576 Notices respecting New Books* 



as a highly important work of reference, which should find a place 

 in the library of every analytical chemist. 



Entstehen und Vergehen der Welt als Jcosmisclier Kreisprozess. Auf 

 Grund des pyknotischen Substanzbegriff'es. Zweite umgear- 

 beitete und erweiterte Auflage. Von J. G. Vogt. Leipzig : 

 Ernst Wiest Nachf. Pp. viii + 1005. 1901. 

 This elaborate book furnishes a good example of misdirected 

 energy. Its author has read widely, and evidently belongs to that 

 class of thoughtful and philosophically-inclined people who are 

 under the impression that they have hit upon an original and 

 correct interpretation of the universe, and feel it a bounden duty 

 to benefit humanity by publishing the results of their speculations. 

 The book strongly reminds us of one or two similar treatises which 

 have recently appeared in English. One characteristic of the 

 authors of such books appears to be a strong conviction of their 

 competence to criticise the teachings of orthodox science. They 

 accordingly set about finding all sorts of mares' nests in modern 

 scientific theory, and spend an inordinate amount of energy in 

 tilting against windmills. One or two illustrations of our author's 

 methods will be sufficient to show in how far his wide reading has 

 really enabled him to grasp the fundamental doctrines of modern 

 science. He severely criticises .Newton's Eirst Law of Motion, 

 remarking that if it were true, a body once set in motion by an 

 impulse would become a perpetuum mobile : and is not a perpetuum 

 mobile in flagrant contradiction with the law of the conservation 

 of energy? Again, he will have none of the theory of a vibrating 

 atom. Eor is not an atom which goes on vibrating for ever 

 another example of a perpetuum mobile, and another violation of 

 the principle of the conservation of energy ? 



The teachings of science having been found wanting, the author 

 proceeds to develop a " reale Weltanschauung," and, as might have 

 been expected, " von durchaus neuen Gesichtspunkten." The 

 series of phenomena now going on in the physical universe form 

 the consecutive stages in the descending branch of a cosmical 

 cyclic process. The true explanation of most problems is to be 

 found in endowing matter with one fundamental property — the 

 tendency towards condensation. A nucleus of condensation in 

 the primordial substance out of which all the elements have arisen 

 is termed a " pyknotum," and the author's theory of the universe 

 is founded on the " pyknotische Substanzbegriff." This is used in 

 accounting for the genesis of the elements, gravitation, chemical 

 affinity, heat, light, magnetism, and electricity. Having exhausted 

 the regions of physics and chemistry, the author next tackles 

 biological and finally ethical problems. He is not sparing of abuse 

 in dealing with our present social system, and his remarks in this 

 connexion, if not altogether convincing, form piquant and 

 interesting reading. He is an avowed pessimist : all that is most 

 sacred to us is founded on^alie, and we must ultimately acquiesce 

 in the sad conclusion 



Nur im Irrtum 1st das Leben 

 Und das Wissen ist der Tod I 



