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ADOLESCENCE.

Adolescence: its Psychology and its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion. By G. Stanley Hall, Ph.D., LL.D., President of Clark University and Professor of Psychology and Pedagogy. Vol. i., pp. xx+589; vol. ii., pp. vi+784. (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1904.) Price 31s. 6d. net.

practical interests are closely blended. Underlying the scientific treatment there may be said to be two leading principles. One principle is that of the intimate union, or rather the identity, of physiological and psychological processes.

"More summarily, then," he says, "the idea of soul we hold to is in its lower stages indistinguishable from that of life, and so far in a sense we revert to Aristotle, in holding that any truly scientific psychology must be first of all biological. . . . The first

THIS work is one of wide-reaching scope and chapter of a scientific psychology, then, is metabolic

interest. The subject of human growth has already been studied in relation to the earlier years and in its special features. The period intervening between childhood and adult life, which has been comparatively neglected, is the one to which Dr. Hall has directed his investigation. The work is thus of interest in focussing attention on an important section of human life; it is of value also in that the results of biology and anthropology are freely used in supplementing and interpreting the data which are gained from physiological and psychological investigation.

The first three chapters deal mainly with physical growth, taking up in order the increase in height and weight, the growth of parts and organs, and the growth in muscular power. The next two chapters deal with the physical and mental disorders of adolescence, and with juvenile faults and immorality. Sex is taken up in three chapters, one relating to boys and two to girls; of these two chapters one deals with the physiology of sex, the other with its bearing on education. Dr. Hall insists with great earnestness on the necessity of ceasing to mould woman's education on that of man, and of finding an education which shall be adapted to her nature, physical and mental. The volume closes with an account of adolescence in literature, biography, and history.

In the second volume, after a preliminary survey of changes in the senses and in voice, the emotional phenomena of adolescence are treated under the headings of adolescent love and adolescent feeling towards nature. Several chapters deal with social and historical relations; initiations in savage and classical times, confirmation as their correlative in modern religion, the social instincts and institutions of youth, ethnic psychology, and the treatment of uncivilised races, form the subject of successive discussions. In treating the subject of religious conversion, Dr. Hall points out that it is peculiarly a phenomenon of adolescence, and that it has close relations to the sexual life. "It is thus," he says, "no accidental synchronism of unrelated events that the age of religion and that of sexual maturity coincide." In the chapter on intellectual development and education there is a careful review of education in school and college, and a discussion of its value in the light of the results presented in preceding sections. Dr. Hall does not hesitate to condemn vigorously and comprehensively the studies and methods of schools for their aridity and want of vital relation to the developing individual, and though his criticisms are directed to American schools, they have a wider application.

It will thus be seen that we have in these volumes a text-book of adolescence in which scientific and

and nutritive, and the first function of the soul is in food getting, assimilation, and dissimilation."

The other principle, of greater novelty and interest, is the application of the recapitulation theory to the mental as well as the bodily life of childhood and youth.

"Realising the limitations and qualifications of the recapitulation theory in the biologic field, I am now convinced that its psychogenetic applications have a method of their own, and although the time has not yet come when any formulation of these can have much value, I have done the best with each instance as it arose.

In his application of this theory Dr. Hall is undoubtedly original, but it is strange that among the many references to the literature of the subject there should be no mention of the work of Baldwin on "Mental Development in the Child and the Race," in which the same theory is applied in detail.

That the work took its origin in courses of lectures may perhaps explain in part the diffuseness and repetition which appear in these pages. There is an unnecessarily frequent use of strange words; one is at a loss to understand, for example, what is meant by the solipsistic hopo " and by minds that are " 'rily." One meets with long lists of objects and with masses of facts which are not adequately correlated.

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It is impossible to enter on a discussion of the many theoretical and practical questions which are raised. The treatment of the material, gathered from the most varied sources, is original and suggestive in a high degree; but among the wealth of new material and new conceptions one misses an exact discussion of the method by which the processes of psychogenesis are to be ascertained. Prominent among the data in the book are the results of the questionnaires which have been so much used by Dr. Hall and his pupils. We have, however, no presentation of the difficulties. inherent in such a method of investigation, and of the precautions to be adopted in utilising its results. Apart from this special point there is the difficulty, which does not receive adequate attention, of distinguishing in any stage of adolescent development what is to be regarded as palæopsychic," what is due to traditions and customs handed down from generation to generation of boys and girls, and lastly, what is conditioned primarily by the awakening mental and physical activity of the individual as he reacts on his experience. There is not sufficient treatment of the idea of individual growth in completeness and complexity, and of its relation to factors of development, the meaning of which is to be sought in past organic history; and one feels that some of the suggestions of racial influences are little more than

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interesting fancies. We may illustrate these points by reference to the author's interpretation of the child's attitude towards water. Human infants, we are told in one passage, have an untaught horror of water, and man must learn to swim. This is part of the evidence that there are psychic vestiges in man which are suggestive of former arboreal life." Again, we learn that "children are phyletically older than women, and after the first shock and fright most of them take the greatest delight in water." This, among other phenomena, may be interpreted as a "pelagic vestige.' we need arboreal or pelagic vestiges to account for the fact that, while some children dislike water at first and others delight in it, most of them in the end find it an excellent plaything? W. G. S.

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A NATURALIST ON THE EAST COAST. Notes of an East Coast Naturalist. By Arthur H. Patterson. Illustrated in colour by F. Southgate. Pp. xiv+304. (London: Methuen and Co., n.d.)

Price 6s.

THE

HE author of these notes, who has been in the habit of spending his spare time in a house-boat moored on Breydon Water and other East Anglian lagoons, has naturally enjoyed opportunities of making observations which are given to few people; for Breydon is a locality probably more famous than any other in the annals of British ornithology as a place where rare birds are in the habit of "dropping in." Moreover, as all field naturalists know, early morning and nightfall, ay, even night itself, are the times when the good things of their lives come to them. Hence the advantage of living on the field. In the latter part of the quarter of a century which these notes cover the author discarded the gun in favour of the field-glass, and could thus give undivided attention to observation without being distracted by the hopes and fears attendant on the wildfowler's efforts to obtain "a shot."

Breydon is a very carefully protected breeding area. A watcher has been stationed there for several years during the close season; but it will perhaps be disappointing (although we hope it may prove instructive) to ardent advocates of county council "orders" to find that Mr. Patterson writes, "I must, however, state that since stricter preservation has obtained, not nearly so many birds are to be seen on Breydon." It is impossible to deny the fact that no amount of preservation will bring back the breeding birds which left us with the spread of population and buildings, and the alterations in the system of agriculture. The spoonbills come and go in safety, but the late date at which they arrive shows that nesting is not the object of their visits. As a former east coast naturalist, remarkable for his common-sense views of such subjects, wrote years ago, "Unless England becomes dispeopled and uncultivated, nothing can ever bring back in numbers or variety the wealth of the ancient avifauna." But for all that the naturalist still "has his delights" on Breydon; as, for instance, on May 15, 1893, when the author, paddling up stream, saw on the "lumps" still uncovered by water a congrega

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tion of no less than eighteen Black Terns, more than fifty Turnstones, several Common and Arctic Terns, a number of Dunlins, Grey Plovers, Whimbrel and Godwits, and not least worthy of a glance, three Spoonbills." To one who is learned in the fishes of our seas, ready access to Yarmouth Market, and an extensive acquaintance among the fishermen have been a great advantage, and many a rare fish has the author rescued from oblivion and added to the east coast catalogue of fishes. valuable part of the book is that containing the fish notes, although the bulk of the volume deals with birds, their migrations and habits. Among the various interesting scraps of information here collected we find a record of the value of birds and the prices realised by the wildfowler and at the sales of noted collections; accounts of wildfowl brought into the market in hard winters, and incidents related by oldtime wildfowlers, whose habits and customs, as well as their recollections of the hard winters and wildfowl of the "old days," are most amusing. Whales, crabs, lobsters, toads, insects, and rats all find a place in these very readable notes. Indeed, some of the most valuable paragraphs relate to the old English black rat, now extinct in most parts of the country, but so abundant in the malthouses and sail lofts of Yarmouth that Mr. Patterson can write of "a plague of Black Rats." This and many other of the records are well worth preserving as of permanent value, and the author is quite justified in thinking that some value may attach to these notes and observations "owing to their dealing with a period during which great changes have taken place in the habitat of the local fauna."

The twelve plates of bird-life reproduced in colours are among the most pleasing things of the kind we have seen, and these alone make the book one which all field naturalists will like to put on their shelves.

O. V. A.

CHEMICAL ANALYSIS FOR BEGINNERS. Tables for Qualitative Chemical Analysis. By Prof. A. Liversidge, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 4s. 6d. net. THE HE introductory chapter of Prof. Liversidge's book makes it clear that it is only when analytical methods are used intelligently that the time devoted to qualitative analysis is well spent, and to that end the student must have some preliminary training in other kinds of simple practical work (not described in the book), and be frequently supervised, lectured to, and examined as his work progresses.

All this is very right and proper, and quite as it should be, but leaving out the excellent counsel of perfection set forth in the introduction, the book is very much like other books on this subject. That is to say, it describes a series of qualitative tests in which inorganic and organic bases and acids, rare metals, and alkaloids are treated individually, and then collectively in tables after the old-established manner and with the old-established purpose.

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Prof. Liversidge attaches great importance to the study of qualitative analysis as a means as well as an end of chemical education. It is an opinion very widely held, and is well worth discussing. The fact is sometimes lost sight of that chemistry is a handicraft as well as a science, and that its science is as yet not exact.

Perhaps there is no branch of chemistry wherein the skill of the craftsman is in greater demand, or the inexactness of the science more clearly emphasised, than in chemical analysis.

A student may study intelligently the reactions for individual elements, and so learn their properties; but he finds that when they are mixed they behave differently, and the more observant and careful he is the more will these subtle influences, which conform to no equation, become apparent.

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OUR BOOK SHELF.

naturelles. By

5

Félix Le Dantec. Pp.

(Paris: Félix Alcan, 1904.) Price

Les Lois
xvi + 308.
6 francs.
JUST as anyone can play the piano" with a piano-
player, so anyone can write a book on the philosophy
of science. The result gives satisfaction and pleasure
other, but whether his particular interpretation is
to the performer in one case and to the writer in the
equally satisfying to an outsider is another question.
The effects are, however, more lasting in the case
of the author, for we are getting such an enormous
accumulation of books on space, matter, force, the
ether, and laws of nature that it is becoming a
Wonder who finds time to read them or even to cut
pages, if the publisher has failed to attend to his
proper duties in this respect.

their

Let us examine how M. Le Dantec deals with thermodynamical considerations. In commencing he supposes bodies to have definite thermic masses, and he defines quantities of heat by the products of these masses into the changes of temperature. He according to which the heat gained by one body is also enunciates the principle of conservation of heat equal to that lost by another. But in the first place the quantities which he calls thermic masses are not constant for the same body between the same limits of temperature, but they also depend on whether the changes take place at constant pressure or constant volume; and, in the second place, his equation of con

No substance is insoluble; mass action is a power-servation of heat is contrary to common experience ful factor; a precipitate will carry down a substance which should, for all he knows, remain in solution, and a substance will retain another in solution which, for equally occult reasons, should form a precipitate.

Tables for the analysis of mixtures, which are based on the behaviour of single substances by a process of simple logic, become artificial and illusory, and give a sense of false security which subsequent experience alone can dispel.

of what happens when two rough bodies rub against
each other. In the next chapter the author goes on
a different tack, and speaks of the equivalence of
quantities of work and quantities of heat, quite
regardless (to all outside appearances) of the fact
that the term "
'quantity of heat" is meaningless
except in the case of passage of heat from one body
to another. In the next chapter the author condemns
the use of the term quantity of heat" altogether.
What ideas can a reader form of the nature of
physical laws after perusing such a series of chapters
as this?

Nature Teaching. By F. Watts and W. G. Freeman.
Pp. xi+ 193. (London: Murray, 1904.) Price
35. 6d.

THIS little book forms a welcome change from the many appearing under similar titles in that it is avowedly based upon experiments, and treats of

Is this a subject for extended study on the part of a beginner in chemistry? In the opinion of the writer the preparation of simple substances and a careful study of their properties, into which the general principles of qualitative and quantitative analysis are introduced, is his proper sphere of work. The host of reactions and elaborate tables of separa-things about which the writers really know and have tions, and still more the countless precautions, Kunstgriffe, and manipulative details of practical analysis are a part of the handicraft of the specialist in chemistry. To thrust this work upon a beginner who is not to be a specialist is almost equivalent to expecting a student of mechanics, who is not to be an engineer, to work a lathe or use a planing

machine.

The crux of the whole question lies in this, that qualitative analysis is a branch of practical work, calling itself chemistry, which can be easily adapted to the process of examination. Were the practical examination banished from the syllabus and replaced by notebooks supervised, signed and submitted by the responsible demonstrator or teacher of recognised standing, the mass of ill-digested analytical tests and tables would soon vanish from the curricula of schools and colleges, and its place supplied by a series of rational exercises. J. B. C.

not merely read up. Dealing in the main with the life of the plant, it describes a simple series of experiments within the capacity of an elementary school or an evening continuation class, illustrating the function of seed, root, stem, leaf, &c., and amplifying the knowledge thus obtained with further examples drawn from the practice of the garden or the farm. A certain lack of definiteness in the description of experiments militates at times against the spirit in which the book has been conceived; in a subject where everything depends upon the cultivation of accurate observation and rigorous scientific method the authors should not allow themselves to fall into the slipshod generalised accounts of things which are the bane of so much of the current teaching of this nature. For instance, in their account of striking cuttings, the authors do not direct attention to the differences in the management of herbaceous and woody cuttings, the time of year at which they should be struck, and so forth, so that the teacher without experience would be apt to fumble over the matter at first, and would in real life be discouraged from trying any experiments in this particular direction unless

he got hold of a gardener to give him some practical advice. However, with this slight drawback, the book is admirably designed for the teacher who wishes to work out an elementary course of instruction for a country school, either as an introduction to practical life or to a more special study of agriculture and horticulture.

I. Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System. Pp. 279; price 7s. 6d. II. Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System. Second series. Pp. 250; price 6s. net. By Sir William R. Gowers, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.S. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1895 and 1904.)

In these two volumes Sir William Gowers has collected in revised form a number of clinical lectures which have appeared in various medical journals. In the latter volume he has also printed the Bowman lecture on subjective visual sensations delivered to the Ophthalmological Society, and the Bradshaw lecture on the subjective sensations of sound. The clinical lectures deal with many subjects in neurology; some are mainly descriptive, some speculative. In reading them one not only appreciates the original and suggestive way in which the facts are presented, but also the finished literary style. In a short notice it is impossible to deal with them in detail. The two lectures on the subjective sensations of vision and hearing are perhaps of wider scientific interest than the clinical lectures. In the first the visual phenomena experienced by sufferers from migraine are described and figured, and there is an admirable résumé of physiological teaching with reference to vision. the second lecture the phenomena of tinnitus, of auditory vertigo, and other labyrinthine sensations are discussed in a luminous and attractive way. Both neurologists and physiologists will find much in these volumes to assist and to stimulate them in researches into nervous phenomena.

In

Lectures Scientifiques. A French Reader for Science Students containing Extracts from Modern French Scientific works in Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Physiology and Botany, with a Glossary of Technical Terms. By W. G. Hartog, B.A. Pp. vii+371. (London: Rivingtons, 1904.) Price 5s.

THE University of London now insists that candidates for a degree in science shall be able to read and understand accounts in the original of French and German scientific work. In compiling this book Mr. Hartog has had the needs of such students in mind so far as French is concerned, and he has succeeded in bringing together a varied and representative collection of extracts from French scientific works and scientific periodicals. Among the latter the Revue générale des Sciences takes a very prominent position, contributing to Mr. Hartog's collection as many as fifteen extracts. The book should be of service not only to the undergraduates referred to, but also to students of science everywhere, for it is now more than ever necessary that the man of science should be able to acquaint himself at first hand with the results of fellow-workers abroad. L'Industrie oléicole (Fabrication de l'Huile d'Olive). By J. Dugast. Pp. 176. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars and Masson et Cie., n.d.) Price 3 francs. THIS little volume, which belongs to the Aide-Mémoire series, is a practical account of the manufacture of olive oil, and indicates several directions in which the results of scientific research have been utilised to improve technical processes. The formation and composition of olives are first explained, then the methods of extracting the oil are described and an account given of the appliances necessary for the purpose. The properties and methods of preservation of olive oil and the utilisation of the oil-cake are also considered.

NO. 1827, VOL. 71]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

A Note on the Coloration of Spiders.

It is well known that in a large number of animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, the colour of the flanks and ventral side of the body differs from that of the dorsal. In the majority of cases the dorsal surface is most darkly depth of tone between these two. tinted, the ventral palest, and the flanks intermediate in This gradation of colouring has the effect of neutralising the shadows that are cast by the upper upon the lower portions of the body. Thus the animal does not stand out in prominent relief, but is, so to speak, artistically flattened, and thereby rendered less conspicuous.

To this general rule I have recently observed an interesting exception which affords strong evidence in favour of ing to the genus Linyphia are, almost without exception, the truth of the above interpretation. The spiders belongdarkly coloured upon the ventral surface; their flanks are variously slashed with oblique white bars and stripes, while their dorsal surface is yet more freely speckled with white or pale spots and lines. In these spiders, then, the scheme of coloration is the exact opposite to that which prevails elsewhere. Now the Linyphiida spin horizontal webs, in the centre of which they rest inverted, clinging to the lower side. Thus it is the ventral side of a Linyphia that is exposed to the strongest light, the dorsal side being in the deepest shadow. The inversion of attitude at once fully explains the inverted shading of the body. Charterhouse, Godalming, October 30.

OSWALD H. LATTER.

Sir J. Eliot's Address at Cambridge. AGAINST Some of the main conclusions of Sir J. Eliot's opening address before Section A (subsection: cosmical physics) may be set the facts that south-east winds are rare on the south-east coast of South Africa, and that the rain of the greater part of the tableland and south-east coast comes mostly from some northerly direction.

My concern, however, is chiefly with the following remarks, reported in NATURE of August 25 last :

Mr.

"The chief features of the rainfall of the period 18951902, in the Indo-oceanic region were as follows:-. There was a marked tendency in each year for late commencement and early withdrawal of the monsoon currents, and for deficient rainfall throughout the whole season over the greater part of India. These features were very pronounced in the years 1896, 1899, and 1901. The most remarkable feature of the period was that the region to the south of the equator, including South and East Africa, Hutchins, Conservator of Forests, Cape Town, states that Mauritius, and Australia, was similarly affected. drought prevailed more or less persistently over the Karroo region in South Africa from 1896 to 1903, and that cattle and sheep perished by millions. He also states that the drought extended to British Central Africa from 1898 to 1903. The previous statements evidence the continuity, extension, and intensity of the drought. . . . The preceding longed periods similar in character have occurred, and may statements have shown that variations of rainfall for prohence occur again, over the very large area including the Southern Asian peninsulas, East and Australia, and perhaps the Indian Ocean. The abnormal South Africa, actions or conditions giving rise to these large and prolonged variations must hence be persistent for long periods, and be effective over the whole of that extensive area.

Now the question is, what is a drought? From one point of view there is nothing but drought over a very large print, showing the variation of the mean actual rainfall area of South Africa. But I gather from the table you from the normal in India, that by drought is meant unusual and prolonged general dryness setting up marked economic results such as "" large loss of cattle and great loss of

capital," and so forth. If that interpretation is correct, then there has been no such drought in South Africa in the years stated.

This is proved by the accompanying table. It shows the average rainfall over each of the twenty rainfall districts of South Africa, during each year, in percentages of the means. These means have been computed for 160 stations having long records of twenty years, more or less, and are fully given and explained in my Introduction to the Study of South African Rainfall." The information from which they are derived is open to all who take the trouble to look for it in the annual reports of the Cape Meteorological Commission.

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The great mortality among cattle and stock can be explained without assuming that there has been a prolonged drought. In farming matters we live from hand to mouth. Farmers of the Karroo prefer to pray for rain rather than take the trouble to store it up when it comes. Therefore, if the rain is short in the late summer, and late in coming in the next spring, they have no reserve to fall back upon, and their cattle die. One year's drought kills off the stock almost as surely as fifty years' would. For instance, there was great loss of stock in 1897. Yet what were the facts of rainfall? At my station, where the annual mean is about 18.5 inches, the fall in December, 1896, was 8.42 inches; in the whole of 1897 it was 8.85 inches, and in January,

Percentages of Rainfall in the Various Districts of South Africa during the Years 1891 to 1902.

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It is pretty plain that the area of winter rains, including the west coast and Cape Peninsula, was short of rain in 1896; that 1897 was a dry year over the area of summer rains, which comprises the greater part of South Africa; and that the south coast and adjacent districts, where the rainfall is fairly uniform throughout the year, had a dry year in 1899, and one not very wet in 1895. The area of summer rains, being so much greater than the rest, of course sets the tone of the mean rainfall of the whole country, making 1897 a dry year on the whole, and 1891 a very wet year.

There seem to be dry areas somewhere or other in pretty well every year. For example, the rainfall was short in the western part of the area of summer rains in 1902, although the fall was good enough further east. It was short over the east-central Karroo and south-east in 1899 in sympathy with the dryness of the south in that year. Even in 1891 there was a short fall over an extensive region.

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I fancy that the impression of unusual dryness over South Africa in recent years arises from the misleading mean values used by the Meteorological Commission for comparative purposes. These are taken from Buchan's rather futile Rainfall of South Africa," and average fully two inches (equal to perhaps 10 per cent.) too great. Buchan used only the rainfall of the ten years 1885-94 in constructing his results, and therefore got inflated averages in consequence of the heavy rainfall of 1891; whence the rainfalls of recent years are made to appear minus as compared with what is called the mean, whereas, as compared with the better means of longer periods, they would be often plus.

1898, it was 8.43 inches. Thus there was a drought during 1897, many cattle died, and there was much praying for rain. The year 1903 was probably almost the same as 1897, the fall at Kimberley being only some 65 per cent. of the mean, whereas the fall during the last half of 1902 was good, and during the first half of 1904 excellent. But with the exception of these years there has been nothing that can properly be called drought, in the sense of Sir J. Eliot's address, over any extended region of South Africa within the past fifteen years at least. Thus there is nothing to justify the statement that we have been under the same influence as that which set up the prolonged drought in Australia and the dry years in India. J. R. SUTTON.

I TRUST to your courtesy to give my reply to Mr. Sutton's criticisms on certain portions of my address at the recent British Association meeting.

My address was in part based on an investigation I have had on hand for nearly two years, and which will be shortly published as a paper in the Indian Meteorological Memoirs. In that will be found a statement of the chief features of the meteorology of South Africa during the period 1892-1902. It is confessedly based upon very imperfect informationpartly derived from newspaper reports, partly from data in certain meteorological reports received from Cape Town by the Calcutta Meteorological Office, and partly from data obtained from Mr. Hutchins, Conservator of Forests, Cape Colony, with whom I have been in correspondence for many years on the meteorology of South Africa and

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