26 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 519 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



Wuterdale Researches; or, Fresh Light on Dynamic Action. By 

 " Waterdale." London, Chapman & Hall, 1892. 12mo. 

 pp. vi., 393. 



Cosmical h'volution: A. New Theory of the Mechanism of Nature. 

 By E. McLennan. Chicago, Donahue, Hennenberry, & Co., 

 1890. 12Q10. 399 p. |2. 



In these volumes we have interesting illustrations of those 

 methods of thought, and their results, which are characteristic 

 of the attempts of amateurs in science to bring contributions of 

 new thought and novel theories to the attention of scientific men. 

 In the first-named, the anonymous author, writing under the nom 

 deplume "Waterdale," presents his "discovery of a cause for 

 gravity other than the hypothesis of attraction," and "other theo- 

 rems as important." That an amateur should, especially in physi- 

 cal science, have the courage to propose to lead the connoisseur 

 in the serious consideration of presumably crude notions — -in 

 these days of higher research, when even the professional expert 

 finds himself entirely at a loss to find a vvay. even in following 

 the specialist in other lines than his own, and entirely unable to 

 propose original theories— speaks well for the confidence, if not 

 for the discretion, of the ingenuous adventurer. We regret to say 

 that we must coincide with the reviewer in Nature and the critic 

 in Science and Art, who are apparently unable to find anything 

 novel in what is right in the book, or anything right in what is 

 novel. The idea that some other explanation of the action of 

 forces on matter than that provisionally held, that of an inherent 

 attractive "action at a distance," is as old as Greek philosophy, 

 and remains, no doubt, an admitted probability among the best 

 thinker's and most expert physicists and chemists of the time; but 

 our author and Sir Isaac Newton are alike in the dark as to the 

 real nature of the action noted. The proposed substitution of 



another term for the well-understood and precisely-defined word 

 mass, certainly affords no aid to either imagination or experi- 

 ence. 



The author introduces his book into the United Slates "v:. the 

 hope that there is there lessclique prejudice among scientists than 

 in England;" but we fear that, here as in Europe, the prejudice 

 that the man who has made a life-work of the study of a subject 

 and has acquired reputation through actual investigation and 

 systematic research, through exact and productive measurement, 

 is competent to act as the adviser of the laymen, and that the 

 amateur with an unscientific imagination, unfamiliar even with 

 the precision of scientific definition, can claim little consideration 

 when thus out of his element, will be found unconquerable. This 

 book is written in such vague and ildefined language that its 

 assertion that it presents " substantial evidence that energy per- 

 vades the ethereal fluid with which every sphere is surrounded" 

 will hardly be taken as substantiated, however well established 

 the fact may be; and its "law of induction" that "every sub- 

 stance, by exchange during pulsation of fine matter internally 

 from one atom to another, sets up increased hydraulic force with 

 fine matter, vvhich force decreases inversely as the square of the 

 distance through which the force has at any point reached " will 

 hardly displace Newton's laws. Its author is not yet a suflSciently 

 advanced student to be prepared to teach. 



Of Mr. McLennan's book, it may at least be said that, although 

 the author is an amateur in that lofty region of scientific philoso 

 phy into which he endeavors to find entrance, and has as yet 

 never earned that right of prophecy which only comes to the man 

 who becomes known as thoroughly familiar with existing human 

 knowledge and the grandest of modern achievements, and who 

 himself has done his part in promoting positive learning, he has 

 certainly collated numerous facts of real interest and of possible, 

 if not probable, importance in the relations to which he seeks to 

 attach them. But his supposed original matter seems based upon 

 imagination rather than ascertained fact; and we can find little 



CALENDAR OF SOCIETIES. 

 Anthropological Society, Washington. 



Dec. 20.— Symposium, Is Simplified Spell- 

 ing Feasible? Discussion by F. A. March, 

 ^. R, Spofiford, Wm. T. Harris, and Edwin 

 Willits. 



Dec. 27. — Continuation of Symposium, Is 

 Simplified Spelling Feasible ? Discussion by 

 Alexander Melville Bell, E. M. Gallaudet, 

 John M. Gregory, Benj. E. Smith, Charles 

 R. G. Scott, and W. B. Owen. 



Jan. 3 — Close of the Symposium, Is Sim- 

 plified Spelling Feasible as Proposed by the 

 English and American Philological Soci- 

 eties? Discussion by Lester F. Ward, Wm. 

 B. Powell, Benj. E. Smith, Charles R. G. 

 Scott, E. T. Peters, John W. Powell, and 

 Weston Flint. The discussion will be closed 

 by A. R. Spofford and Wm. T. Harris. 



Philosophical Society, Washington. 



Jan. 7. — G. K. Gilbert, Illustrations of 

 the Physical History of the Moon (lantern 

 slides) ; T. C. Mendenhall, The Use of Planes 

 and Knife-Edges in Pendulums. 



Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston. 



Jan. 11. — Warren Uphara, Drumlins Near 

 Boston. 



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