chemistry in the Service of Man. By Alex- 

 ander FiNDLAY, M.A., D.Sc, F.I.C. Long- 

 mans, Green & Co., London, New York. 

 1916. Pp. xiv+255. Price $1.60. 

 This book is the outgrowth of a series of lec- 

 tures — the Thomson Lectures — delivered by 

 the author before the United Free Church Col- 

 lege at Aberdeen, near the close of the year 

 1915. It represents the attempt to lay before 

 a group of college men, who made no claim to 

 chemical knowledge, some account of what 

 chemistry has accomplished for the well-being 

 and uplift of mankind, and also some glimpse 

 of the relation of chemistry to the war. The 



book is in England especially timely, from the 

 fact that among the educated classes, as well 

 as among the business men and industrialists, 

 an appreciation of chemistry has been sadly 

 wanting. The case is somewhat diiferent in 

 this country, since for many years chemistry 

 in a large share of our colleges and universi- 

 ties has been either a required study or a 

 widely chosen elective, and has become a part 

 of the curriculum of most of our high schools. 

 Probably on account of this our manufacturers 

 have shown far less reluctance than those of 

 England to abandon their " rule of thumb " 

 methods. 



Such books as the one before us are always 

 timely, never more so than to-day, provided 

 the author is a master of his subject and at the 

 same time capable of expressing his thought 

 in language that can be understood by the man 

 with little or no previous knowledge of chem- 

 istry. Dr. Findlay well fulfils both of these 

 conditions. His work in physical chemistry is 

 well known; his success in opening up difficult 

 fields in chemistry to the comprehension of the 

 ordinary chemist is evidenced by the clearness 

 of his " Phase rule and its applications " and 

 his " Physical chemistry and its applications 

 in medical and biological science." This latter 

 book, by the way, should be read by every med- 

 ical student. 



The aim of " Chemistry in the service of 

 man " is best set forth in a sentence in the in- 

 troductory lecture : " In attempting a brief and 

 necessarily incomplete survey of chemistry in 

 the service of man, I shall endeavor not merely 

 to recount some of the manifold ways in which 

 chemistry has revolutionized life and has con- 

 tributed, on the material side, to a civilized ex- 

 istence; but I shall try, also, to indicate, if I 

 can not do more, some of the principles which 

 underlie chemical change, and some part of 

 the contribution which chemistry has made to 

 our knowledge of the constitution of matter." 

 The latter is rather an ambitious program for 

 a popular book, intended for readers without 

 previous knowledge of chemistry. The chap- 

 ters entitled " Velocity of reaction and cataly- 

 sis," " Electricity and chemistry," " The col- 

 loidal state," and " Molecular structure " would 



