NGLISH-SPEAKING geologists will be grateful to Dr. Hertha Sollas and the Clarendon Press roots of mountains, or which are opened to view by the work of the miner. The two parts of this volume are devoted to a study of the movements in the crust of the earth, and to a description of the mountain system of the world, excluding Australia and some parts of other continents. Prof. Suess concludes from his synthetic study of this wide range of material that the earth's crust is disturbed by movements of two different kinds; firstly, the folding and crumpling of belts of the earth's crust by lateral pressure; and Secondly, the foundering of the crust owing to the withdrawal of underground support, consequent on the radial contraction of the globe. Before Suess's time it was usual to regard the distribution of land and water as determined by the uplift as well as the sinking of wide regions. But according to Suess, regional uplifts have never yet been proved, and, excepting perhaps to some local extent, he regards them as impossible. An actual uplift of the surface of the western coast of South America was said to have resulted from the earthquakes of 1822 and 1835. The uplift of the latter was described by Darwin; but Prof. Suess discusses the evidence and dismisses it as wholly inadequate. Any horizontal uplift being, according to Suess, impossible where horizontal marine beds, beaches, or shore-lines occur above sea level, they must be explained by the lowering of the sea, and not by the uprise of the land. Prof. Suess does not hesitate to believe, on the evidence of the plateaus of the Rocky Mountains, that the sea level once stood 30,000 feet higher than at present. If Prof. Suess were to discuss the possibility of regional uplift at the present time, he would have to deal with much weightier evidence than any which he had against him in the year 1884. For the secular uplift of the lake regions of the United States is better established than any of the supposed earthquake elevations of Chili. Moreover, the doctrine of isostasy gives better reason to believe in its possibility. The pendulum work in the Rocky Mountains has rendered it at least possible, that isostasy may account for the horizontal deposits of the high plateaus, which Prof. Suess has described in one of the most brilliant chapters of this volume. for this excellent translation of the first volume of the work which has probably had the deepest influence on geological thought since the publication of Lyell's "Principles." No higher compliment could be offered to such a book than that, twenty years after its publication, it should be worth while to issue a translation without amendment, comment, or other addition than the author's charming letter of introduction. This fact is all the more striking as this volume is mainly a description of the geology of the mountains of the world, and it describes areas of which comparatively little was known in 1884. As Prof. Suess remarks in his introduction, "the reader will meet here and there in the two first volumes with a description already antiquated." This matters the less since we have already an excellent French edition, which has been brought up to date by abundant references to recent literature, and been illustrated by an additional series of maps. The example of the French translators has not been followed, perhaps from the sentimental feeling that as this work is now one of the recognised classics of geology, it should be rendered into English exactly as it came from the hands of the master. This decision will no doubt increase the value of the Oxford edition to future geologists, though it may detract somewhat from its immediate educational usefulness. The absence of the extra maps is an especial drawback to British students, since many of the place-names used are synonyms or transliterations not usually adopted in British atlases. Anything that lessens the educational value of this edition is regrettable, as Suess's work is such magnificent educational material. Prof. Suess's Regional uplifts, however, being dismissed by Prof. method is to give the detailed evidence upon which he Suess, it follows that the main influence in shaping relies; and his readers have the pleasure of working the continents has been the subsidence of wide tracts up to the conclusions by the path the author trod. of the earth's surface beneath sea level. The great We see his mental process as well as read his results. ocean basins, and those of the Mediterranean, the Black This volume opens with a brief statement of some Sea, and the Caribbean Sea, represent sunken areas of the geographical homologies which it is the object of the earth's crust; and foundering to a less depth of the whole work to explain. Prof. Suess dismisses has caused the rift valleys of Ethiopia, of the Rhine all geometrical plans of the earth, such as Elie de and of Australia, and the basins of Suabia and Beaumont's famous Pentagonal rescau, as mislead- Franconia. The cause of such subsidences is deeping Wills-o'-the-wisp. He fully realises that the first seated, whereas the crumpling of the long, narrow essential to an explanation of the present distribution belts that form the folded mountain chains is due of oceans and continents is a competent comparison to comparatively superficial action. The two modes of of the facts. As he says, a detailed comparison of movement may act in the same area at different times. observations is necessary before an attempt be made Thus vertical subsidences may destroy the continuity to formulate laws. Suess declines hints as to of a folded mountain chain; thus the present form of probabilities from geodesy, and he distrusts specula- the Basin Ranges of Utah and Nevada is due to the tion as to the hidden parts of the earth. So he studies, breaking up, by Cainozoic subsidences, of a series with exquisite care, those deeper parts of the crust of ranges formed by earlier, post-Jurassic folds. which have been brought to the surface in the exposed | Similarly the outlines of the continents, even when dependent upon the course of mountain chains, are embayed where the sea has flowed over foundered blocks. The vertical relief of the continents is determined mainly by subsidences, by the resistance of great blocks of strata which remain as plateaus high above the general level of the country, and by the crumpling of bands into mountain chains. The course of such crumpled bands is very sinuous, because they have to adapt themselves to the passive resistance of stronger blocks of the crust; they curve round the margins of the resistant masses, on to the edges of which they may be. overthrust. Suess follows, for example, the course of the great Alpine mountain system from its western end in southern Spain, through the Atlas Mountains of Africa, along the the Apennines through Italy, across central Europe as the Alps and Carpathians, and then through the great curve around western Roumania and Servia into the Balkans. Its continuity eastward has been broken by the recent foundering of the Black Sea; but the Alpine system is continued through the Crimea and the Caucasus, and after another gap, caused by the subsidence that formed the southern basin of the Caspian, it is continued across Asia through the Himalaya and the chains of Burma into the islands of Malaysia. Suess explains the sinuous course of this folded band by tracing its dependence upon the unfolded blocks, against which it has been pressed. The theory of the permanence of oceans and continents inevitably receives slight consideration from Prof. Suess. He does not trouble us with the a priori arguments on this question. He simply tells us the contemporary evidence as to the actual age of the continents. Thus he points out that in the Cretaceous period North America was not; but it had come into existence at the beginning of the Laramie period, and has lasted ever since. Similarly the Indian peninsula and Africa south of the Atlas are remnants of the Mesozoic plateau-continent of Gondwanaland, which has been severed into two by the foundering of the Indian Ocean in late Cainozoic times. Consideration of Prof. Suess's work inevitably suggests a comparison with that of Lyell. Suessism is sometimes regarded as a rival school to Lyellism. But Suess's essential doctrines are a development of Lyell's views rather than being in direct opposition to them. Lyell, for instance, attacked the belief that volcanoes are craters of elevation; but, in the necessary darkness of the days before Sorby's ingenuity had rendered microscopic petrology possible, he retained his belief in an axis of elevation for the mountain chains. Suess has now taught us that the axes of elevation of mountain chains must follow von Buch's craters of elevation of volcanoes. Even in regard to what is sometimes considered as Prof. Suess's arch heresy-his acceptance of great variations in the ocean level-he is opposed to ultra-Lyellists and not to Lyell. The following passage from the "Principles" shows that, with Lyell, Ordnance Datum was not a fetish "This opinion is, however, untenable; for the sinking down of the bed of the ocean is one of the means by which the gradual submersion of the land is prevented. The depth of the sea cannot be increased at any one point without a universal fall of the waters, nor can any partial depositions of sediment occur equal volume, which will raise the sea, though in an without the displacement of a quantity of water of imperceptible degree even to the antipodes. The preservation, therefore, of the dry land may sometimes be effected by the subsidence of part of the earth's crust (that part, namely, which is covered by the ocean), and in like manner an upheaving movement must often tend to destroy land; for if it renders the bed of the sea more shallow, it will displace a certain quantity of the water, and thus tend to submerge low tracts." One chief difference between Suess and Lyell is that Lyell was naturally inclined to exaggerate the importance of local earth movements. Prof. Suess, with the benefit of a much wider knowledge than was possible to Lyell, and equal intellectual insight, realises that the geological systems are defined, not by independent local movements, but by changes that are world-wide in scope. Suess's views are not essentially opposed to the uniformity, which Lyell established, in opposition to the preceding belief in catastrophes of extraneous origin. Suess and Lyell both teach us that geological changes are due to causes that are still in action. Geographical evolution, like organic evolution, has not been interrupted by external influences or unnatural catastrophes; but it does not necessarily follow that the rate of progress has been uniform. There have been periods of geographical revolution due to a rush of movements, that relieved stresses produced by long periods of slow change. Such disturbances affect the whole world; and it appears probable that the correlation of strata in distant regions will depend on palæontology only for general homotaxis, and on the events of physical geology for the determination of exact synchronism. A second difference between Lyell and Suess is that the former attached a, perhaps, exaggerated belief to the importance of denudation in modelling the surface of the globe. His own studies lay in lands wherein denudation has been more powerful than recent earth movements. The sub-title of his "Principles "— "the Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology "— shows his point of view. He taught men that the common geographical features of Europe and Eastern America were due to the long-continued operation of slow and still active forces; but he did not fully realise that, elsewhere, the major geographical features are the direct expression of recent disturbances of the crust. As to the cause of the distribution of these disturbances Prof. Suess has not yet given us his full explanation, and in this volume he rightly held such questions premature. But it is now possible, mainly thanks to his work, to trace one controlling factor in the existing plan of the earth-the alternation of periods of spheroidal recovery due to the earth's rotation, with periods of deformation due to the shrinking of the earth's internal mass. This factor promises the clue to the periodicity of geological events, to the general world-wide correspondence in the geological formations, and to the distribution of the folded bands and foundered blocks of the earth's crust. J. W. G. THE "N" RAYS. A Collection of Papers communicated to the Academy of Sciences, with Additional Notes and Instructions for the Construction of Phosphorescent Screens. By Prof. R. Blondlot. Translated by J. Garcin. Pp. xii+83. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1905.) Price 3s. 6d. net. THE n-rays, SO called because the first announcement of their existence came from Nancy, have attracted the attention of physicists and physiologists all over the world; but the peculiarity about them is that the phenomena said to be produced by these rays when they fall on a slightly fluorescing screen have been observed chiefly in France by Prof. Blondlot and others of his school, while many experienced observers in Germany, America, and England have wholly failed to obtain a satisfactory demonstration even of their existence. The reason is that the so-called proof of their existence depends, not on objective phenomena that can be critically examined, but on a subjective impression on the mind of the experimenter, who sees, or imagines he sees, or imagines he does not see, a slight change in the degree of luminosity of a phosphorescing screen. It is true that, more than once, a photograph has been taken of such a screen supposed to be unaffected and contrasted with a photograph of the same screen when it was supposed to be affected by the rays, with the result that the patch of luminous surface appears to be a little brighter in the latter case than in the former. Even this photographic evidence, however, is unsatisfactory, as a slight difference in the time of exposure or in the method of development would readily account for the apparent contrast. aluminium, wood, dry or wet paper cannot do so. Ordinary light, when it falls on the retina, causes a more luminous sensation when accompanied by n-rays. Bits of wood, glass, rubber, &c., emit the rays when compressed. Bodies in molecular strain, like Rupert's drops, hardened steel, &c., emit the rays. An old knife, found in a Gallo-Roman tomb, equally with a new knife, sends out rays. There are other rays also, which must be called n,-rays, which are emitted from a Nernst lamp. These diminish the glow of an induction spark. Ethylic ether, "when brought to a state of forced extension," emits the n,-rays, &c. To see all these wonderful phenomena the eye must be not only kept in the dark for a considerable time, but it must be specially trained. A. Broca states that in his own case it required practice for six weeks before he could see the effect of the rays. The eye must be adapted not only to darkness, but to very feeble light. The mind must be free, so as to concentrate itself on the observation to be made. These seem to be admirable arrangements for obtaining an illusive subjective impression! It is said that MM. d'Arsonval and Mascart have also observed some of the phenomena. Many other French observers, with less weighty names, have also been cited as witnesses. The general body of men of science are doubtful, as they cannot receive evidence of such a strangely subjective character, while not a few, and the writer places himself in this category, are of opinion that while they do not for a moment reflect on the bona fides of the French observers, they hold that these observers have been the subjects either of an illusion of the senses or a delusion of the mind. JOHN G. McKENDRICK. THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. School Teaching and School Reform. By Sir Oliver HE science of education is as yet rudimentary and ill-defined. So little has it developed, indeed, that many schoolmasters deny its existence. An art of education they recognise, and that they claim to practise. Teachers, it is urged, are born, not made, and professional training is useless. Yet it is the possibility of the future existence of a complete science of education which is the inspiring belief of the best modern educators. These teachers are now approaching the problems of the class-room and the difficulties of school organisation as subjects for investigation and experiment by scientific methods, and there is every reason for hopefulness in the results which have been obtained in recent years. Yet, in this little book, we have a reprint of Prof. Blondlot's original papers, in which experimental evidence is adduced, with a wonderful appearance of accuracy in detail, of the polarisation of the rays, of their dispersion, of their wave-length, and of other physical phenomena attributed to them. Prof. Blond-T lot's experiments are well contrived, and they give every appearance of being arrangements by which accurate data should be obtained; but in every case the ultimate test is the subjective one made on the mind of the observer as to whether a spot of slightly phosphorescent surface becomes more luminous or not. The n-rays, according to Prof. Blondlot, are a new species of light, light, however, which only affects the retina with the aid of a fluorescent substance. They traverse many metals, black paper, wood, &c. They cannot pass through sheet lead, but they pass readily through aluminium. They influence not only a fluorescent substance, but the spark of an induction coil. They can be reflected from a polished glass surface or from a plate of polished silver. They have a kinship with well known radiations of a large wave-length. They exist in solar rays. Produced from an Auer burner they can be focused by a quartz lens; the lens itself may even become a source of n-rays. Calcium sulphide can The formulation of the fundamental principles of a complete science of education will probably be the work of some great educationist as yet unborn, who will be able from the educational material at his command to extract the essentials and to weave them into living generalisations round which the science will crystallise into an orderly and harmonious whole store up the rays, while To the elucidation of such a science many workers must contribute, and to ensure success men both familiar with science and aware of the difficulties with which teachers have to cope must lend their aid. It is for this reason we welcome these lectures by Sir Oliver Lodge, representing as they do the experience gained by a man of science in many departments of work. The lectures range over a great variety of topics, and the subjects are presented with but little arrangement. But informal and disconnected though they are, the chapters will cause earnest teachers to reconsider their methods, and strenuously to strive after the improvements adumbrated. Sir Oliver Lodge rightly affirms that the two most important questions for educators to-day are, "What subjects should be selected for teaching?" and "How should they be taught?" But these are precisely the problems teachers have had to face since the Renascence, and we seem little nearer solutions than were the educators of three hundred years ago. A complete answer to the questions propounded will remain impossible until psychology has demonstrated the precise stages in the growth of the immature human intelligence and determined what instruction will assist best each step of such development. For psychology to accomplish this task many carefully planned experiments, carried out by practical teachers imbued with the scientific spirit, are necessary, and the results arrived at must be chronicled and subjected to the most searching criticism. Mere expressions of opinion will not greatly assist the coming of the new science. What is wanted is investigation. If the man of science will cooperate with the practical schoolmaster, there is no reason why it should not be possible to answer the two vital questions re-stated by Sir Oliver Lodge. But it is imperative that we formulate, after exhaustive discussion, clearly defined problems to be put to the test of experience in schools, and that when we have agreed upon the results we act upon them. It is in this direction that the most fruitful work for education is to be done. It is unnecessary to summarise the contents of the lectures before us. It is sufficient to say they touch upon the whole field of education. Sir Oliver Lodge is always suggestive, and his obiter dicta may be commended to the attention of men of science and school teachers alike. Of all the subjects calling for scientific study and research, the education of the young is the most important. This deserves preeminently to occupy the serious attention of all who desire the well being of the human race. A. T. S. BRITISH BIRDS. British Bird Life. By W. Percival Westell. Pp. XXXV+338. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905.) Price 5s. THE HE wearisome procession of books on British birds still drags on a long train of volumes, all of necessity telling the same tale, and for the most part badly. The laboured apologies which most of these weaklings bring with them show, indeed, that their respective parents realise how slender is the chance of their finding favour even at the hands of a Yet still they public proverbially long-suffering. come. ence The present volume endeavours to justify its existon the plea that "there is need for a work entirely devoted to those species which nest amongst us year by year . . ."; and yet a number of species are included in this book which, on the author's own admission, do not breed with us year by year. Such are the Canada goose, little owl, golden oriole, hoopoe, and fire-crested wren. To these may be added the white-tailed eagle, spotted crake, roscate tern, and quail! On the other hand, there is reason to believe that the snow-bunting-included in this book-nests annually in Scotland, yet this fact is not even hinted at. No more trustworthy are the author's statements as to "where our summer migrants spend the winter." While we heartily agree with much that Mr. Westell has to say on the subject of the relentless persecution which of late years has been meted out to the birds of prey, we must protest against the hysterical notions of justice which he expresses in regard to a case wherein four men were fined thirty shillings apiece for taking a nest of young peregrines "A good dose of the cat," he contends, or imprisonment without the option of a fine, would probably have had a better effect than a fine of a few shillings"! As touching this same species, the author gravely assures us that falconry is "a very costly hobby, even the most ordinary Hawks used for falconry costing as much as 100l. apiece. They require the most careful attention, and it is difficult to get men qualified to take charge of them under a salary of, say 200l. a year." The photograph purporting to be that of a sparrow hawk is really a picture of a kestrel. At times Mr. Westell becomes ecstatic, and, blinded by the intensity of his emotions, rushes onwards regardless of obstacles-even of the rules of grammar -as witness the peroration which forms the concluding paragraph of his book : "For the good most birds do, for their cheery voices and winning ways, their charming forms and delicate colouring, their beautifully woven nests and exquisite eggs, their fairy-like flight, and other interesting characteristics, I appeal to my readers to study them with a bloodless intention, and to endeavour to learn practical lessons from their industry and devotion to their young; to study them as animate beings, and not as gazed upon as wretched caricatures of bird-life too often found in Museums and collections, and to endeavour to be of some service in specially inculcating and fostering within young and growing children an intelligent love for the bird life of our country"!! This book is profusely illustrated, partly by photographs, some of which are very pleasing, and partly by "original" drawings, all of which are bad. W. P. P. OUR BOOK SHELF. Riding and Driving. (American Sportsman's Library.) By E. L. Anderson and P. Collier. Pp. xiii+441; illustrated. (New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 8s. 6d. net. I almost all books on subjects connected with animals there is a growing tendency at the present day to introduce something concerning the natural history of the species under consideration. Too often in this country such remarks betray an insufficient knowledge of zoological science on the part of the writer, but this failing is seldom noticeable in American works. In the present volume, truth to say, there is some matter for criticism in Mr. Collier's remarks on the origin of the horse on p. 169, more especially in regard to the sense given to that much abused word" prehistoric." On the other hand, the author furnishes some very interesting information with regard to the early history of the European horse in America. In the first place he refuses to credit the theory that the horses seen by Cabot in La Plata in 1530 were indigenous. Secondly, he shows that the horses which have run wild in Mexico and South America are the descendants of Spanish barbs, and therefore of the same blood as the English thoroughbred. This is very important in view of a fact recently communicated to the present writer by Mr. Yearsley, the well known surgeon, namely, that an Argentine horse living some years ago had a functional "larmier," or tear-gland, on each side of the face. To review the work before us from its own special point of view would obviously be out of place in this Journal, and it must therefore suffice to say that it appears, so far as we are capable of judging, to maintain the high standard of excellence set in the earlier volumes of the same series. Riding falls to the lot of the first-named of the two authors, while Mr. Collier is responsible for the section on driving. The numerous reproductions from photographs are almost life-like in their sharpness and definition, although it must be confessed that some of them do not convey by any means a pleasing idea of the manners and disposition of the American saddlehorse. R. L. Der Oeschinensee im Berner Oberland. By Max Groll. Pp. vi+78; illustrated. (Bern: Haller'sche Buchdruckerei, 1904.) THIS pamphlet,__an extract from the nineteenth volume of the Berne Geographical Society, is the result of a careful study of the Oeschinensee at intervals from 1901 to 1903. Nestling at the foot of the limestone precipices of the Blumlisalp group. about 5200 feet above sea-level, and reflecting like a mirror the snows of their highest peaks, its romantic beauty makes it a favourite resort of visitors to Kandersteg, on the northern side of the Gemmi Pass. Herr Max Groll's memoir is a valuable contribution to physical geography. After some preliminary information about the position and surroundings of the lake, which lies roughly along the strike of Eocene and Cretaceous limestones, and about other matters of a topographical character, he describes its banks and basin, its dimensions and contents, its variations in level, the transparency, colour, and temperature of its waters, the amount of mud yearly deposited, and adds a note on the literature. Of these topics, the form of its basin is, perhaps, of most general interest, and of that Herr Groll gives an excellent map and sections plotted from numerous soundings. Its dimensions, of course, vary somewhat with the season, the greatest length and breadth (in summer) being 1750 and 950 metres, when its greatest depth is 56.6 metres; in winter it is about 200 metres less one way and 100 metres the other, and shallower by 15 metres. Under the former conditions its cubical content is estimated to be forty million metres. Its bed deepens at first rather rapidly, a circular diagram of the progressive depth reminding us of an ordinary dinner plate. The ring in which the drop is from o to 50 metres is barely an inch wide; the radius of the remainder, which nowhere attains 57 metres, is almost an inch and a half, or, on a rough estimate, about half the lake bed is not less than 50 metres deep. The shallowing is rather more gentle on the western than on the eastern or Blumlisalp side. Near the middle part of this, the 50-metre contour comes rather near the cliffs, those less than 30 metres being closely crowded. This would be yet more conspicuous but for a fan of débris at the south-east angle. The lake, in fact, lies in a kind of corrie at the head of a mountain glen, and it is held up by a natural dam which has been formed by bergfalls from the rocky spurs about a mile below the cliffs at its head. Thus its history is to a considerable extent par llel with that of the Lago d'Alleghe, near Caprile, in the Dolomites. Manual of the Trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico). By C. S. Sargent. Pp. xxiii+826. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1905.) Price 6 dollars. THE manual under notice embodies the most recent, exhaustive, and detailed account of the trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico). It cannot fail to be of the greatest value to students of botany and forestry, as it brings into available form all the information concerning the trees of North America which has been gathered at the Arnold Arboretum during the last thirty years. As the author points out in the preface, there is probably no other region of equal extent where the indigenous trees are so well known as those of North America, but in spite of this fact much investigation yet remains to be done as regards their sylvicultural requirements, and also the diseases to which they may be liable. The object of this volume is to stimulate further inquiry into the cultivation requirements and diseases of forest trees. The classification adopted is that of Engler and Prantl's "Die naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien." At the beginning of the book a synopsis of the families of the plants described is given. This is followed by a very useful analytical key to the families based on the arrangement and character of the leaves, which will enable the student readily to determine the family to which any North American tree belongs. In the text a full description of each family is given, and also a conspectus of the genera based on their more salient and easily made out contrasting differences. Under each genus a similar conspectus of the species is given by which the exact name of the tree may be finally determined. The frontispiece consists of a map of North America. showing the eight principal regions of arborescent vegetation, each of which is indicated by a letter, and in the conspectus above referred to a letter occurs after the name of each species, thus indicating the region in which the tree grows. This is a further aid in determining any given species provided the region from which it comes is already known. A valuable feature of the book is the numerous illustrations, which number between six and seven hundred, from drawings by Mr. Faxon. |
