RECENT BOOKS T m SEARCHFOR TRUTH. Eric Tefnpk Bell, Professor of Mathematics, California Institute of Technology. Member National Academy of Sciences, Past-President Mathematical Association of America. The Williams & Wilkins Company, Balti279 pp. 14 X 21.5-cm. $3.00. more, 1934. x
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Another book from the pen of the author of The Queen of the Sciences. Before the Dawn, and Numerology will be hailed by that class of readers who like straight thinking spiced with racy humor. From Sam's mule in the Introduction t o Dean Wilshire's discussion of The Priesthood of Science in the final chapter Dr. Bell holds the reader with his skilful play of fascinating anecdote and trenchant wit. Many who h a w little interest in the history of exact thinking will he lured into strange fields by the author's style. If they then return to old haunts undisturbed by the serious undertone of the book, it will not be because the author failed to proclaim the message of the emancipation of the human mind in as hold words as have been written by one of his scholarly attainments. The purpose of the book is set forth after lengthy preliminaries in the following paragraph a t the close of chapter two: "In no sense are the following chapters intended for specialists in anything; they are meant only a s an appetizer for stronger meat which, when thoroughly digested, will make the consumer of i t as lusty as a lion and as independent as the proverbial hog on ice when told, even on the highest authority, to swallow any particular brand of bosh, even the most widely advertised. If only we can think for ourselves, and form a just estimate of our efforts, we shall be immrrne to all the craft and subtlety of the half-cocked enthusiasts." Four towering peaks are delineated in the history of exact thinking. The first of these arose in ancient Egypt from the consideration of such mundane matters as the calendar, the inundation of the Nile, and the pyramids. The Greeks erected the second, but the spontaneous combustion theory of their brilliance is exploded by tracing the growth of their proofs by deductive reasoning from the problem of finding the volume of a truncated pyramid. The invention in 1826 by Lovatchewsky of non-Euclidean geometry gave rise to the third, while the fourth came from questioning in the present century of two of the three "laws of thought" which have ruled the world of reason since they were first formulated by Aristotle 2300 years ago. Exposing the "craft and subtlety of the half-cocked enthusiasts" is a major diversion of the author. Educators, philosophers, and theologians are each in turn bergtted without mercy. After ridiculing "the reverence and respect in which Euclid's allegedly rigorous reasoning was held by all educated men for well over two thousand years," Dr. Bell adds, "as nothing else even half so good is offered in the way of deductive reasoning in school, we must not he tw hard on what is actually handed out. The great miracle is that there are not a hundred million gullible boobies in America, eager to swallow a11 the Latest and craziest speculations, instead of the negligible few there are." Extrapolating philosophers and left-wing theologians come in for even more vigorous criticism. At the hands of the exotic characters, "Bluebottle" and "Toby," these respectable members of society are manhandled in a way that will hardly serve to postpone the coming of what Dr. Bell in a moment of pessimistic extrapolation calls the "Great Revival of Belief"; this he predicts will usher in eight or ten centuries of docile credulity as pliable as that of the Middle Ages, for "Science and reason have been tried before the tribunal of public opinion, both educated and uneducated, and the verdict is 'Guilty; hang them both.' " Bluebottle and Toby are as unconcerned over the approaching cataclysm as Sam's blind mule headed toward the telegraph p o l e t h e y "just JOHNR. SAMPEY don't give a damn." FURMANUNWBRS~IY GRBENVILLB, SOUT. CAROLIN*
RESEARCH. T. A. Boyd, Research Division. General Motors Corporation. D. Appletan-Century Company, Inc., New York and London, 1935. xv 319 pp. 13 X 20 cm. $2.50.
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When a man with the standing of Dr. Boyd writes a book on research, those interested in that field will feel an obligation to read it. But when on opening the volume one finds the author possessed not only of indubitable facts, which were to he expected, hut also of an easy and readable style and a wealth of interesting quotations and anecdotes concerning research and its accomplishment, the obligation becomes a real pleasure. From his own extensive experience and that of his associates, and from extensive reading. Dr. Boyd has compiled a systematic account of research-what it is, how it is done, and the kind of men that do it, using ihe word research in the broadest sense, as any search for new knowledge. One need hut read the provocative outline of the book to make one eager to read the definition of: Research, Pure Research and Applied, Evolution, Organization, Laboratories, Senses Supplemented, Paper Exploration, Observation, Accident, Re-Search Financing, Selling, Men of Many Talents, Training, Recruiting, Youth, Curiosity. Imagination, Experimentalism, Enthusiasm, Patience, Persistence, Faith, Courage, Common Sense, Honesty, Modesty, Products Improved, Industries Originated, Industries Destroyed, Dividends: Economic, Dividends: Educational, Dividends: Humanitarian, Truth, By-products, "Why Didn't I I Think of That?", Pythagoreanism, Remuneration, Penalties of Pioneering. Particularlynotahleis the wideappeal of this book. While it is written from the standpoint of the general reader, and requires little or no knowledge of science for its comprehension, there is scarcely a page that will not interest the professional research worker. Every one engaged in research or contemplating it as a career should read it to get new inspiration from the work of others so well related here. Every teacher of science should a t least read the book and if possible niake it available to his students. GUSTAV EGLOXF UNIVBRSAL
OIL PRODUCTS CO.
C"1"*00, ILLINOIS
E ~ ~ c r n oEw.;sruv x ~ h h p.~DSORPTIUN P I I I N O M L K A I .. H. de B,.w. Trnnslatcd h y . \ l ~ r . I t . . T . Cambridpe: l'hc llnweriitv I'ress: K e w YorK Citv: The Mncmillan Company, 1935. xi ' 398 pp. 150 figs. 14 X 22 cm. $5.50.
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The author states in the preface that the book is intended to present from the physicalchemical point of view the relation between the phenomena of adsorption on surfaces and those of electron emission and conduction. I n the minion of the rev i c w r , the rc*ultinr: work fulrills'this intcrrlion rwclkntly and conraim comprclwn%i\cdiscursion n d only of the nu~hrr'aown conrril,urions in this firld. which haw hrcn errmswe, but also 3 review of the work of Langmuir and other investigators. The fifteen chapters and 384 pages of tent contain an extremely interesting wealth of topics. The contcnts msy be grouped under four headings:
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I. Electron emission phenomena from metals and composite surfaces (Th-W, Cs-W, Cs-O-W, Ba-BaO, etc.). These are discussed in Chapters I, 111, IV, and XIV. 11. Adsorption phenomena. The nature of adsorption forces (Chapter 11), double layers formed by adsorption of gases (Chapter VI), and also a number of sections in the chapters on electron emission phenomena. 111. Photoelectric emission and related phenomena: emission after adsorption of electropositive metals on metal surfaces (Chapter V), absorption of light by matter in the gaseous state
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