January 12, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



45 



of Science by hand cost scientific men $10,000 

 per year. Of course it might if men sat 

 down and opened the magazine and then after- 

 wards read it through, but I have always found 

 that I got more out of an unopened magazine 

 than an opened one, because I would more 

 carefully examine a magazine that I had to 

 open than one that was opened; because, as I 

 opened it, I either read the magazine, or if I 

 didn't want to read the articles, got a rough 

 idea of them as I opened the magazine, and 

 for that reason whenever possible I try to get 

 an unopened magazine. 



We are losing in this nonsense regarding effi- 

 ciency a good deal of the human interest in 

 men in our employ and it's a great question 

 to my mind if efficiency is not doing more 

 damage than good. H. P. 



[The editor shares to a certain extent his 

 correspondent's prejudice against trimmed 

 magazines and efficiency experts. An un- 

 trimmed journal looks as if it were waiting for 

 careful reading and the binder ; a trimmed one 

 for a hasty glance and the waste-paper basket. 

 This, however, is a matter of association, 

 which is already changing with general usage. 

 Trimmed magazines and efficiency experts 

 have apparently arrived. We must get used to 

 the one and treat the other with discretion.] 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Die Kultur der Gegenwart. Herausgegeben 

 von Paul Hinneberg. Teil III., Abtlg. III. 

 Physik, S762. Teubner, 1915. 

 During the past two years much has been 

 written about Kultur. There has been a tend- 

 ency in the English-speaking world to identify 

 it with " culture," a term which with us is 

 variously defined. While our dictionaries may 

 give as the equivalents of culture the follow- 

 ing: knowledge, development, the training of 

 the mind, the intellectual side of civilization 

 - — the more common use of the English word is 

 associated with refinement, taste, manners. It 

 is this common meaning which leads Stephen 

 Leacock to speak of a cultured man as " one 

 who has acquired a silk hat and the habit of 

 sleeping in pyjamas." Associating culture 

 with refinement we generally think of it as 



denoting knowledge of fine arts, of music, 

 literature, languages, especially ancient lan- 

 guages. Indeed, John Bright complained that 

 the only necessary qualification of a cultured 

 man was that he possess a smattering of two 

 dead languages, Latin and Greek. Gradually, 

 however, we are getting away from identifying 

 culture with a knowledge chiefiy of languages, 

 living, dead and half dead, with taste and 

 manners, and are coming to view it as " that 

 complex whole which includes knowledge, 

 belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other 

 capabilities and habits acquired by man as a 

 member of society." In this view we are 

 approaching the idea of " Kultur " as set forth 

 in this volume and its companions in the 

 series. In passing it should be noted that even 

 among Germans there are a variety of views 

 concerning " Kultur." Professor Miinster- 

 berg defines it as "the consciousness of na- 

 tionalism, the subordination of the individual 

 to the national ideal." But if one desires to 

 ascertain the meaning of " Kultur " as here 

 set forth, one should read the 760 pages of 

 this volume which is concerned only with 

 physics. One then should survey the contents 

 of the other fifty-seven volumes of the "Kul- 

 tur " series. 



The fifty-eight volumes comprising "Die 

 Kulture der Gegenwart " are divided as fol- 

 lows: fourteen are devoted to religion, philos- 

 ophy, literature, music, art; ten to history, 

 economics, the political and social sciences; 

 nineteen to mathematical, natural and med- 

 ical sciences; fifteen to technical sciences. 



In the volume under review there is pre- 

 sented the philosophical evolution rather than 

 the history of physics. Ideas are traced from 

 their origin to their present fullness. One is 

 thus able to observe how the contributions of 

 the succeeding centuries and decades compare 

 with one another. It is interesting to note 

 that in the article on mechanics, which may 

 be regarded as the oldest portion of physics, 

 thirty-six pages suffice to bring the subject to 

 near the end of the nineteenth century and 

 twenty-five pages are given to the development 

 during the past generation. In the other 

 thirty-five articles thirteen are almost en- 



