Jakuast 31, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



181 



in the ease of a man whose life-work and in- 

 fluence are chiefly recorded in his own publica- 

 tions or in those which he has inspired, and 

 whose thoughts and ideas are chiefly of in- 

 terest in so far as they have affected his work. 

 Stokes is perhaps a typical example of this 

 class. Whatever value we may feel disposed 

 to place on his ideas in religion, politics or 

 education, there can be no doubt that the sub- 

 jects of chief interest are his methods of work, 

 his ideas on scientific questions, the way in 

 which he made his influence felt in his chosen 

 line of work, and chiefly, the mental make-up 

 and environment which contributed to his 

 success. 



Professor Larmor, in sel-scting from the ma- 

 terials at his disposal, has kept these prin- 

 ciples fully in view. In order to do so, he has 

 broken new ground by showing the form 

 which the biography of a scientific man may 

 take, and the innovation is undoubtedly a suc- 

 cess. He has not attempted to write the life 

 himself nor even to give his own ideas of 

 what Stokes has achieved. Indeed, he has, in 

 the two volumes, contributed little else than 

 explanatory details, leaving the memoir and 

 summaries to the chosen few who were most 

 closely associated with Stokes in the various 

 lines of thou-ght which the latter followed. 

 The memoir by Mrs. Laurence Humphrey, the 

 daughter of Sir George Stokes, and apprecia- 

 tions by Professor Liveing, Sir Michael Foster, 

 Sir William Huggins and the Right Rev. 

 Bishop G. P. Browne, serve to give a just idea 

 of the life and character and to avoid the 

 inevitable bias of a single point of view. 

 Nevertheless, we may, perhaps, regret the 

 omission of a summary of Stokes's work from 

 one so well qualified to give an opinion as Pro- 

 fessor Larmor. 



Prom the historical side, the life of Stokes 

 may almost be said to be the focus of the 

 scientific activities of the last half century. 

 His position as secretary of the Royal Society 

 for over thirty years and as president for five 

 years, naturally kept him in touch with all 

 that was going on. But even more influential 

 on the men of his day was his unselfish will- 

 ingness to give his time and thoughts to any 

 one who wished to consult him on a scientific 



question or to obtain his assistance in the 

 solution of some difiiculty. His first opinions 

 on any debatable point were rarely wide of 

 the mark and he would nearly always throw 

 out some suggestion or idea which would 

 enable the recipient to get at the root of the 

 matter. Thus his lettera, and these were not 

 few or scanty, show the extent to which scien- 

 tific progress has been advanced by him. This 

 is perhaps nearly as well shown by the letters 

 which he received. Of these the editor has 

 inserted a larger number than might have been 

 expected, perhaps owing to the materials at 

 his disposal, for Stokes never destroyed any 

 papers, and one may fear that all his corre- 

 spondents had not been so careful. 



In pursuance of the two-fold object — the 

 work and career of Stokes and the scientific 

 history of the latter half of the nineteenth 

 century — Professor Larmor has subordinated 

 the chronological order of the letters to the 

 subjects of which they treat whenever this was 

 necessary. A glance at the dates, everywhere 

 supplied, will always give the former. Thus, 

 in the second volume, there is a series of names 

 under each of which will be found a collection 

 of letters to some one correspondent, usually 

 on a particular subject. Even when Stokes's 

 letters to his correspondent were not available, 

 the replies, with notes furnished by the editor, 

 are sufficient to show what part Stokes had 

 played in the development of the subject. 

 Professor Larmor has also taken much care in 

 the selection of headlines, so that one may 

 rapidly find what is needed by simply turning 

 the pages over. 



A few extracts from the excellent memoir 

 of Mrs. Laurence Humphrey will best show 

 how she has contributed those circumstances 

 and ideas which are of chief interest. On 

 page 10 : 



He considered that many of the men who 

 worked under him in later years had been much 

 overtrained and that this tended to weaken their 

 minds and diminish their power of originality. 

 He had heard of a machine for stuffing live fowls, 

 to which he likened the process, and sometimes 

 said, " They are stuffed, they won't do anything 

 more, the thinking has been done for them." He 

 considered this to be the reason why some of 



