Abstract
IT may be doubted whether the republication, without additions, of articles and reviews contributed to ephemeral literature serves any useful purpose. Many, if not most, of the articles in Mr. Vaughan Cornish's book are reprints of contributions to Knowledge and The Speaker; but though they are good examples of what popular scientific articles should be, the fact that they deal to a large extent with current topics, necessarily from the point of view of information available at the time when they were written, and have not been brought up to date, makes their republication undesirable. An article on argon, for instance, written in February 1895 (February 1894, on p. 75, is evidently a misprint), does not contain a satisfactory account of argon as we now know it; and a similar objection may be raised to the articles on helium (written June 1895), on tne Röntgen rays (written March 1896), and on Moissan's synthesis of diamonds (written in March 1894). The reprinting of a popular review of a popular book on astronomy is still more open to objection.
Short Studies in Physical Science.
By Vaughan Cornish Pp. 230. (London: Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., Ltd., 1897.)
New Thoughts on Current Subjects.
By the Rev. J. A. Dewe. Pp. 230. (London: Elliot Stock, 1897.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Short Studies in Physical Science New Thoughts on Current Subjects. Nature 55, 507 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/055507a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/055507a0