786 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 48. 



the suggestion should meet with a generous re- 

 sponse. The project already has the support of 

 •Profs. Tait and Laisant and will, no doubt, be 

 aided by the leading advocates of Quaternions 

 everywhere. The movement should be en- 

 couraged in every possible way. 



Victor C. Aldeeson. 

 Aemoue Institute of Technology, Chicago. 



SCIENTIFIC LITER ATUBE. 

 The Forces of Nature. By Haeeop and Wallis. 



Published by the same, Columbus, Ohio. Pp. 



160, 12 mo. 



The reading of this book gives rise to a feel- 

 ing of wonder ; wonder that it was ever written; 

 wonder that it was ever published and wonder 

 that it should ever be read. About half of it is 

 included in five chapters on ' The Solar System;' 

 ' The Atmosphere — Sound ; ' ' Chemistry — The 

 Structure of Matter ; ' Radiant Energy — Light, 

 Heat and Actinism ;' ' Electricity — Magnetism.' 

 These are large subjects, but the authors of this 

 book do not shrink from the task, self-imposed, 

 let us hope, of treating them in about seventy 

 pages of large type and fair leading. Their 

 aim has been, as stated in the introduction, to 

 present 'the great fundamental principles of 

 the Earth's science and the laws which govern 

 the operations of Nature.' The importance of 

 this presentation is forcibly shown in the follow- 

 ing paragraph from the preface of this book : 

 "All natural phenomena are explainable upon 

 the simple laws of mechanics. These laws 

 govern alike the systematic motions of worlds 

 and the complicated functions of organic life. 

 It only remains, then, for the reader to make 

 himself conversant with the fundamental princi- 

 ples upon which the system hinges to compre- 

 hend the harmony of all things in nature. " The 

 preface further recognizes ' a class of persons 

 who have acquired a thorough knowledge of 

 their special callings ' who unquestionably 

 hunger after a knowledge of these fundamental 

 principles and who desire to satisfy their raven- 

 ous appetites ' without tedious delving amongst 

 learned volumes which they have probably 

 neither the time nor the inclination to read.' 

 For these the authors have written this book. 

 It is not worth while- to consume time and 

 space in giving extensive references to its con- 



tents. Nine of its pages suffice for the consid- 

 eration of the solar system, including a special 

 study of the Earth. In the chapter on chemistry 

 one or two great fundamental principles are let 

 loose, including the statement that ice continues 

 to expand as its temperature is lowered, and it 

 is on account of this expansion that water pipes 

 are burst. In the chapter on Eadiant Energy 

 we are distinctly, almost defiantly, informed 

 that "Polarized light has some application in 

 Optics and Qualitative Analysis," and also that 

 when air is compressed "the molecules are 

 moved into such close proximity as to be unable 

 to retain all their former motion — heat — a por- 

 tion of which is delivered up to external objects 

 either bj^ conduction or radiation." In accord- 

 ance with the plan outlined in the introduction, 

 having in the first seventy pages disposed of 

 the 'general aspects of nature,' the remainder 

 of the book is devoted to a ' more particular 

 exposition of underlying principles ' as put 

 forth in ' a series of disconnected paragraphs 

 and essays.' Here the authors toy with 'Life 

 on the Planet Mars;' ' Spontaneous Generation;' 

 'The Incandescent Lamjj ; ' 'Argon,' etc., etc., 

 etc. , forming almost as great a variety as the 

 contents of a modern Sunday newspaper. 



In their introduction they remark that ' the 

 necessity for consecutive reading ' cannot be too 

 strongly urged ; the common tendency to ' skip ' 

 is deplored and the reader is urged ' to proceed 

 slowly, being sure that he luiderstands each 

 paragraph before leaving it.' That interesting 

 class for whom the book is intended, ' persons 

 who have accjuired a thorough knowledge of 

 their special callings,' will doubtless be able to 

 understand the, to others rather obscure, rela- 

 tion between ' Life on the Planet Mars ' and 

 'Death by Lightning,' which makes a certain 

 order of reading necessary. To the ordinary 

 reader of the Astronomical news of the past 

 year or two, the latter might be chosen first, 

 last and all the time. 



A really serious aspect of this case is the an- 

 nouncement that the authors have in press a 

 second volume on 'The Forces of Life,' which 

 is to be 'a study of Organic Nature,' and which 

 is to discuss the Classification of Species, Evo- 

 lution, Paleontology, Morphology, Embryology, 

 the origin of cell life, etc. If these j'outhful 



