4(36 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 563. 



book upon a subject which is in the empirical 

 stage of its history, yet in this volume the 

 authors have succeeded in producing a work 

 which is rich in useful information, and 

 which the electric constructor will find a valu- 

 able addition to his library. From a scientific 

 standpoint perhaps the most interesting por- 

 tion of the book is the second chapter, which 

 summarizes very effectively the present state 

 of knowledge regarding the dielectric strength 

 of various materials under various condi- 

 tions. ISTothing is more convincing evidence 

 of the need of further investigating the pas- 

 sage of electricity through gases than the dis- 

 cordant values obtained by different experi- 

 n^enters for the dielectric strength of air. 



The constructor will find the chapters on 

 field and on armature insulation and on the 

 ' space factor ' exceedingly practical and siig- 

 gestive, and indeed wherever the authors have 

 had the opportunity of drawing upon their own 

 valuable experience and exercising untram- 

 meled their nice discrimination the results 

 are very satisfactory. Unhappily, insulation 

 at present must rank as crude art rather than 

 as science, and art, too, somewhat luridly 

 colored by commercial daubers. 



Of patented insulating preparations and 

 secret compounds the name is legion, and good, 

 bad and indifferent, all alike make the most 

 extravagant claims, and back them up by ex- 

 periments. These compounds can not be left 

 without mention in a book on insulation, for 

 some of them are highly meritorious, but 

 proper and adequate treatment of them is a 

 practical impossibility. In dealing with this 

 part of their subject therefore, the authors 

 can hardly do more than supplement the 

 alleged facts by such data as are available 

 and to let the matter go at that. They have 

 at least avoided the error of assuming com- 

 mercial data to be altogether reliable by giving 

 several points of view on disputed topics. The 

 chapters treating of oil insulation fortunately 

 escape such difiiculties, paraffin and other oils 

 being free from patents and trade marks, and 

 these will well repay study. 



The facility with which oils, spite of the old 

 saying that oil and water will not mix, take up 

 moisture enough to ruin their insulating prop- 



erties will surprise the non-technical reader 

 and suggests an interesting and useful field 

 of research. 



As a bit of friendly criticism it should be 

 suggested that in the next edition most of the 

 experimental curves given should be remade 

 by the wax process, in the interest of neatness 

 and easy reference. A very useful bibliog- 

 raphy of the subject is a valuable feature of 

 the book, and the index is satisfactorily full. 

 Altogether Turner and Hobart have done a 

 commendable piece of work and one that will 

 be widely appreciated. 



Louis Bell. 



Boston. 



Grundriss der Soziologie. By Ludwig Gum- 

 PLOWicz. Second edition, revised and en- 

 larged. Vienna, 1905. 



Sociologists in this country will be inter- 

 ested in this new edition of Doctor Gum- 

 plowicz's famous work. In the preface he 

 calls attention to the rapid development of 

 sociological study during the last twenty years, 

 in which development he modestly hints that 

 his ' Grundriss ' might well assert. Quorum 

 pars magna fui. 



The text of the first edition is preserved 

 intact, with slight verbal changes here and 

 there. The chief modifications consist in 

 additions, reference notes and quotations from 

 later works. In book one, for instance, the 

 history of sociology is brought down to date. 

 Special attention is given in this to the views 

 of Ratzenhofer, whose untimely death while 

 homeward bound from the congress at St. 

 Louis, deprived sociology of one of its fore- 

 most writers. Ratzenhofer's ' Positive Ethik ' 

 is extensively quoted from in book four, pages 

 330-336. Discussions of ' Methode der Sozi- 

 ologie,' and ' Geschichtsphilosophische Kon- 

 struktionen,' complete the list of important 

 additions. 



This last discussion should be read in con- 

 nection with his article in American Journal 

 of Sociology, March, 1905, entitled ' An Aus- 

 trian Appreciation of Lester Y. Ward.' Dr. 

 Gumplowicz frankly admits that he is not yet 

 prepared to believe in the possibility of an 

 ' applied sociology,' but, while still holding to 



