BOOKS OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1842, 30 August 1913, Page 9

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

THE HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. Amongst the many series, or libraries, of bocks, otherwise than fiction, designed to mako special appeal to tho .vast army of lovers of good litoraturo whoso means _will not permit the purchase of expensivo works, the Home University Library, published by Williams and Norgate, London, has been a quite notable success. This is no doubt duo to tho fact that the- series is not a collection of reprints, but a library of entirely new works' on various branches of knowledge, each volume being specially ' .written for the series by a recognised authority of high standing. The fact that the series is under the general editorship of Professor Gilbert Murray and Mr. Herbert Fisher, of Oxford, Professor J. Arthur Thomson, of Aberdeen, and Professor W. T. Brewster, of New York, is a sufficient guarantee that the utmost caro has been, and will be, j "taken in the selection of the right man to undertake t'ho discussion of the subject dealt with in each volume. Sixty volumes of this excellent series have now appeared, the last batch of ten volumes laving been published quito recently. Four saraplo volumes from among the ' latest additions to the series have roach- - ed'mo.from tho publishers, per Messrs. S, and W. Mackay. These are: "Warfare in England," by Hilaire Belloc; "Tho Human Body," by Professor A. Keith, M.A.; "Tho Making of tho Earth," by Professor J. W. Gregory, F.R.S.; and "Ethics," by G. E. Moore, M.A. The solection of Mr. Belloc for the writing of a book on "Warfare in England" was singularly liappy, for this versatile author has already, in his admirablo work, "The Eye Witness" (tho - book, not tho newspaper, of that namo), and in various "monographs on famous battles proved 'his peculiar aptitude for investing the dry bones of history with a fascinating air of picturesque reality. A special feature of Mr. Belloc's book i 3 the very proper insistence its author lays upon the importance of tlio student of history getting a gc-od grip . of the topographical side of a battle. Carlyle, both' in his "Frederick" and his r.otes to "Cromwell's Letters," led the way in this particular. Another good featuro is the laudable clearness of the narrative. Thero is no attempt at fine writing, but Mr. Belloc's ar- , rangement of his facts is . such that though always allowing for a strain of . picturesque effect, it-distinctly aids'the reador to remember not only tlio main outlines, but tho actual details, where such are of real importance, of his record. I dare not begin to quote from this fascinating little book. Suffice it to say that the author conducts us , through tho long drama of British warfare from .the very earliest times to that day of dire disaster to tho Stuart arms at-Culloden, April 16, 1746, since £ when no„de3ision by armed forces has {{ been, attemptedwithin"Groat .Britain. A number of plans and diagrams suitably ; illustrate the narrative. Professor A.'Keith, M.D., tho author of "Tho Humau Body," is tho Hunterian Professor at and Conservator of the '•Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, England, and the author of ,j "Embryology, and Morphology of Man," "Ancient Types of Man," and other important works. His book treats of tho history of tho human body rather than of its structure and mechanism, and reflects the opinions, current among the more progressive anatomists of the present timo. Amongst other phases of his subject, tho author deals with man's place amongst animals; 1 his stature, ' proportion, and growth; 'the ■ development of tho human body; human monsters and malformations; changes in the body during youth and ago; tlio sexual and racial characters of the body; bodily features-as an index of mental character; skin, hair, and sense organs ;'the mechanism of the human body( an exceptionally interesting chaptor this), degeneration and regeneration, and, finally, the antiquity and genealogy of man. I notice that in the chapter on degeneration, Professor Keith challenges one of Metchinkoff's most sensational contentions. The author says Metchnikoff, one of the most intrepid students of life of our time, has boldly declared that the appen.dix, tjie caccum and tho whole of the great bowel . . . aro useless structures ill tho body of man. Xay, under certain conditions, tho - .presence of the colic systom may bo a constant dangor to life. Sudh a. statement, coming from a biologist of the very first rank, is bound to carry weight and persuasion. If Metchinkoff's opinion is ' well founded, then tho colic system of man is a gigantic blunder in animal construction. We have always sup- • i. posed that Nature made no misi takes. Professor Keith's opinion that tho evidence in support of Metchnikoffs theory is altogether unconvincing." As to the appendix, he says:—The function of tho appendix we do not know, but in the huma\i body at birth it is identical in form and structure to the appendix of ( the great anthropoids. It . is' when boyhood and girlhood are - reached that it becomes liable to disease, and to undergo- reduction in size and contortion in shape. We seom to .bo dealing with a ' change in structure of exactly-simi-lar nature to those degenerative ■ changes which we have : already noted in tho teeth, the :jawsy and throat. In their caso ■ it; seemed most likely that their chango in form is a result of diet, and it ' seems very probablo that tho same statement will yet be proved to bo true in the caso of the appendix. I have left myself scant space to allude in detail to the main features of Frofessor Gregor's little troatiso on "The Making of tho Earth," and to Mr. Moore's interesting disquistion on "Ethics." Tlio former is divided into four sections: "Tlio Origin of the Earth," "Tho Growth of tho Earth's Surface," "Tho Plan of tho Earth," and "The Share of Life on the Preparation of the Earth." New Zealand students of geology and of earthquake phenomena should be particularly interested in tha chapter headed "The Evidenc« of Earthquakes as to tho Internal Structure of tho Earth." The import an co of ths part played by -volcanoes in assisting to fertilise the earth is also referred to in a very interesting chaptor. Professor Gregory's book is liberally illustrated by diagrams and maps. Mr. Moore, the author of tho volume entitled "Ethics," is Lecturer in Moral Science in the University of Cambridge. In successive chapters "he discusses utilitarianism, the objectivity of moral judgments, results as the test of right and wrong, freewill and intrinsic value. All four volumes are supplied with excellent indexes, and all,.except Mr. Belloc's book, aro provided with most use-

ful bibliogra phils. \Woll printed, neatly bound, and of/a handy size, these compendiums of useful knowledgo in 60 compact and dosirablo a form, deserve tho nttcntion of all who are interested in the important subjects dealt with. (Tho price of each volume is fiftecnpence.) Sinco tho above article was written [ have received a further batch of five new volumes of the "Homo University Library." These will bo noticed in a future issue. OTHER BOOKS. The champion billiard player of Australia, Fred. Lindrmn, junr., has published 1 (George Robertson and Co.) an 1 interesting .and unique little book on Spot-End Billiards, and it may fairly bo said that no one elso could havo written the book with quite tho same authority. Billiardists and lovers of tho game need only to be informed of the fact that such a book exists and has only recently been published', for there to sot in a big demand lor it. The price is Is. 6d. In "Tho Golfing Swing" (Methuen's, per Whitcombe and Tombs), Mr. Burnham Hare oxpounds the simplification of tho golf swing. Tho objcct of the book is. to show that the mechanism of tlio golf swing depends on "forearm" rather than "wrist" action. Indeed, apart from putting, it is contended tliat there is no such thing as a pure wrist shot in the whole game of golf. A revised edition of Mr. P. L. Waterhouse's "Tho Story of Architecture" has beeu added to Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton's "Useful Knowledge Series." The subject is dealt with in dotail from the days of the Egyptians down to the present time, the stylo is sufficiently: free from technicalities to attract the general reader, and thero are many excellent. illustrations. An admirablo shilling's worth.