50 Years ago

Nature and Man. By John Hillaby — Any series of books designed to help young people to keep up with the progress of science deserves encouragement. In one of this new series, John Hillaby ... has attempted to show the perpetual struggle between man, animals and plants and how the balance of Nature often becomes greatly disturbed from what seem trivial beginnings ... Among the topics described are the blocking of the Congo River by the devil's lilac and the expenditure of £3 million on chemicals to clear it for traffic; the fearsome effect of too many lemmings, musk-rats and rabbits and other animals; soil-erosion ... and the consequences of over-shooting big game ... Whether the author is right to pitch a book with this approach to young people of “12 and upwards” is very questionable.

From Nature 17 September 1960.

100 Years ago

The fifteenth number ... of the Italian review Scientia, now in its fourth year, is largely occupied with philosophy. The ideas of Poincaré, Bergson, Einstein, and the Pragmatists naturally form the text of discussions, such as that by F. Severi on “Hypothesis and Reality in Geometrical Science,” or Chwolson's “Can we apply Physical Laws to the whole Universe?” or F. Enriques's criticism of Pragmatism. The theory of two star-streams interpenetrating one another is described by Mr. A. S. Eddington, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. M. Guignebert sketches the rise of Christianity in accordance with the sifted conclusions of recent research. Mr. Abegg's article on “Chemical Affinity” has a pathetic interest, from the fact that while it was in the press the author met his death in an aëronautic accident ... Reviews of scientific periodicals, notes of scientific meetings, and critical notices of books, make up an issue that is very level in quality.

From Nature 15 September 1910.