Decembeb 30, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



955 



tutions of learning is merely theoretical or 

 even experimental. All have been tried out 

 in practise with excellent results. I can go to 

 any one of hundreds of retail clothing shops, 

 steel foundries, fish markets, woollen mills, 

 great excavation firms, and the like, and get 

 at a moment's notice scores of alert, capable 

 men, properly trained and disciplined, who 

 would be willing to undertal^e, for suitable 

 compensation, the entire rearrangement and 

 standardization of any college or university, 

 and would guarantee to bring about results 

 that would amaze any professor of Greek or 

 Sanskrit that ever lived. — Extracts from a re- 

 port hy N. J. SnooTi, M.R., to the trustees of 

 the Buncombe Fund as presented in the New 

 York Sun. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Physical and Commercial Geography : A 

 Study of Certain Controlling Conditions of 

 Commerce. By H. E. Gregory, A. G. Kel- 

 ler and A. L. Bishop, Professors in Tale 

 .University. 8vo. Pp. viii -f 469 ; figs. 26, 

 pis. 3. Boston, Ginn & Co. 1910. $3.00. 

 When twenty years ago Mr. Geo. G. Cbis- 

 holm published his most excellent " Manual 

 of Commercial Geography," he virtually cre- 

 ated a new subject of study in English-speak- 

 ing schools and colleges. America was ready 

 for such a line of study, and the demand for 

 a text has called into existence a goodly num- 

 ber of books, but a reviewer scanning them 

 one after another discovers in all of them a 

 more or less slightly disguised Chisholm, in a 

 condensed form. The attempt to present the 

 principles of commerce, the commodities of 

 commerce, and the commercial countries all 

 in one small volume, has resulted in the as- 

 sembling of endless statistics, often with little 

 juice, and less geography. 



This, the latest American contribution to 

 the subject, is an earnest attempt to go to the 

 roots of things, and to plant the commercial 

 activity of the world upon a philosophical 

 basis, recognizing all the factors at work, but 

 giving special attention to the geographic in- 

 fluences, and especially to the human element 

 involved. 



The book is divided into three parts, spaced 

 about equally: I., The Natural Environment; 

 II., Eelation of Man to Natural Conditions; 

 III., The Geography of Trade. The spirit of 

 treatment is commendable. The authors real- 

 ize that " it is interpretation rather than arbi- 

 trary memorizing which is of educational im- 

 portance." 



In Part I. commerce and the human point 

 of view have been kept well in the foreground, 

 though the choice of material is not always 

 defensible. For if the student comes to this 

 work with no preparation in physiography, this 

 presentation will not give him the grounding 

 he should have. And if the student brings to 

 it the training in physiography of a good high 

 school, much of the material here is super- 

 fluous. 



The following suggestions are offered on 

 Part I.: For the space allowed in illustrating 

 harbors any one outside of Connecticut might 

 complain of the prominence given to the in- 

 significant harbors of that state (pp. 32-3). 

 On page 93 we learn that " For some reason, 

 animals have learned to use diluted oxygen 

 rather than the more abundant nitrogen. . . ." 

 One might infer that it was a matter of poor 

 taste or bad judgment on the part of the ani- 

 mals! By implication the great capacity of 

 water for heat is due to transparency and 

 evaporation (p. 102). The principle of spe- 

 cific heat, in this case so important, can not be 

 read in or between these lines. On page 106 

 we read " The temperature of space outside the 

 atmosphere is probably the ' absolute zero ' " — 

 Langley's researches give us an estimate of 

 about 5° C. above absolute zero. On page 

 121 ff. the form " survival of the fitter " occurs, 

 as a suggested improvement over the classic 

 form " fittest." This suggestion is evidently 

 based upon the misapprehension that only two 

 stages, the positive and comparative, are in- 

 volved. As a matter of fact in any case where 

 the original and proper term " fittest " is used, 

 there are innumerable individuals involved, 

 and it may be also innumerable stages or 

 phases of adaptation, and the final term only 

 is described. Nor has any one who ever used 

 the term " fittest " in this sense thought for 



