摘要:

CERTAIN important considerations in con-nexion with ^he in*ij^jjffof the expert in the Civil Service are_rajfeaby the Frank Baiips'ir^Ei the p Works to His months ago Sir Frank ement of Sir oj Director of f Works. Some approached by a former First ComSw^sioner of Works, Sir Alfred Mond, to undertake the construction of a headquarters on a site in Westminster for the Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd. Sir Frank Baines applied formally for permission to add to his responsibilities in this way, and, following precedent, this permission was granted. Later, certain members of parliament discovered that the new building involved an outlay approaching one million pounds, and asked if an architect carrying out such a contract could devote his proper attention to his duties as a civil servant. The official reply to the first question, put on May 26, was to the effect that the Government had no right to interfere with the spare time activities of a civil servant, arid that this particular contract would not militate against the efficient performance of Sir Frank Baines' official duties. Within a month the Government came to the conclusion that its Director of Works should either cancel his contract with Imperial Chemical Industries or retire from the Civil Service, although, as it was stated by the Government spokesman, Capt. Hacking, there was no suggestion that the work in connexion with the undertaking had so far interfered with the director's official duties. Now it has been stated on several occasions within recent years that the professional, technical, and scientific staffs in the permanent employment of the State should have their pay and other conditions of service related to those of their professional brethren in outside practice. It was on those grounds that the Anderson Committee reported to Parliament in 1923 that no modifications in the pay or other conditions of service of professional civil servants need be made. Obviously, however, if the case of Sir Frank Baines is to be taken as a criterion, the conditions of service are not the' same inside the Civil Service as in outside practice. An outside architect would feel at liberty to increase his practice to any extent, and would be the last person to suggest that he was not capable of undertaking any and every commission offered to him. London is full of monuments eloquent of the efficiency and energy of Sir Christopher Wren. Had the conditions of our time made it possible for Imperial Chemical Industries to invite the Office of Works to undertake the contract for their new building, it is safe to say that no - question, would have been raised as to the capacity of the Director of Works to do the work without interfering with his other duties.Without doubt the knowledge gained from long experience in a technical department of State, places the State servant in a position of advantage as compared with the private practitioner. Presumably, it is this knowledge which Sir Alfred Mond wished to put at the disposal of his company, just as the directors of the Bank of England have sought the services of Sir Otto Niemeyer, and the fortunes of Nobel Industries, Ltd. and later of a railway board have in turn been brought under the direction of Sir Josiah Stamp. But a nearer parallel to the case of Sir Frank Baines is to be found in the universities. At one time university professors were rarely consulted by industry or by the Government. Nowadays, largely as the result of the unique services rendered by university staffs to the country during the War, university men of science are being actively encouraged to undertake consulting and research work, for private firms and for the Government. Again, in the Report of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research for the year 1925-1926, special reference is made to the growing volume of work undertaken by Government scientific departments, particularly the National Physical Laboratory, on behalf of industry, and no suggestion is made that the quality of the work of the research staffs suffers in consequence of its increased responsibilities in this direction. Moreover, in the Report of the same committee for the year 1924-1925, reference is made to the increasing volume of consultative work for industrialists undertaken by the State-aided industrial research associations, work which would ordinarily have been done by private consultants. Not only does the State encourage members of university staffs to undertake additional responsibilities, not only does it compete with the private consultant in industry, but it also appoints State servants to the boards of the State-subsidised industrial research associations in order that knowledge acquired in State departments should be made known and become available to our various industries. Within the past two or three years it has lent scientific workers to some of the great shipping companies to investigate the problems in connexion with the safe transport and storage of foodstuffs, and wholly maintains State research institutions for the primary object of assisting vital industries.On account of an organised agitation, however, against the unique knowledge possessed by one of its principal technical experts being made available to an industrial combine, a new attitude seems to be presented to such relationships. The real objection to Sir Frank Baines undertaking a building contract for the Imperial Chemical Industries is based upon the fact that he personally was to profit by the transaction-particularly as the profit was assumed to be large. Neither of the obvious ways of dealing with the situation appear to have been considered. The Government could have suggested that the contract should be undertaken officially by its servant on behalf of the Office of Works, and incidentally made it known at the same time that the Government was prepared to tender in the open market for any similar undertaking. Alternatively, it might have given its technical expert sufficient leave of absence to enable him to complete the contract into which he had entered with the full authority of his department. Furthermore, it might carefully have considered the desirability of putting the direction of one of its most important technical departments under a man who enjoys the confidence of one at least of the foremost industrial leaders of the time, instead' of abolishing his post. Under the present system, however, technical experts in Government service are usually subject to administrative officers lacking technical qualifications and experience. Parliament has been promised that the conditions of service of members of the professional staffs of the Office of Works shall be reviewed. Presumably a Treasury Committee will undertake this task, and an attempt be made to tighten up the existing regulations regarding the nature of any work with which professional civil servants may occupy their private time. H.M. Treasury is, of course, in a position to impose what regulations it likes, but it may be suggested that in doing so great care should be taken to avoid any semblance of unfair discrimination against a particular section of the Civil Service. What is really needed is the appointment of a Royal Commission to examine and report on the present position of the professional worker in the State service, and to determine what modifications of the Civil Service system, if any, are desirable to meet the changed conditions resulting from the growing impact of the State on industry as a whole.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/120285a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

THROUGH the effect -1- and a natffialjst th>that man was somehow/i: animal kingdom, but t ness and was not taken seriously. Then came Charles Darwin, first with a theory of the evolution of organic beings which involved the ancestry of man, and sixteen years later with a cumulative study (" The Descent of Man," 1871) which clinched his argument, and could no longer be ignored. Man took his place at the summit of the tree of organic evolution, and as the topmost branch draws the lightning, so the ancestry of man became the target upon which were concentrated the thunder-bolts of a fierce opposition. Until then, the battle of evolution had been waged upon a long front, but no sooner had the ' origin of man' entered the field than the zone of fiercest combat became narrowed, and to believers in the old creed the descent of man became the salient by the fate of which the whole long front of evolution was to stand or break. Half a century has come and gone since then; new facts have accumulated and been assimilated, and while evolution has won its battle and become part of the stock-in-trade of the world's thought, a sporadic fight still wages about the isolated salient of man. That it is no mock combat is shown by the numbers of combatants who rushed to the support of the Fundamentalist position in the United States of America a short time ago, and any one familiar with the attitude of mind of the average Briton must be aware of the latent hostility which still survives towards the idea that, in popular phrase, ' man sprang from a monkey,' and of the satisfaction with which the emergence of each new scientific squabble regarding interpretation is hailed as the rift indicating the approaching dissolution of the whole.At the present moment the critical attitude towards the reality of human evolution is at the top of one of its periodic swings. The reason for the fresh recrudescence of opposition can be easily traced. Charles Darwin's statement of the doctrine of evolution fell upon a scientific world which had been groping for light, and after the first fierce clash with the ' die-hards ' of the old order, the grandeur of his concept, its plain logic and simplicity, lulled the scientific world into a stupor of complacency. Biologists accepted the Darwinian revelation; they rushed to weave their fresh examples into its mesh, and with facile interpretation naturalists, professional and amateur, explained with satisfaction the evolutionary significance of each and every structure as it came to their notice. It must be remembered that Darwin laid the weight of his argument upon the structures of organisms, and passed lightly over the vital problems of functional adaptation and of the correlated development of structures, the prime importance of which is now becoming manifest. However, the first inhibiting glamour of a great thesis wore off. The study, especially of variation, heredity, and the correlation of structures and activities, led to a critical examination of Darwin's conclusions; and while the doctrine of evolution has never been gainsaid, one and another has arisen to show that the course of evolution has not been determined exclusively or mainly by the natural selection or the struggle for existence upon which Darwin laid stress. Two recent works of different character may be cited as illustrating the critical attitude of scientific workers towards natural selection, both, strangely enough, founded upon the study of fishes-Berg's " Nomogenesis " (1926) and Kyle's " Biology of Pishes " (1926).This scientific revolt against the easy acceptance of ' Darwinism ' had already gained much ground when it compelled the attention of the people by the publicity given to Bateson's address to the Toronto meeting in 1921 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and by the directness and vigour of his attack. The disturbance of accepted theories and ideals by the long years of war had prepared the ground. The popular mind leapt to the conclusion that the apparently established belief in evolution had been shaken, and the critics of the simian origin of man rushed to the fray. Typica^of their statements was the contribution of a prominent Boston pastor to an American newspaper, in which he gave the names of "some scientists who at least call;in question the loudly asserted proof of evolution," and the names included those of J. P. Lotsy, W. E. Ritter, Paul Kammerer, and E. W. Mac Bride ! Of course, the pastor and his sympathisers were mistaken. These men of science had made their declarations with clearness and in full knowledge of the implication of their words. It was only a thoughtless misinterpretation or the blindness of bias which construed their attacks and those of Bateson, Morgan, and the rest, into an onslaught upon the great truth of evolution or descent by modification, instead of, as they really were, critiques of the method - natural selection - by which Darwin supposed evolution to have worked its way. Mistaken though the reading of scientific progress was, it is this mistake which has given new life to the present-day attacks upon evolution, and has induced doubts in many minds, unfamiliar with the trend of scientific achievement, regarding Darwin's view of man's development, and especially of the merging of human ancestry in a common stock with the forerunners of the simian apes.A restatement of the position in the light of modern knowledge-a simple, convincing statement, unencumbered by detail and side-issues, vouched for oil the word of authority-would serve a very useful purpose at the present time. We are glad, therefore, that Sir Arthur Keith has chosen the subject of " Darwin's Theory of Man's Descent as it stands to-day " as the theme of his presidential address to be delivered at the Leeds meeting of the British Association next week. No man is better qualified than Sir Arthur to meet the need of the time-by training, experience, prestige, and by the touch of fervour and imagination which he has carried from northern Scotland. Though the address will be delivered to a body of men and women familiar in the main with the scientific mood and the general conclusions of science, and, enlightening as it is sure to be, can, therefore, scarcely do more than confirm conviction, yet it will reach a wider audience through wireless and the press, and may be expected once again to focus attention throughout the English-speaking world upon the essential verities of man's ascent, and place a fresh strain upon the incredulity of unbelievers.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/120287a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

THIS work falls into two parts, of which the first contains an enumeration of the languages of the world under more or less accepted headings, but an exception to the general rule is made for what are commonly called the Sudanic languages, for which two wholly inconsistent schemes are printed, one by Delafossc, the other by Drexel, The second part consists of a discussion of the distribution of certain features of phonetics, grammar, and syntax, followed by a reclassification of the languages on the basis of the data in question; the primitive position of the dependent genitive is thenjs'dealt with, together with the causes which brought about a change, and finally the relation of linguistic tp cultural areas is discussed. No final verdict can be passed upon the book until specialists for each area have sat in judgment and accepted or rejected, so far as they concern their own special provinces, the theories put forward; but whatever criticism in detail may be launched at the author's head, the work will remain as a great achievement, truly remarkable as the product of one man. Perhaps no one but Pater Schmidt would have had the courage to attempt it, or, if he attempted it, to bring it to a successful conclusion. For the author is far from retraversing well-trodden paths; he has opened a vista of new lines of research which cannot fail to attract many workers.Where so much turns upon contact between different groups, it is of course essential to have a thoroughly accurate topographical basis for the theories; the linguistic data must be as complete and accurate as possible; and the conclusions must be wholly without ambiguity. To what extent these three essentials have been attained, so far as ono area is concerned, will be made clear in the sequel. It is only fair to state that the author in his preface invites criticism in detail and looks forward to a second edition free from the errors which are bound to appear in a pioneer work. Following Drexel in the main, the author groups Sudanic languages under seven heads: Wule (that is, Ubanghi group), Ngo-Nke (Mande), Manfu (Kwa and Central), Kanuri, Nilotic, Bantoid, and Hausa; in the excellent atlas are shown the areas occupied by these groups and their zones of influence. Unhappily there are serious errors in the territory ascribed to the Mande and Kanuri tongues; Hausa. extends three degrees too far north, ghost languages (for example, Gogo and Kandin) appear, and the treatment of the northern provinces of Nigeria is demonstrably almost pure guesswork. Over and above this, Gola is located in the middle of the Km tongues and Bullom north of Konakry in a Susu area; and a nonexistent range of Bantoid is shown south of the Mande group.Topographical errors are not confined to the maps; Biafada is in the text located on the Senegal instead of the Rio Jeba; Wolof is put in the Senegal group; Serer, its immediate neighbour, forms with Kisi and Fula a north-east group; but Kisi lies far to the south near Gola, and Fula stretches in a series of groups, mostly small, from a few score miles from St. Louis in the west as far as Lake Chad. To add to the confusion, Biafada, Serer, and Fula are said to meet the Togoland and Mosi-Grusi groups in the extreme north-east on the upper Niger. But Biafada and Serer are about 1000 miles from Togoland; Fula is not in contact with Mosi on the Niger at all, and the prefixes of Tern have nothing to do with Fula, which is a suffix language. De Martonne's atlas, now in a second edition, appears to have been entirely neglected. When we compare the linguistic data of the text with the maps, more errors and serious conflicts emerge; the Wule and eastern Manfu tongues, and all the languages of Nigeria and Kamerun, are shown as making the genitive follow the noun it qualifies, while the subject pronoun follows the verb. But at least a dozen Nigerian languages make the genitive precede; the subject pronoun is almost universally placed before the verb, as indeed the text asserts for Manfu and Wule. The text is also in disagreement with the map as to the location of two languages, Huku and Afo, to which a system of senary numeration is assigned; neither is senary in point of fact, and Huku is near the great lakes, not on the Juba, Afo on the Benue, not the Sanaga. Both text and maps wholly ignore the duodecimal systems of the Bauchi plateau.It is clear that, errors and omissions of this kind go far to compromise the author's conclusions when he proceeds on the basis of linguistic data to define the areas of primitive, primary, secondary, and tertiary speech groups; it may be remarked in passing that, singularly enough, many of the families and groups of the first part of the work have to be split up to make them conform to the onew classification. In Africa the southern primary type includes the Mande and parts of the Manfu, Wule, and Bantoid groups; the northern type includes Hausa and also Kunama, wrongly assigned to the Hamitic family; the middle type is represented by Kanuri and the Manfu group, which thus appears twice. The secondary type in Africa is regarded as a product of the southern and middle primary types; it includes Bantu and some Bantoid tongues. Singularly enough, the section on secondary and tertiary languages enumerates among the former Nama and Sandawe, which have previously figured as primitive forms of speech, while Kanuri and Hausa, elsewhere regarded as primary, are also reckoned as tertiary.Space will not permit the citation of further points in which Pater Schmidt will probably have to make changes in another edition. It is, however, quite possible to make errors in working out the detail of a theory without invalidating fundamental principles. Attention may now be turned to some of the general principles which the author accepts as axiomatic. In the first place mention may be made of the wide use of psychological arguments in relation to linguistic facts; no doubt, if we could discover the real springs of action, psychology could be made to explain linguistics; but it is quite another matter for a European linguist to argue that because a matter presents itself to him in a certain light, therefore it must be so. The question at issue is one of fact, not of what seems*likely. A case in point occurs when Pater Schmidt is treating of different kinds of gender, in nouns; he holds that a two-gender (masculine and feminine) system like that of the Hamitic languages is later than that of the Indo-European languages which have also neuter; as an explanation is given that in the two-gender system feminine and neuter have, for reasons which he sets forth, joined forces and become a single class. If we had no linguistic data on which to go this kind of argument might be admitted; but in Indo-European languages, the primary distinction is between animate and inanimate, that is, masculine and neuter, for these two alone differ in form in the noun; the masculine noun cannot be distinguished from the feminine noun in this way. The obvious conclusion is that the feminine is of late origin.A second example of this kind of reasoning is found in the passage which explains how the prefix genitive became a suffix genitive. It is put down to the rise of matrilineal or matriarchal conditions, which resulted from the introduction of agriculture; agriculture led to a demand for more land, and this to migration and disturbance of boundaries; the meeting of heterogeneous speech forms resulted in the break-up of both, and from this issued the more logical suffixed genitive. This theory involves a good many assumptions, some of them demonstrably not in accordance with facts. Pater Schmidt's map shows matriarchy and the suffix genitive in south-east Australia, but this was not a result of the domestication of plants, which was unknown, Even more unfavourable for the author's contention is the picture presented by America, where matriarchy seems to be in a great majority of cases associated with the prefixed genitive. The major defect of the argument is, however, the assumption that domestication of plants meant land hunger; for it reduced immensely the area needed by a given number of people for their support.When we recall how little we know of the origins of Indo-European languages, which in some areas were reduced to writing many centuries ago, it may seem, not without reason, hazardous to survey all the speech forms of the world and explain their relations and transformations. But new ideas have a value apart from their correspondence with facts, and pioneer work like that of Pater Schmidt is deserving of all praise.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/120288a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

THE original German edition of this work was published in 1923. It contained practically all the information which could be obtained from the literature up to March 1921. It has been the author's intention to make it a standard work by including a large number of economic data and a detailed survey of the literature. Vol. 1 contains a short general introduction and then a historical account of the nitrogen industry in each country of the world. Vol. 2 gives a technical description of the processes used in the nitrogen industry. The author has also included allied processes which may be important from their economic effect on the main industry. There are very complete indexes, bibliography, and list of patents. In order to bring the first German edition up-to-date for translation, there is at the end of each chapter a supplement containing new matter covering the years 1921-1924, and a foreword of seventeen pages has been written by Dr. J. F. Crowley. The supplements consist, for the most part, of bald references to the literature and make an unsatisfactory ending to each chapter, but Dr. Crowley's foreword successfully summarises the position of the industry.The importance of nitrogen in commerce arose during the Middle Ages from the use of saltpetre in making gunpowder. The nitrogen problem was as acute in France during the Napoleonic wars as in Germany during the late War. Prevented by the blockade from importing adequate supplies of nitre, France had resource to nitrate plantations (salt-petrieres), which were administered by a State department. In these plantations heaps of animal and vegetable refuse were allowed to rot for months until covered with a layer of saltpetre. But after the Napoleonic wars, when swords were turned to ploughshares, inorganic nitrogen was not turned to agriculture. It was not until about 1840 that Liebig showed that inorganic nitrogen compounds were important soil fertilisers. From that time the use of inorganic nitrogen in agriculture has grown steadily. At first Chile nitrate was the sole source of supply; then came, in addition, ammonium sulphate obtained from coal; and within, the last twenty-five years synthetic nitrogen compounds- nitrate of lime, cyanamide, and ammonia. The development of the synthetic nitrogen industry took place first where electrical power could be obtained cheaply-principally in Norway, because the arc processes absorbed much electrical energy. Some years before the War Germany had become anxious to produce synthetic nitrogen fertilisers for her soil. A continental nation with no food-producing colonies, that country was attempting to produce all the food it required. Tariffs were put 011 imported food, but Germany had to import large quantities of nitrogen, and in 1913 it absorbed 27 per cent, of the total nitrate exported from Chile, as well as nitrate of lime from Norway and sulphate of ammonia from its own coal industries. During this year (1913), 32 per cent, of the world's production of inorganic nitrogen was used by German agriculturists. How different were the conditions in Great Britain with free trade, large investments abroad, food-producing colonies, and a large navy !When the War broke out, Germany, expecting a short war, appears to have attached no importance to the supply of nitrogen for explosives. Later, when the blockade became serious, Germany looked first to her cyanamide factories for nitrogen, and only later did the German Government realise the possibilities of the Haber Bosch process of ammonia synthesis which had just been established in 1913, Two large factories were erected to provide the war requirements. Since the War the German synthetic ammonia factories have been utilised for the production of fertilisers, and works using somewhat similar processes are now active in other countries -England, America, Italy, France, and Belgium, Some of these (England and America) are well established and are already a commercial success. Others are still passing through tribulations and troubles. The tendency of modern industry is to build large factories, because greater efficiency is obtained with large machines than with small ones, and the cost of labour for a given output usually decreases as the size of the unit plant increases. But more important still is the advantage of better scientific and technical control of processes which can be obtained in a large factory. Dr. Crowley in his introduction seems to attach great importance to a claim of simplicity of one process (Casale), though it is difficult to find the basis of the claim. He states: " On a visit to an important synthetic ammonia plant paid some twelve months ago, the writer found that the whole plant was being operated under the direct supervision of the engineer responsible for the running of the power station, and that no chemists were employed." It does not seem probable that this plant will long survive in competition with plants controlled by the best technically trained men of to-day.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/120290a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

TWENTY years ago the collection and publica--L tion of meteorological statistics in Britain was divided between the Royal Meteorological Society, the Scottish Meteorological Society, the British Rainfall organisation, and the Meteorological Office. To-day this work is all done by the Meteorological Office, and the preparation and issue of a climatological atlas would be a natural obligation of that institution. But, as Dr. Mill explains in his admirable introduction to the volume under notice, the endowment fund of the British Rainfall Organisation was instituted for the advancement of research in rainfall, and no application of that fund could have reflected more honour on the memory of Symons and Salter (and, one may add, of Dr. Mill himself) than its utilisation for the preparation of an atlas of rainfall. Incidentally it enabled the atlas to appear at an earlier date than would otherwise have been likely. The preparation of a rainfall atlas for a country where the variations are so marked as they are in the British Isles, presupposes the collection and analysis of an enormous number of observations; and above and before all others, credit must be given to the 10,000 observers whose work, for the most part entirely voluntary, during the past sixty-six years provided the material.The frontispiece of the atlas is a good orographic map of the British Isles, a chart essential for the right understanding of the maps of rainfall which follow; and to meet a very natural desire, three full-page maps are given showing the average annual rainfall, the rainfall of the wettest year, 1872, and the rainfall of the driest year, 1887. Nearly every patch of colour (high ground) on the orographic map has its corresponding patch of deeper blue (heavy rainfall) on the chart of average rainfall. There are two main series of maps. The first comprises small maps (scale 1 in 8,000,000) of annual rainfall for each individual year for the fifty-six years, 1868-1923, expressed as a percentage of the average for the standard period of thirty-five years, 1881-1915. An examination of these maps shows that though there were three years (1872, 1877, 1903) in the period with rainfall everywhere above the average; there was only one year, 1887, with rainfall everywhere below the average.The maps show, too, how frequently the regions with the greatest percentage excess of rainfall are not the wet mountainous western districts but the plains and lowlands where the normal rainfall is moderate or low. This series of charts presents a historical summary which cannot fail to interest the student of rainfall, the economist, the water engineer and the reminiscent citizen. The second series includes twelve full-page maps of average monthly rainfall. Though these are of much greater practical importance than the series of annual maps for individual years, they do not make quite the same appeal to the imagination: averages never do. So it is good that the committee included the annual maps, and it would have been even better, had space permitted, to have had a map for each of the 700 individual months of the period. The reader naturally wants to see if 1872 was as thoroughly disastrous for the farmers of Cheshire, Stafford, Derby, and York as the annual map suggests: that depends on the months in which the 70 per cent, excess in those counties was accumulated, but no information can be derived from the atlas on this point. Actually, 1879 was far worse for agriculture than 1872, though the rainfall for the whole year in 1879 was generally much less than in 1872.The monthly maps reveal many unexpected and interesting features: for example, Norfolk has more rain in July than any part of east and southeast England except the high ground of the Downs. September has a larger dry area than any of the months May to August, but is nevertheless appreciably wetter in the mountainous districts of the west than the months of May to July. The winter months are relatively very dry in Cambridge, December being drier than Juno: in this connexion it is of interest to note that Paris lies in a relatively dry area in France as Cambridge and Oxford do in England.The Table V. of normal monthly rainfall, which Dr. Mill quotes from Mr. Salter's book, reveals that though October is the wettest month in England, December is the wettest month in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. In Ireland, indeed, August is wetter than October. Similarly though April is the driest month in England, May is the driest month in Wales and Ireland, and June the driest month in Scotland. This atlas, which surpasses expectation and arouses admiration the more it is examined, is really as indispensable a part of the ordinary house hold reference library as a common topographical atlas; but the price is too high: it ought to be reduced to 7s. Gd. or even to 5s., and the book advertised and sold in tens of thousands, instead of in tens.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/120291a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

(1) DR. TUTTON'S work on the Alps is a -L/ valuable contribution to the literature on ice and snow. It will appeal in particular to those alpinists who have at least a fair general knowledge of physical science and to those others who visit the Alps of Europe with but the common desire to enjoy a holiday there, and at the same time to see and understand the most striking of the developments of snow, ice, and stream in that marvellous country. For the latter, the chapter to be read as introductory is Chap, viii., " The Call of the Alps," for there the author sets out the attractiveness of his subject with the enthusiasm of a devotee who has himself spent many holidays in the enjoyment of the physical, mental, and artistic pleasures available in the central area of Europe. These are the lure the reader must have in view when he tackles Part I. of the work, for Part I. is for arm-chair evening reading in advance of a spell of freedom.Part I. (pp. 1-74) gives a very useful resume of all the major researches which have gone to build up our present knowledge of the chemistry and physics of water, ice, and snow. Successive chapters deal in detail with the chemical and physical relation of water and ice; the crystal structure of ice and snow; the optical, thermal, and electrical properties of ice; its plasticity, viscosity, and elasticity. Throughout this section Dr. Tutton has treated the subject historically, giving the names of successive workers in the direct line of progress, with dates of their work and an outline of their researches and results. This section of the book thus affords the scientific reader an interesting study of the history of the subject from Cavendish in 1783 to the present day. Referring to Part I. in his preface, the author hopes that it " will be readable by any ordinarily educated person." He is, it is to be feared, too sanguine. The person who has to be taught on p. 12 the meaning of 2H2 + O2 = 2H20 is not likely to learn by the time he reaches p. 42 enough of physical and chemical sc^ace to qualify for the study of Sir William Brag^s ^26 work which is there summarised. Yet the matter of Part I. is well selected and carefully written. It gives honour to whom honour is due, and should be read attentively by those who have a fair knowledge of physical science. Taken as a whole it is an interesting study in the record of advance in science.Part II. (pp. 75-146) has a short chapter on the. geology of the Alps and a longer one on their topography. The latter should be read in company with a good map. The map given is quite un-Worthy of the book; in fact it is unworthy of this century. Coolidge's "Alps in Nature and History " (1908)had an admirable map (byBartholomew),and there are now many excellent maps of the region. Most of the readers of Dr. Tutton's comprehensive work will find its kernel in Chaps, xi. and xii., snowcaps, glaciers and their movements; crevasses, bergschrunds, and seracs; dirt-bands and veins; moraines and glacier lakes. These give descriptions and explanations of the phenomena which most arrest the interest of travellers in the Alps, and they are freely and well illustrated by photographs which have been carefTilly- selected from a great store. Chap. xiii. outlines the history of the " Conquest of the Summits." It affords answers to many questions which every visitor puts to his friends or his guide-book, and its answers are well and fully stated in an interesting manner.Part III. (pp. 147-304) presents examples of snow and ice forms discussed in earlier chapters. Here, however, they appear as incidentals to a typical set of expeditions. The expeditions selected were chosen for record as affording the most interesting illustration of the facts described in the earlier parts of the book, and as being expeditions which the author could describe and recommend from personal knowledge. They are illustrated by 145 pictures on 33 half-tone plates, all being reproductions of the author's own photographs. These pictures are admirable as illustrations. Some are of full-page size, others half-page, but the great majority are six on a page, each of these being about 2 in. x 2 in. Selected with good judgment, they illustrate point after point of interest in the forms of snow and of ice, in the work of frost and of glaciers, and in the scenery produced in the course of prolonged ice action. Each bears definite relation to the text, and the text references to them are complete. Small in size though they are, each makes its point to the eye clearly, yet the execution is such that every one of them stands well the test ofyietailed examination under a reading lens.The arrangement of matter in the chapters that deal with definite expeditions is a happy one. It emphasises the individuality of each of the areas traversed and it presents in various settings examples of the different phenomena which in Part II. are discussed as types. It is replete with human interest. (2) In his " Art and Sport of Alpine Photography," Mr. Gardner presents an arresting series of fine photographs-150 plates, six of which have two pictures each, the others are single full-page photographs. These show what can be achieved by skill in the selection of subjects as to each of the many conditions upon which success depends. The author does not, however, leave the pictures- and they are pictures-to speak entirely for themselves. In a light and pleasant running commentary he points to the main factors upon which success depends, and in illustration of the influence of these he refers to the examples in this real album of the Alps which his series of photographs forms. Thus, under " Composition and Foreground " he deals successively with water, trees, rocks, ice, and snow in varied forms. In the following section he deals with weather, lighting, and seasons. In all such matters his work shows that he is exceptionally well qualified to advise those who would produce photographs that are pictures as well as mementoes. In his chapter on mountain portraits, Mr. Gardner points to twenty excellent pictures of the Matter-horn and thirteen of Mont Blanc in illustration of the aspects and moods that go to form what the lovers of a mountain feel as its individuality.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/120292a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

THIS new volume from Prof. Eddington bears the same relation to his " Internal Constitution of the Stars " as does his " Space, Time, and Gravitation " to his " Mathematical Theory of Relativity." It is in the form of three lectures, " The Interior of a Star," "Some Recent Investigations," and "The Age of the Stars," with an appendix on the ultimate fate of ' white dwarfs.' The modern theory of the stars and the way it fits in with and makes use of the modern theory of the atom is a fascinating story, however told. But Prof. Eddington tells it with the full vigour of a powerful and gifted imagination. " Stars and Atoms " is sheer enjoyment in the reading. It is difficult to do justice to the liveliness of his style -the atoms fairly dance before one's eyes; in his own phrase, we see them " riding sunbeams." His wealth of metaphor is apparently inexhaustible- we have Daedalus and his flying equipment, ballrooms and crinolines, detectives and finger-prints, larders and mousetraps.Extensive trains of argument are followed through without a mathematical symbol. Prof. Eddington is never content with a merely mathematical deduction. He insists that we shall see for ourselves the inwardness of the matter-that we shall not only acquiesce but also give joyful assent. For this reason, and for inspiration's sake, the professional astronomer will profit from this work as much as the general reader. One illustration will suffice. Though not connected particularly with atomic physics, the principle of the Michelson stellar interferometer is described in a way which illumines the whole of optics. The prospective reader may rest assured that he is not asked to listen to vague speculations. A charm of the book is the author's candidness. Problems are discussed from which present theories are shown to be inadequate. Prof. Eddington, a great theorist, shows himself also a disciplined one.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/120293a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

THE fact that this book has had a new impression or new edition every two years since 1919 is sufficient evidence of its use to teachers and students and of their appreciation of it. The author is to be congratulated in that he has not burdened the student by the introduction of accounts of recent advances in kindred branches of the subject. His final chapter might well have been omitted, the one valuable addition on the angular diameter of stars being inserted in the chapter on interference. The rest is out of place hi the book and in any case could not fail to be inadequate. An account of modern apparatus for the determination of indices of refraction would have improved the chapter on that subject, and in the chapter on diffraction the accounts of the Lummer-Gehrckc and Fabry-Perot interferometers should have been given in more detail both in theory and practice. The theory would follow very readily from the excellent treatment of diffraction given in this chapter. These are, however, slight criticisms of an excellent treatment of the subject. The reader cannot fail to appreciate the careful mathematical presentation, which is well exemplified in the chapters on lenses, diffraction, and on the nature of light.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/120294b0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

IN a letter to NATURE of May 28, p. 778, I stated that the line λ2270 which is ‘forbidden’ by the selection principle for inner quantum numbers, could not be observed in absorption. I have now repeated the attempt with a more powerful instrument, which has been placed at my disposal by a grant from the Council of the Royal Society. A definite positive result has been obtained, the line showing up clearly in absorption by a column of mercury vapour 45 cm. long boiling at a pressure of 95 cm. It is well seen on several different negatives. The range of conditions for observing it is very limited. Too much vapour blots out the continuous background; too little fails to show the line absorption.The observation seems of considerable theoretical interest, as showing that direct transition from the normal to the metastable excited state of the mercury atom can sometimes occur, even though very rarely. The resonance line of mercury, X2537, would, I believe, show up in comparable intensity with the same column of mercury vapour at the atmospheric temperature; thus at about one millionth of the density used for X

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/120295a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

A PROTEST should surely be made against the statement of the reviewer on page 111 of NATURE for July 23 that “various kinds of … ectoplasmic formation are facts of experience”. The number of persons, among those competent to form an opinion, who are of this belief, must be a very small minority, and tho supposed existence of ectoplasm is no more proved than that of any other psychic phenomenon.One of the proofs of the existence of ectoplasm relied upon by Dr. Oeley in the book to which the review refers are wax masks of spirit hands. As has recently been shown by Sir Arthur Keith and others, these can easily be counterfeited, wax being a substance that readily becomes plastic and capable of fraudulent manipulation at quite low temperatures. I have, therefore, elsewhere recently made the suggestion that these masks would be more conclusive if made, say, in cast-iron or some other metal which is rigid and nonplastic at ordinary temperatures; but I fear that ectoplasm would frizzle just as easily as the living hands of the mediums or of their con federates, which, I am convinced, are the real agents inv

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/120296a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature