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115 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C.

Maker of Physical, Chemical, and other Instruments,
and every kind of Spectroscope and Polarimeters.

Telegrams-Arctitude, London.

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THE JUBILEE CATALOGUE

ISSUED TO MARK THE

FIFTY YEARS' EXISTENCE OF THE FIRM

OF

E. LEYBOLD'S NACHFOLGER,

COLOGNE,

Contains on its more than 900 pages a complete survey of the apparatus used for instruction in Physics, as well as numerous practical instructions and about 3000 illustrations.

NATURE says: The firm of Leybold Nachfolger in Cologne has recently issued a very complete and interesting catalogue of physical apparatus and fittings sold by them. The book starts with a history of the instruments made in Cologne during the last century. In its second section we find an account of the construction and fittings of various chemical and physical institutions. After this follows the catalogue proper, filling some 800 large pages, profusely illustrated and admirably arranged. The book will be most useful to the teacher." (No. 1846, Vol. 71.)

THE CATALOGUE WILL BE FORWARDED TO SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTES ON APPLICATION.

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STAR

MICROMETERS.

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The illustration shows a star micrometer of the form designed by Mr. A. R. Hinks, and made by us for the University Observatory of Cambridge, England, as well as for the Observatory of Tacubaya (see Monthly Notices, Roy. Astron. Soc., Vol. LXI., p 444). The coordinates of a star upon a celestial photograph impressed with a standard réseau are obtained very readily, the errors being imperceptible.

We also make a simple form of star micrometer, which is highly accurate in performance, although the adjustments are less elaborate.

We make a special feature of instruments for research, and we may mention as examples of our design and construction the Spectroheliograph at Kodaikanal, and an apparatus for enlarging and rectifying stellar spectrograms at Poona.

We shall be glad to answer the enquiries of interested parties.

The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, Ltd.,

THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 1905.

SOME RECENT BOOKS ON CELTIC. Keltic Researches. By E. W. B. Nicholson. Pp. xviii+212. (Oxford: Clarendon Press; London: Henry Frowde, 1904.) Price 21s, net. The Mythology of the British Islands, By Charles Squire. Pp. x+446. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1905.)

The Literature of the Celts, its History and Romance. By Magnus Maclean. Pp. XV+400. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1902.)

HOSE who have the study of Celtic at heart can

THOSE

not but be rejoiced at the strides which it has made in recent years. At no period have the inhabitants of the Celtic countries-those of Wales and Ireland more especially-shown a keener interest in their languages and institutions than at the present day; the number of scholars engaged in Celtic research has never been so great; and this Celtic revival, so-called, is like to prove no passing outburst, fanned by eccentrics and sentimentalists; rather we should see in it the coming of the race into its own again, the reaping after many days of a rich harvest of literature and legend.

In the case of the Welsh, the movement has been partly the cause, partly the effect of the movement towards improved education, and is no longer of yesterday. It can be traced back some seventy years, to the founding of the British schools by the late Sir Hugh Owen. Thirty years later the same enlightened patriot added discussions, both learned and practical, on matters affecting the Principality, to the musical and literary contests at the Eisteddfod. About the same time the study of the Welsh language, which owed what life it had to the devoted labours of Chancellor Silvan Evans, received a fresh direction from the papers and speeches of Prof. Rhys, who inveighed against the school of Dr. Owen Pughe, and pointed the way to more scientific methods. The last fifty years have been marked by a steady, if gradual, advance; the interest in Wales and things Welsh, and the sense of nationality, have become ever keener and more real, the language has secured a fresh lease of life, and the study of philology and history has been, and continues to be, vigorous and fruitful; not the least happy augury for the future is the fact that a number of younger men, natives of the Principality, have already made a name in these fields.

Unlike the Welsh, by which it may have been in part suggested, the Irish revival is of comparatively recent date. It is none the less vigorous on that account. Within the last few years, owing largely to the efforts of the Gaelic League, Irish has been studied with eagerness by persons of every shade of opinion, and a determined attempt has been made to develop native industries. A society has been founded for the publication of Irish texts it has already done considerable work—and a special school, the School of Irish Learning, has been started to give students a scientific training in the language and to open up the rich treasures of Irish literature. The necessary funds are provided

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in part by voluntary subscription, and the generous donor may hope that he is helping to raise up a race of scholars as devoted as O'Curry and O'Donovan, as distinguished as Stokes and O'Grady. Up to this present, there has been no corresponding movement among the Scotch Highlanders or the other Celtic peoples, but it will not be the fault of their congeners if their national aspirations remain unawakened. The Pan-Celtic Congress, which met for the first time in 1901, has for one of its aims to increase the feeling of union among "the sea-divided Gaels" themselves; it

is attended by delegates from all the Celtic districts, as well from Brittany as from those on this side of the Channel.

Apart from the enthusiasm of the Celtic-speaking races for their own language and institutions, there is a growing tendency among the other inhabitants of these islands themselves far from purely Teutonicto recognise the importance of the Celtic element and to wish to be enlightened as to its history and literature. It is doubtless to meet this demand that there have appeared of late years a number of books on Celtic subjects, written not so much for the specialist as for the general public. Of the books at the head of this notice two-Mr. Squire's "Mythology" and Mr. Maclean's "Literature "-are of this more or less popular character. All three alike are the work of men whose distinctions are not confined to Celtic, and bear witness to the increasing interest which it is exciting among the British nation as a whole.

Mr. Nicholson's "Keltic Researches," as the subtitle indicates, are a series of studies in the history of the ancient Goidelic languages and peoples. The author's first object is to demonstrate to philologists certain unrecognised or imperfectly recognised linguistic facts; but, inasmuch as he has not made Celtic his one and only study, he does not write in a narrow, specialising spirit; his linguistic facts are important, but he values them chiefly for the light which they throw on history in general, on the Pictish question, on the Menapian settlements, and on the distribution of the Celtic languages in Britain and on the Continent. The main philological result of the book is to show that the loss of original þ, a loss supposed to be the main characteristic of the Celtic languages, is of comparatively late date in the Goidelic group, that, in fact, was kept at Bordeaux until the fifth century A.D. Those who wish to be satisfied as to the soundness of his linguistic foundation are advised to turn to the appendices, which make up a third of his book, immediately after reading the first eight pages.

We need scarcely point out that much of his matter is controversial, and that some of his conclusions are liable to be disputed. For instance, many will refuse to admit that the Picts spoke a tongue virtually identical with Gaelic; they will maintain with Stokes that they spoke something nearer akin to Welsh, or with Zimmer and Rhys that their language was not Aryan at all. On the other hand, there can be little doubt as to the correctness of his main linguistic results. Exception may be taken to the interpretation of his pièces justificatives, the Rom tablets and the Coligny calendar; but he is certainly right in inferring that, besides those of the Gallo-Brythonic branch, there existed in

Gaul a language or languages closely akin to Goidelic or ancient Gaelic of the British Isles. Strange to say, although every Celtist knows that the peoples of the Gallo-Brythonic group had p for qu from time immemorial-petor in Gaulish petorritum = Latin quatuor and that those of the Goidelic branch retained qu like the Romans, the greater number have chosen to assume that Gaulish was co-extensive with Celtic on the Continent. In spite of the evidence of such names as Aquitania, Sequana, Sequani, it was the fashion to suppose that qu was unknown in Gaul and that all the Celts alike dropped the consonant p of the Indo-European parent speech, as, for instance, in Aremorica, Armorica, where are is approximately equivalent to the Greek napá. In laying stress on the fact that the retention of the old qu and Indo-European are characteristic of the Pictavian and Sequanian languages he has done valuable service to the cause of philology, and recalled Celtic scholars from a path of error. He does not, indeed, claim to be the first to point out that the Celtic languages of the Continent were not of one and the same type. He tells us that as early as 1847 Jacob Grimm showed that the charms in the work of Marcellus of Bordeaux were in a language virtually identical with old Irish, and that Pictet afterwards proved that Indo-European p was retained in one of these charms in the prefix pro. Half a century later (in February, 1891), in a paper read before the Philological Society, Prof. Rhys brought together certain qu names from the Continent to prove the same thesis, and proposed that the language in Gaul akin to Goidelic should be called Celtican. He insisted on the significance of the words of Sulpicius Severus in Dialog. I. 27, "Tu vero, inquit Postumianus, vel Celtice, aut si mavis, Gallice loquere, dummodo jam Martinum loquaris." So, too, Mr. Macbain, in the introduction to his etymological dictionary of the Gaelic Language (Inverness, 1896), inserts among the q group by the side of Goidelic "dialects in Spain and Gaul." This was not long before the Coligny calendar and the Rom inscriptions came to light, showing that the Sequani and the Pictones, at any rate, spoke languages belonging to the same group as old Irish.

There can be no question that the book deserves study. If it sometimes betrays inexperience--and the author would be the first to admit this-it shows signs of many-sided learning, and in some cases of rare insight; the whole breathes an impartiality and generous candour which are wanting in many searchers after truth.

"The Mythology of the British Islands," by Charles Squire, is an introduction to Celtic myth, legend, poetry, and romance. It is intended, as we have seen, not for the learned, but for the ordinary reader, and the subject is approached from the literary rather than from the scholastic standpoint. Believing that the classic fount from which the poet so long drew inspiration has lost its potency, that the Greek stories can no longer be handled save by the genius alone, the author has attempted to put the natives of these islands in possession of a new heritage of myth and tradition, a heritage which is as much their own as that of the Teutons and Scandinavians.

Although the Welsh mabinogi and romances, and much of the Gaelic saga, have been made accessible in translations, it is unlikely that the British public as a whole can have formed anything like an adequate idea of Celtic mythology. The works in point contain but few explanations, and he who opens them for the first time, while he may be sensible of their charm, cannot but be bewildered by the novelty of his surroundings. He feels that he has ventured into a new world, peopled by characters whose very names are, for the most part, unfamiliar. If he wishes to understand their setting, to trace the connection between them, he must peruse innumerable lectures and learned essays, a task which is like to prove no light one. Squire's book is calculated to meet his difficulty. In it he will at last be formally introduced to the personages of Celtic mythology, to the gods and giants of the Gaels, to the champions of the Red Branch of Ulsterheroes of an epic almost worthy to rank with that of Troy- and to Finn and his Fenians. He will also make acquaintance with the chief figures of the Brythonic Pantheon, with the earlier race of gods, and with Arthur and his knights, who will be seen to belong to the same company.

Mr.

As our author does not claim to have written an original work, it goes without saying that we are not called upon to enter into a discussion of his subjectmatter. He has studied the works of the best scholars, and for the most part he adheres to them faithfully. It is possible that in some cases he may show himself over positive, that he may be inclined to treat as certain what his authority has advanced as a conjecture. But since his sole object in writing is to gain a larger audience for the studies of others, slips of this kind cannot be regarded as serious.

In our opinion his book is both useful and attractive. His treatment of his subject is thorough and conscientious, and he has realised his hope of presenting it in a lucid and agreeable form. It will be matter for surprise if he does not inspire his readers with some at least of his own enthusiasm.

Of Mr. Maclean's "Celtic Literature" there is no need to say more than a few words. It is some time since it appeared, and we doubt not that many of the readers of this Journal are already well acquainted with it It is the first attempt to give in brief compass an account of Celtic literature from the earliest times to the present day. Like Mr. Squire's "Mythology," it is intended to serve as a popular introduction; at the same time, it aims at satisfying those in quest of information as to original sources and books of reference. From both points of view it has much to recommend it; it will leave the general reader with a clear idea of the main outlines of the subject, while the student will find in it a painstaking and, within certain limits, a trustworthy guide. We are inclined to prefer the chapters dealing with Celtic literature in modern times, with the Highland bards before the Forty-five, with the master gleaners of Gaelic poetry, &c. The pages which describe the influence of Celtic on English literature are also interesting reading. The book ends with a survey of Celtic studies and a list of Celtic scholars past and present.

WEATHER INFLUENCES.

Weather Influences: an Empirical Study of the Mental and Physiological Efects of Defiate Meteorvicgical Conditions. By Dr. E. G. Dexter. Pp. XxX1-286, (New Yors: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) Price $s, od.

net.

THE

HE effect of changes of weather on human activities has been the subject of much discus sion, and each of us has no doubt formed an opinion on how be individually is affected by different meteorological conditions. The problem as affecting the, behaviour of humanity in the mass has, however. received but scant attention hitherto. The statistical method affords the means of obtaining numerical results which enable us to estimate the importance of such effects.

Meteorological statistics are nowadays available from most centres of population; social statistics are also plentiful, yet of these only a limited number can be made to yield information on the general conduct or the working capacity of the community as a whole. In the book before us Dr. Dexter has collected and discussed sixteen classes of data culled from school records, covering both questions of attendance and conduct, police records dealing with cases of assault, drunkenness, murder, suicide, arrests for insanity, discipline in penitentiaries and the health of the force, the death register, registers of attendance in the out-patient departments of hospitals, and records of | the number of clerical errors discovered in the books of certain banking establishments. The latter are the only data studied which deal exclusively with mental activities. All the records refer to New York City or to Denver, Colorado. The meteorological statistics with which they have been compared were obtained from the U.S. Weather Bureau.

The effects of seasonal changes are first discussed, and then the influence of each of the meteorological elements is considered separately. The general method of arranging the material for this purpose will be clear from the following description of that of dealing with the connection between temperature and assault. The days falling within the period considered were arranged in groups according to their mean temperatures, each group extending over a range of 5° F. On the assumption that temperature has no effect on assault, the number of days in each group is proportional to the "expectancy" of assault for that group. The actual number of occurrences of assault on the days of the group is computed as a percentage of the " expectancy," and curves have been drawn using the " occurrences" as ordinates and temperatures as abscissæ.

In dealing with the element rainfall the usual meteorological distinction has been drawn between days of rainfall, on which 0.01 inch of rain or more was measured, and dry days. It seems a pity that a further subdivision was not made. Most of us would be inclined to draw a wide distinction between showery days with only a few hundredths of an inch of rainfall and days of steady downpour. Even if such a further subdivision had been adopted, days with a

few heavy showers would not be distinguishable from days of continuous fail; probably a classification on the basis of duration rather than amount of rainfall would yield results which would repay the labour involved in tabalating the records of self-registering rain gauges.

The majority of the curves show fluctuations which are greatly in excess of any which could be due mercle to accidental variations. The number of data is in some cases extremely large (about 40,000 cases of assault), and there can be no doubt about the genuineness of the effects of meteorological changes,

The interpretation of the results is, however, a matter of considerable difficulty, and the possible influence of other than meteorological causes has to be steadily borne in mind. The general line of argument adopted regards the curves as compound functions of "irritability" or "emotional state" and "available" or "reserve energy." Thus, to return to the temperature-assault curve, we find a marked deficiency of occurrences at low temperatures. This has been taken to mean that under these conditions so large a portion of the vital energy is used up in supporting normal metabolic processes that the surplus available for active disorder is small. Under warmer conditions our pugilist, in addition to being more out of doors and thus seeing more of his neighbour, has more reserve energy available for active warfare, and the work of the police is proportionately increased. Above 65° the curve commences to rise with increased rapidity. Fighting energy is now at its prime, and at the same time irritability' or quarrelsomeness is rapidly increasing. The temperature group 80° 85° shows a conspicuous maximum in the relative frequency of assaults. In the next group, 85°-90°, the curve exhibits a sudden drop. Irritability may very possibly be at a maximum, but the energy necessary to commence war is lacking, and a mere desire to fight is not a punishable offence, It is an interesting fact that the curve for women shows the above effects even more conspicuously than the one for men. A similar accentuation of the general characteristics is shown in all cases in which the number of data is sufficiently large to justify a separation of the sexes, so that it would appear that women are, on the whole, more susceptible to weather influences than men.

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Some of the most interesting and at the same time most inexplicable curves are those which show the effect of the height of the barometer on human activities. With a few exceptions all classes of data show a marked excess of occurrences for periods of low barometer and a corresponding deficiency when readings are high. We cannot set this down to the direct effects of the diminution of pressure on the human organism; crime, &c., does not increase with altitude. Attempts at explanation by calling to our aid the usual accompaniments of a low barometer, viz. wind, rain, or cloud also fail, for when the effects of these elements are considered separately we find that in a number of cases the results contradict the hypothesis. Dr. Dexter directs attention to the peculiar "feel" which some people have for the approach of a storm, but this hardly amounts to an

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