law of thermodynamics. Born into the world with the usual amount of energy, i.e. capacity for work, some minds are so constituted as to transform a large portion of it so that it is of service to humanity, while a comparatively small portion is, as it were, wasted. The sum of the action of such minds constitutes human progress. It is necessary that the progress of the individual genius should be hindered as little as possible by artificial and unnecessary obstacles, and it would appear that in some countries the path is made easier than in others. Taking the membership of national academies as a test, if only a rough one, of scientific eminence, the proportion of distinguished men to the inhabitants, reckoned in millions, is in Saxony 0'2, in Baden and Norway 0'25, in Switzerland 0'33, in Holland and Bavaria 0'41, in England and Prussia 0'49, in France 079, in Italy 2'17, in Austria 27, in the United States 3'08, and in Russia 163; that is, for example, there is in Russia only one member of international academies to 163 million inhabitants. It can hardly be doubted that this low number is due to the hindrances which stand in the way of the progress of youths who might, in Russia, display genius, and enrich the world by their efforts. It is impossible to review such a book as this satisfactorily in a short article. It teems with interest, not only on account of the intrinsic attractiveness of the subject, but also because of the masterly grasp of it displayed by the author. Whatever Prof. Ostwald writes is sure to interest, owing to the originality of his mind and his lucid and attractive method of presentment. On every page there occurs some saying which excites attention, even although the reader may sometimes be disposed to challenge the conclusions drawn. The questions discussed are well worth the most careful consideration of all who have the welfare of humanity at heart. The problem considered is an eminently practical one-perhaps the most practical problem which exists—and we owe the author a debt of gratitude for having introduced it to us in such a charming manner. IT. W. R. SOME MEN AND MATTERS IN CHEMISTRY. Essays, Biographical and Chemical. By Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. Pp. vii+247. (London : Constable and Co., Ltd., 1908.) Price 7s. 6d. net. T is good to read about the pioneers of science, their trials and their triumphs. Even it is good for the student who has to "grind up facts about scientific worthies and serve them up hot to a voracious examiner; albeit in such a case it smacks strongly of "turning old heroes into unworthy potions," as Sir Thomas Browne remarks in discussing the medicinal virtues of mummies. At any rate, such a student would get some of the facts about his heroes pleasantly enough in reading what Sir William Ramsay has to say in the present volume concerning Boyle and Cavendish, Davy and Graham, Black, Kelvin, and Berthelot. The essays are a collection of lectures and magazine articles published, the author tells us, at various times during the last twenty-five years. It follows that they are of a popular character in the sense that little or no special knowledge on the part of the reader is assumed. They are somewhat unequal in scope and treatment, as may be inferred from the fact that the organs in which they first appeared included such diverse publications as the Youth's Companion and the Proceedings of the Royal Society. Of the biographical essays, those upon Berthelc: and Lord Kelvin seem to the present writer to show the author at his happiest. Perhaps that is because there is the personal note in them; for Sir William Ramsay was acquainted with the French savant as well as the English one. He gives us an attractive glimpse of the happy home life of the Berthelots. There was a touch of romance, too, about the meeting of young Marcellin Berthelot with his future wife, which is described in the essay, and which we may venture to quote almost in the author's words. Made moiselle Breguet was beautiful and well-dowered, but presumably beyond Berthelot's reach. However, one day she was crossing the Pont Neuf in the face of a strong wind, wearing a charming Tuscan hat. "Behind her walked her future husband; suddenly she turned round to avoid having her hat blown off, and practically ran into his arms. A case of love at first touch," says Sir William. The stories of Boyle and of Cavendish will always appeal to chemists. The author describes and con trasts the work and character of the two men in an interesting little sketch. "Each was in advance of spirit and clear judgment, Cavendish in his power of his age"; Boyle by reason of his calm philosophical refined quantitative experiments and deductions. Neither was married; and the author, after reflecting that Boyle was too many-sided and Cavendish too reserved, remarks:-" It is perhaps legitimate to draw in its best without the influence of a helpmeet." It may the conclusion that man's nature does not culminate be so; but another conclusion, perhaps equally legiti mate, is that if there had been a Mrs. Boyle and a Mrs. Cavendish there might have been no "Sceptical Chymist" and no "Experiments on Air." Black also, it may be noted, remained unmarried, though a particular favourite of the ladies. Perhaps they missed much, these three distinguished chemists, both in personal happiness and in perfection of character; but it may well be that their loss was mankind's gain, and that chemical science has cause to bless the circumstances which enabled them to pursue their researches with singleness of aim, undistracted by either the joys or the troubles of matrimony. A sketch of the careers of Davy and Graham completes the essay on the "Great London Chemists." Space allows only a brief mention of the author's com. parison of the four. Graham, with his philosophical mind, more resembled Boyle than Cavendish or Davy. While Cavendish carried his devotion to science so far that it deprived him of the ordinary pleasures of a human being, and while Davy, in relation to fashion, could not escape the accusation of playing to the gallery, Graham pursued a happy mean, beloved by his friends, esteemed by all. "Of him, as of Faraday, it might have been said with no shade of misgiving, He was a good and a true man.'" The second half of the volume is devoted to essays on various chemical topics. A few titles will indicate their nature; thus there are "The Becquerel Rays," "What is an Element?"" Radium and its Products,' and "The Aurora Borealis." This last is an interesting discussion of the evidence for regarding krypton as a noteworthy constituent of the aurora. An oration upon "The Functions of a University," delivered some eight years ago at University College, concludes the work, and ends with the remark : "As it exists at present, a University is a technical school for theology, law, medicine, and engineering. It ought to be also a place for the advancement of knowledge, for the training of philosophers, and of those who love wisdom for its own sake. . . Surely; and if examples were wanted of men who loved wisdom for its own sake, who "scorned delights and lived laborious days" in pursuit of it, yet by whose labours was wrought incalculable material benefit to posterity, what better instances could be found than those of the pioneers of chemistry? to be found is that its conciseness will make it difficult for the beginner, but this has been anticipated by the author, who has distinguished the more difficult parts by means of brackets to indicate that they should be left by the beginner for a second reading. Further, the last eighty pages are devoted to an illustrated description of laboratory exercises, and the performance of these will go far to remove any difficulty due to the conciseness of the main body of the text. To pass to detail, the earlier chapters are devoted to the senses, and those on hearing are especially full. There is no other book in which a summary of the very important researches of recent years on this subject can be found. The accounts of the psychophysical and statistical methods, given under these titles and in the chapter on identity and difference, are admirably clear, though, perhaps, not enough stress has been laid on the use of the psychophysical methods for purposes other than threshold determination. These methods were devised with the idea that by their means sensation and other psychical states might With two or three exceptions, neither the biograph-be measured. They are, however, coming to be used ical nor the chemical essays pretend to be more than popular presentations of their several subjects, and if here and there they seem perhaps a trifle superficial and jejune, it is only fair to remember the circumstances of their production, and to recall the fact that some were written when their distinguished author's powers were less mature, by a quarter of a century's growth, than they are to-day. C. SIMMONDS. EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. A Text-book of Experimental Psychology. By Prof. THIS HIS book supplies a want which has been long felt by both students and teachers. Until now there has been no text-book to meet the special needs of those attending a course of instruction in experimental psychology. There have been books on psychology written on an experimental basis which have differed little, if at all, from others not so characterised, and there have been handbooks for the laboratory, notably that of Titchener, but there has been no book which attempted to give in reasonable compass a general account of experimental methods and of the results which have been gained by the experimental movement in psychology. Such a book was needed for two classes of persons, for those definitely committed to the study of the subject, and for the large class of people who know that experimental psychology exists but do not know what it means. It may be said at once that for each Prof. Myers's book will be of the greatest service. It gives a concise and yet clear account of what has been done by means of experiment in psychology, and it is surprising to find so vast an amount of information in a book of the size. At the same time, there has been admirable judgment in the selection of the material and in the discussion of the many thorny topics in which the science at present abounds. The only fault more and more for the exact comparison of the effects of different conditions on mental processes in which threshold, either absolute or differential, and the attenthere is no question of the actual determination of a tion of the student might have been more forcibly directed to this aspect of the use of the methods. might be thought a little out of due proportion. The The subject of memory is very fully treated, it space devoted to it is, however, fully justified, for we have in this branch of the subject what is, perhaps, the greatest achievement of the experimental method in pure psychology apart from those advances which are rather physiological than psychological. In a short chapter on muscular and mental work an excellent account is given of modes of research which are now taking a very important place in applied psychology and especially in pedagogy, and the author rightly insists on the difference between the mental work of laboratory methods and that of ordinary life. There is at present a great danger that the value of this line of work will suffer depreciation owing to premature application to practical problems. The last two chapters chiefly serve to show how little the experimental method has so far accomplished in the study of such subjects as attention and feeling. It is to be regretted that want of space has not allowed the author to deal with the comparative and pathological sides of psychology so far as these can be studied by the methods of experimental psychology. The result of the perusal of this book, in which the accomplishments of the science have been so ably portrayed, is to confirm an impression that the experimental study of the developed mind will not take us very far, and that it is in the study of the developing mind and of the dissociations and destructions produced by disease that there lies the chief prospect of advance. It is to be hoped that the author will be able to deal with these subjects, either in another book or in a future expansion of the present volume. Although this country has been very late in recognising the experimental movement in psychology, the subject has at last succeeded in making a position for itself, and its existence is recognised in the chief universities of England and Scotland. Its further progress will certainly be assisted by this able account of the methods and accomplishments of the science. SPEECH. The Science of Speech, an Elementary Manual of English Phonetics for Teachers. By Benjamin Dumville. Pp. xii+207. (Cambridge: University Tutorial Press, Ltd., 1909.) Price 2s. 6d. THIS HIS is a concise, accurate, and interesting little manual, written by one who is evidently a master of the subject of phonetics, and knows how to communicate information. Nowhere have we seen so good an account of the muscular movements and the positions of the articulating apparatus. The book is intended for teachers, who often, in these days, are required to teach the elements of phonetics. or, at all events, to train children in the art of correct pronunciation and good reading. It is not a book to be read hastily. It requires a careful experimental study of the movements described, with the aid of a mirror, but the descriptions are so clear and the methods so simple and convincing that the accurate knowledge acquired will well repay all the trouble. The nature of vowels, consonants, diphthongs, digraphs, the distinction between voice and whispering, the various kinds of whispers, and the nature of the aspirate are fully explained. There is an interesting chapter on the sounds in connected speech, such as accent, emphasis, intonation, assimilation, and variations in pitch. The author, perhaps, scarcely attaches the importance to pitch, or rather to variations in pitch in the words or syllables of a spoken sentence, which we are inclined to do, and which is brought out in a striking way when the vibrations of the sounds of a sentence are recorded on a rapidly moving surface. We are much interested in the chapter on "The Organic Basis of English," which must appeal to physiologists, the point being that, by repetition, during the early period when speech is acquired, a kind of habit is imposed on the articulating organs, and, we would add, on the nerve centres involved; this will be determined by the sounds the child imitates, or is taught to pronounce. There will thus be a kind of organic habit for each language, a consideration that may explain how difficult it is for one trained from early days in the English language to acquire, in later life, the true intonation of good French. The author gives a striking illustration, p. 141, of the difference between the English t and its French equivalent, so that an Englishman uttering the sentence Ton thé t'a-t-il ôté ta toux? (Has your tea taken away your cough?) would probably not give the t the peculiar softness or quality that can only be obtained by pronouncing the t, as the French do, by starting with the tip of the tongue from the back of the front teeth, instead of a little behind, as is done in English speech (see Fig. 27). The last two chapters deal with spelling reform and with the important pædagogic question of whether a phonetic training is helpful to children who are learn ing to read. We will not follow the author here, but be content with stating that he presents his arguments forcibly but with fairness. Children must at first be taught by the ear alone, and by frequent repetition; sounds that are distinctly bad, like the peculiar tone of many resident in London or in the south, or the nasal drawl of the west of Scotland, must be got rid of; and the ear of the child must hear, at all events during school hours, the tones of pure English. Ia not a few cases, probably, the work of the teacher may be undone by the sounds of the child's home. The author refers briefly to the use of the phonograph. The intonation of the gramophone is far superior, and we would advise that the Gramophone Company should be induced to take, say, a dozen records from highly trained and correct voices, illustrating the tones of pure and undefiled English. These would be of immense service to teachers. The Gramophone Company has a record of the voice of the late Canon Fleming, uttering some of the prayers in the Morning Service of the Church of England, which fully illus trates what we mean. It is a pity that a better set of symbols for phonetic speech sounds has not been invented. Some are very grotesque, but, still worse, with a weak eyesight, some of the symbols are difficult to discriminate. The symbols of Graham Bell seem to us to be better than those mostly in vogue, and it is only right to mention that these are used by so high an authority as Mr. Sweet in his "Primer of Phonetics." Mr. Dumville is to be congratulated on having produced an excellent book on what is truly the science of speech. JOHN G. McKENDRICK. un? A TEXT-BOOK OF OTOLOGY. Lehrbuch der Ohrenheilkunde für Ärzte Studierende. By Dr. Paul Ostmann. Pp. viii+533(Leipzig: Verlag von F. C. W. Vogel, 1909.) Price 18 marks. THE HE name of Dr. Paul Ostmann is well known to otologists, not only in Europe, but in the British Islands and the United States. A text-book upon diseases of the ear from his pen is, therefore, welcome, even though it be disappointing. Like all text-books which hail from the German Empire, however, it is marked by that peculiar German conceit which, whilst giving ample prominence to the work of compatriots, ignores, or, at the most, dismisses with curt comment, that of equally prominent scientific labourers of other countries. Dr. Paul Ostmann's text-book abounds with references to German aural surgeons, but in all its 533 pages only some seventeen British or American otologists receive mention, and the names of some of these are spelled incorrectly. Picking out, from motives of curiosity, the names quoted from among those surgeons who belong to our own country, we find that Handfield Jones, Toynbee, Hinton, Ogston, Macewen, Walker Downie, Dundas Grant, and Yearsley alone receive acknowledgment for their work, whilst Cheatle, Pritchard, Barr, and many other names of equal lustre in the domain of diseases of the ear are ignored completely. In a work issued at the present time, when so much that is of lasting 1 JULY 29, 1909] NATURE value has been done for the advancement of otology, one expects to find mention at least of that which fairly may be described as epoch-making. Yet the pioneer work of Lake, Marriage, Armour, and Yearsley in operations upon the labyrinth for the relief of distressing and incurable vertigo and tinnitus receives no attention, whilst the still more recent researches of Bárány are barely noticed, and those of West, Scott, Crum-Brown, and Alexander are passed over in silence. we can speak with For the work as a text-book moderate approbation. There is no dissertation upon anatomy to swell the book, but the author plunges straightway into methods of examination and diagnosis. This portion is not too much padded with unnecessary pictures of instruments, and the diagrams are adequate, with the exception of Fig. 13, which is A considerable exaggerated and wholly unnatural. number of pages is devoted to the functional testing of the ears, and this appears to be treated very fully and exhaustively. In dealing with anomalies of the hearing, a series of useful charts is given from actual In treating of the various diseases of and operations upon the ear, we can find no mention of the use of the hand-gouge in place of the chisel and mallet in performing operations upon the mastoid, an improvement in technique which we owe to British surgery. We fully approve of the classification of otosclerosis with diseases of the bony labyrinthine capsule. This is a distinct advance upon those textbooks which continue to describe it as a middle-ear condition. cases. sufficient fulness and accuracy to enable their rota- Notwithstanding the difficulties encountered, how- years The comparisons which Mr. Williams has instituted at the end of his volume are not so valuable as they might have been in consequence of omissions in quoting the results of various observers. Thus, in the table of rotations of spots in the south equatorial current, Mr. Phillips's values for 1898 and 1906-7 are given, but similar figures for the intervening Similarly the at all. are not mentioned for 1905-6 (Monthly periods writer's rotation are altogether omitted. An excellent section deals with the effects of general Notices, vol. xvi., p. 434) diseases upon the ear, and another is devoted to the On the whole, however, Mr. Williams's new contritoxic effects of quinine, the salicylates, iodide of potass-bution to zenographic study is very valuable and ably ium, arsenic, aspirin, chloroform, tobacco, alcohol, mercury, silver, carbon dioxide, and phosphorus. Secso rarely met with in the tions such as these are works of specialists that they deserve unstinted praise. It is disappointing to find so important a subject as deaf-mutism dismissed in four pages. The volume is an average text-book, and deals with its subject in an average manner, but it does not add markedly to the now voluminous literature of otology. As a guide for the student and junior practitioner, it will, no doubt, find a useful place. OUR BOOK SHELF. Zenographical Fragments, II. The Motions and in A. Stanley Williams. Pp. xiii+104; 9 plates. executed. There are few typographical errors, and do with a volume, but conveys no information concerning the physical constitution of the quantities in question. The whole of the work dealt with belongs to the second term of the physics course in the University of Rome. The author compiled it while yet Prof. Blaserna's assistant. His untimely death after succeeding to the chair prevented him from publishing it himself, but that duty has been admirably carried through by his two able disciples. Azimuth. By G. L. Hosmer. Pp. v+73. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1909.) Price 4s. 6d. net. THIS work is avowedly not a text-book; it is a handbook for the practical surveyor, and, as such, should prove very useful. Prof. Hosmer gives just the ordinary methods for checking the angles of a survey by observation of the sun and stars, but the book is removed from the commonplace by the conciseness of its instructions and the numerous practical hints given at all the necessary points. The tables for computing the results are given in the latter part of the book, and the examples are worked out on specimen forms calculated to obviate clerical errors. The book is nicely printed, illustrated with useful diagrams, and well bound. These features, combined with its handy size, make it a very useful work for the practical surveyor to carry with him as a pocketbook for easy reference. W. E. R. 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.] Notes on a Stone Circle in County Cork. In view of several references made in NATURE lately to stone circles in Ireland (vol. lxxix., p. 488, February 25), the following notes on one situated at Drumbeg, near Glandore, County Cork, may prove of interest, especially as this circle contains the characteristic "recumbent stone of the "Aberdeenshire" type in the south-western half of its circumference, a feature not hitherto met with outside that locality. 1 2 feet 6 inches high; right supporter, 4 feet 8 inches high, I foot 9 inches deep, 3 feet wide; left supporter, 5 feet high, 1 foot 6 inches deep, 3 feet wide. The circle stands on a hill-side facing the sea, upon an the southern (seaward) side. This edge, otherwise straight, artificial plateau with a well-defined edge, 160 feet long, on is indented by a "cove 20 feet in length, directed towards the centre of the circle, which it almost touches externally on its southern side. A row of four small ovals, and mounds of stones (probably burial-sites), lie in a line a short way outside the plateau to the south-eastward. The remains of (?) a hutcircle of rough stones occur at a distance of 170 fer westward from the main circle, and there is a large solitar outlying boulder situated on a small eminence 100 feet t the north-eastward. The following astronomical features (sight-lines) are observable in the above remains : (1) From the recumbent stone; solstitial summer sunrise over one of the two most important stones of the circle: sky-line elevated 3° 40'. (This line passes almost over the outlying boulder.) of the two important stones; hill-line elevated 2° 20' (2) From the same position, May sunrise over the second (3) From same position (or from centre of circle, se photograph), solstitial winter sunset over a conspicuous gap in the hills, distant one mile. (4) Edge of the plateau lies in the line of May sunrise or November sunset. (5) Side of the cove is directed to the solstitial summer sunset over centre of circle, nearly. (6) Line of stone ovals, outside plateau, is practically that of May-sunrise. (7) From centre of (?) hut circle, over the northernmost stone of circle (a slab with a rounded profile, thus differ ing from the remainder, which are of "pillar" form), to the outlying boulder, is the May-sunrise line. There are no indications of a burial-mound in the centre of the circle. BOYLE T. SOMERVILLE. Admiralty Survey Office, Tenby, S. Wales. Musical Sands in Chile. THE interesting letter of Mr. Carus-Wilson, dealing with the existence of musical sands, suggests to me that some fact in my experience relating to this subject ma be worth putting on record, and may, through the courtesy of your columns, possibly lead to the elucidation of an occurrence which has hitherto lacked explanatica, at least in my mind. Some few miles to the west of the town of Copiapo, in Chile, and, so far as my recollection of the locality carries me, about half a mile to the southward of the railway line, there is a tailing off of a ragged hill-range, which runs about north and south. In a ravine-it is too small to be called a valley-the sand which covers the greater part of that portion of Chile has, blown doubtless by the sea-breeze, been carried up the gully to which I refer, and lies there at a slope equal to the flowing angle of dry sand. The place is locally known by the name of "El Punto del Diabolo," as, given conditions of wind and weather, which time did not allow me to study, a low moaning sound, vary ing in intensity, can be heard for quite a quarter of a mile away. Amongst the superstitious natives the place is avoided. Thinking it worth a visit I went there with the late Mr. Edwards, who was then the British Consul in that district. On our arrival we found that the sands were quite silent, but on making a glissade down the slope a gradually increasing "rumble " was heard, which increased in volume as the sand slid away before us. As the sound increased we were subjected to an undulatory movement, so decided that it was difficult Drumbeg Circle. Recumbent stone and supporters, viewed from centre of circle, showing notch in hills (solstitial sunset line). The accompanying photograph shows this stone and its supporters, of which the following dimensions may be given-recumbent stone, 7 feet long, 1 foot 8 inches deep, |
