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NEW BOOKS
special headings biological and industrial applications, as well as the special properties of the substances concerned, are described. The absence of any general summary of the work of McBain and collaborators, who contribute, however, two special papers, will disappoint those interested in soap-like substances, but on the whole the book is very well balanced and the society and its editor are certainly t o be congratulated on their achievement. The binding in boards is an improvement on the old paper covers but is still insufficiently strong for a book which should find so much use. G. S. HARTLEY.
Reports on Progress i n Physics. Published by the Physical Society. 25 x 18 cm.; iv 371 pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1934. Price: 12s. 6d. net to non-fellows. This is the first volume of a series of annual reports t o be issued by the Physical Society, and it sets a very high standard for the future. It is a well printed and strongly bound volume of attractive appearance, and the contents range over several important branches of physics. Quantum mechanics and wave mechanics (Temple); the spiral nebulae and the expansion of the universe (McVittie), and Burgers’ theory of turbulence (Trubridge) appeal to the mathematical physicist. Articles on surface tension (Ferguson), sound (E. G. Richardson), spectroscopy (in twelve sections, including one on wave length standards, by R. W. B. Pearse, H. Dingle, E. Gwynne-Jones, C. V. Jackson and A. Hunter), optics (by T. Smith, J. S. Anderson, J. Guild, and H. F. Buckley, all of the National Physical Laboratory), heat (by J. H. Awbery, of the same laboratory) and electric and magnetic measurements (L. Hartshorn) are all highly practical and competent surveys of the modern position of each subject, not confined t o very recent work and not a t all mere abstract summaries but real authoritative monographs full of valuable information. Sections on electrical phenomena a t extremely low temperatures (McLennan) and the physics of the atom (Andrade) are perhaps the outstanding features of the volume, since they survey in a lucid and masterly way the whole aspect of each subject, and each gives a coherent picture of the position a t the time of writing-now, it is true, already somewhat modified. A pleasing feature of the whole volume is the insistence on experimental method: good diagrams of apparatus, tables, and curves are given, and an overinsistence on certain aspects of very modern physics has been successfully avoided by a wise choice of authors. The volume is one which every physical chemist should possess. J. R. PARTINGTON.
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