Attractive Manner Research Articles

Jeremy Bentham and the Colombian Liberators

No English reformer of the early nineteenth century was so much admired by his Latin American contemporaries as was Jeremy Bentham, the prolific author of utilitarian treatises on government, economics, and law. The fundamental reasons for the Colombian liberators' interest in Bentham were undoubtedly the attractive manner in which he treated the explosive question of sovereignty, and his demand for a complete reconstruction of all legal systems upon utilitarian principles. It is even more certain that Bentham's most important entrée to the Spanish-American world was afforded by the popularity of his works, many of them published first on the Continent and in the French language, among the Spanish liberals. Yet the story of Bentham's personal contacts with a number of the próceres of Gran Colombia formed a noteworthy chapter in the history of the Bentham vogue in South America, as they sought him out during their journeys to Europe and the British Isles. Bentham himself was more than a passive partner in this exchange. Especially in the case of Bolívar, he pursued his acquaintances rather relentlessly by correspondence in his high-minded efforts to provide men in positions of power with the models for introducing utilitarian reforms.

The Delta–MMethod: Rapid Yet Accurate Radiative Flux Calculations for Strongly Asymmetric Phase Functions

The delta–M method represents a natural extension of the recently proposed delta–Eddington approximation to all orders M of angular approximation. It relies essentially on matching the first 2M phase function moments and using a Dirac delta–function representation of forward scattering. Computed fluxes are remarkably accurate at very low orders M of approximation, even when the phase function is strongly asymmetric; thus the associated M × M matrix computations remain small and manageable. Flux is automatically conserved, making phase function “renormalization” unnecessary. Phase function truncation is effected in a much more attractive manner than in the past; furthermore, truncation tends to zero as M → ∞. Errors are shown to oscillate with (roughly) exponentially decreasing amplitude as M increases; which has the curious consequence that increasing M by small amounts does not necessarily reduce error. Mie computations associated with the δ–M method can be considerably reduced, based on a simple technique for phase function moment calculations proposed herein.

The Hyperlipoproteinemias: Detection, Diagnosis, and Management

Twenty men, 19 premenopausal and 14 postmenopausal women consumed a diet for 13 weeks that supplied 35% of the calories from fat, 50% from carbohydrate, and 15% from protein. The diet was low in cholesterol, saturated fat, and salt, and high in complex carbohydrate and fiber. The 7-day menu was composed of common well-accepted foods prepared in a simple attractive manner. Plasma total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and VLDL cholesterol were reduced, but triglyceride levels were not different than after self-selected diets. When 20% of the complex carbohydrate was replaced by simple carbohydrate and other diet components remained optimal, triglyceride and VLDL cholesterol levels increased in men and premenopausal women and total cholesterol increased in premenopausal women. These results suggest that beneficial effects on the blood lipids and lipoprotein distribution of men and women may be obtained by minimal modification of a typical U.S. diet.

Books: Where Are the Mexican Americans? A Textbook Omission Overdue for Revision

T HE publishers' representatives had arrived early, before the opening of the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians. By the time the convention officially began, the book racks, signs, and display cases were all arranged. Each publisher, from Appleton-Century-Crofts to Yale University Press, displayed its wares in a colorful and attractive manner. Most impressive were the giants of the field, the large publishers who hire prominent historians to write textbooks for them. Like a stable of Thoroughbreds, these historians are proclaimed by their publishers as the distinguished authors of the most authoritative, readable, and comprehensive writings available for the college survey course. The professor already knows much of this, because while on the plane to the convention, he has casually thumbed through the pages of ads for survey texts in the convention program: ... it does far more than give comprehensive coverage to the material . . . . It makes the material interesting for your students to read, taking a colorful biographical approach .. Chronology charts and historical debates incorporated throughout the text further contribute to your students' learning and enjoyment. ... this exciting and definitive text presents an authoritative, vividly written account of American history from early exploration to the present. Among the topics treated in detail are: the historical and current roles of minority gioups, especially blacks .... ... Continuous and enthusiastic demand . . . necessitated a new edition of this leading American history text. Updated to include the Johnson and early Nixon years, the book vividly recreates the color and excitement of the American experience.

Significance of research in cardiopulmonary disease.

TODAY MARKS the beginning of a new adventure by the American Medical Association, an adventure dedicated to the purpose of improving the caliber of its scientific program—of presenting the latest developments in the field of medicine in a more instructive and attractive manner. In order to accomplish this aim, the American Medical Association has invited the American College of Chest Physicians to join with the Section on Diseases of the Chest in preparing a one-day combined program. Should today's undertaking meet with approval, other groups will undoubtedly be invited to participate in similar efforts. It is your officers' sincere hope that the expectations so hopefully initiated will be successfully fulfilled. Progress in medicine entails a constant search for the new. We as physicians especially must support the high aims of medical research and, above all, utilize the information that it offers us. To do otherwise will inevitably weaken the enviable

General School Physics. Vol. I. Heat and Light

By R. Stone, M.A., A.Inst.P., N. Bronner, M.A., and J. Lawrence, S.J., M.A., B.Sc. London : English Universities Press Ltd. Pp. 374. Price 9s. 6d.

RURAL EXHIBITION

An Exhibition as a means of advertising new methods and wares is considered to be very useful. It really creates a sense of healthy rivalry and has served to produce very valuable results in improving the efficiency of production and the quality of the produce. It is accepted on all hands that Exhibitions are a necessary means to progress. Even the ignorant and illitrate can be educated very effectively through their sense of sight by presenting things in the most attractive manner in an exhibition. Thus an exhibition is fundamentally a means for the education of the masses.

Zoologie der Madagascar

THIS is the first of a series of useful semi-popular volumes dealing with the land of the lemurs. It is admirably illustrated and fulfils its purpose well. One of the authors clearly has an intimate personal knowledge of the mammals, the account of which occupies nearly half the work and is illustrated by 27 plates. The invertebrates are treated very briefly, for as yet they are little known. The bibliography is particularly valuable. The French know how to write such books; they select the form in which they might lecture, bringing in all necessary scientific facts, but no others, in an attractive manner.

The Exhibition of Chinese Court Robes at the Metropolitan Museum

OF the manifold categories of diverse objects which museum people have to find means to exhibit in an attractive manner, none presents such difficult problems as costumes. Some curators carry realism so far that they place the various garments they have to show upon manikins with heads and hands realistically molded in wax, but this manner of exhibiting, probably most prevalent in the Kunst-Historische type of museum, is rather posite school of costume display is to dispense entirely with the manikins, and spread-eagle the garments in the back of a case where, to be sure, the pattern and fabric can be well seen but the total effect is rather as though a steam roller had efficiently flattened a by-gone worthy whose now two-dimensional remains have been preserved for the edification of future generations. In between, there are those who accept the need methods. They are only mentioned to accent the fact that a somewhat new means for costume display has been discovered, and that the present exhibition of Chi...

The Kinematical Design of Couplings in Instrument Mechanisms

PROF. POLLARD'S monograph is a clearly written and well-illustrated little book urging the application of kinematical principles in all instrument design. The basis of his book is the well-known theorem that a rigid body has six degrees of freedom, any number of which can be annulled by an equal number of suitable kinematical constraints, neither more nor less. This singleness of purpose, together with the author's attractive manner of writing, have combined to produce a concise and readable book, which should be closely studied by all instrument designers who are not already acquainted with the principles advocated. Not the least valuable part of the book to the designer are the well-chosen examples of correctly designed instruments, which occupy actually the greater part of the book. The descriptions and illustrations of these leave nothing to be desired.

Recent Marine Biology

THE December issue of the Journal of the Marine Biological Association contains several papers of exceptional interest. One of these, by Dr. Allen and Mr. Sexton, gives a detailed account of experiments with reference to the inheritance of eye-colour in Amphipods, and in a further paper Dr. Allen presents the general results in a very attractive manner. Gam-marus chevreuxi had been maintained in the laboratory aquaria for several years, and, quite suddenly, in the third generation of a family of these animals, a striking mutation occurred. Normally the eye possesses black pigment, beneath which is chalk-white matter, but in some individuals of this family the black was replaced by red. A pure black-eyed stock which bred true for three years was mated with a red-eyed stock, which again bred true for five generations. Black behaved as dominant, and red as recessive, and the results of further breeding were in very close correspondence with Mendelian theory. Thus black hybrids carrying red were mated together, giving 4393 offspring, and 3327 of these were black and 1066 red. (The expected results are 3294 and 1098). In the course of the experiments a second mutant appeared in which there was neither black nor red pigment in the eye, but only the deeper-lying chalk-white matter. This albino condition was also transmitted in very close correspondence with expected Mendelian results. Yet a third mutant was observed, a condition in which the chalk-white pigment was absent, and this “no-white” variety behaved as a recessive to dominant white and also closely followed Mendelian laws of numbers. Thus there was a gradual loss of factors, and accompanying the process of albinism there was degeneration of the ommatidia of the eye, a tendency towards the production of such a condition as that exhibited by the various blind species of subterranean Amphipods.

The White Man's Rule 1

TO the great majority of people in this country the name Sierra Leone is nothing more than the vague geographical expression of a colony situated somewhere in Tropical Africa, once more familiarly known as the “white man apos;s grave,” and long regarded as the last resort of the hopelessly incompetent or the incurably vicious. That such a term of reproach is no longer applicable is shown in “A Transformed Colony,” by Mr. Alldridge, whose personal knowledge dates so far back as 1871. In a clear and attractive manner the author gives a description of the marvellous changes which have taken place as a result of the white man's of the Scottish rule. Situated amidst beautiful scenery, some little distance up the Rokell river, Freetown, the first settlement, now the capital and port of the colony, was originallv the dumping ground for the liberated slaves drawn from all parts of West Africa; and from this collection of motley races has grown up a curious mongrel population, bound by no family or tribal ties, speaking no language of its own, and connected onlv by the common bond of aquaint English patois, and a paternal system of English government. To this has of recent years, been added the Hinterland, peopled by numerous aboriginal tribes, each speaking its own language, preserving its own customs, and living under a more or less well-defined feudal svstem. As a result of the former conditions the Freetown creole has developed, a semi-civilised beinf with a superficial veneer of civilisation, an overwhelming mass of self-conceit, and a ludicrous capacity for imitating the less desirable qualities of the European. Never is he more happy than when, clothed in silk hat and frock coat, he struts proudly to church, the observed of all observers.On the other hand, we find the aborigine, still the untutored savage, clothed in his loin cloth and little else, carrying out his ancestral pursuits of agriculture and war, but withal more likeable and trustworthy.

Eliza Brightwen: the Life and Thoughts of a Naturalist

ALTHOUGH in no sense a scientific naturalist—and, indeed, to a great extent ignoring the work of others —Mrs. Brightwen did good service in publishing firsthand accounts of the habits of animals—both in captivity and in the wild state—and thus helping to stay the flood of rubbishy works, compiled by those who had no real knowledge of their subject, which were only too common some twenty years ago. Perhaps the most remarkable feature in her career is the fact that her first, and apparently most successful, work, “Wild Nature Won by Kindness,” was not presented to the public until its author had attained her sixtieth year. Throughout her life she had, however, devoted all her spare time to learning all that was possible about every kind of animal that came in her way, whether home or foreign, and this volume was, therefore, the result of long and close observation, and this, too, in a thorough and exhaustive manner. When it is added that this, as well as the five other volumes bearing her name, was written in a bright and attractive manner, it is little wonder that it leapt at once into popularity, and also obtained the honour of being translated into Swedish.

Das Weltgebäude, Eine gemeinverständliche, Himmelskunde

TEN years ago we read the first edition of this work with considerable satisfaction, and the examination of the second edition has been interesting, since it shows how much astronomical science has advanced in the interval, and demonstrates the necessity of frequent revision of popular text-books of this character. In some respects the work has already fallen behind—inevitable from the time required to pass such a book through the press—and though an appendix is not a convenient form for supplying the most recent information, it might have been adopted here with advantage. If we may trust the index and a very careful scrutiny of the text, there is no reference to the eighth satellite of Jupiter. On the same grounds we think that justice has not been done to the energy and success with which Prof. Hale has pursued his investigations, and the references to Sir David Gill are meagre. Altogether the revision does not seem to have been made with sufficient thoroughness; there has been too great a reluctance to sacrifice the material prepared for the earlier edition, with the result that the author has retained references to earlier work which has been superseded by the employment of larger means and greater experience. But though one may regret that in some particulars the work might be improved, it still possesses very high claims to consideration. The main facts are presented in an admirably attractive manner, leaning perhaps, where opportunity offers, to the sensational side; but nevertheless the description is trustworthy, likely to captivate the amateur, and gain recruits to the study of astronomy.

Two Books on Angling 1

IN “Salmon Fishing” Mr. Hodgson deals with the spirit, rather than the technique, of the sport. The first half-dozen chapters of the book are a series of essays on different aspects of fishing, and they are written in a most attractive manner and provide excellent reading. In the chapter on the “Elusive quarry,” for instance, the instincts, or rather whims, of the salmon are written about very pleasantly. Mr. Hodgson discusses the old question as to whether or not the salmon feeds in fresh water, and is inclined to think that when the fish rises to a fly it does so with the intention of eating. Evidence against this contention was collected a few years ago by the Scottish Fishery Board, and it was shown that the epithelium of the stomachs of salmon in fresh water was in a catarrhal condition that made digestion impossible. It is, on the whole, the simplest solution of this questisn that the salmon, when it rises to a fly, does so urged by some kind of sporting instinct.

Essai de Paléontologie Philosophique: Ouvrage faisant suite aux Enchaînements du Monde Animal dans les Temps Géologiques

THE present volume forms a supplement to Prof. Gaudry's well-known series of semi-popular treatises on Palæontology, entitled “Enchaînements du Monde Animal dans les Temps Géologiques.” In it the author has summed up most of the evidence brought forward in his previous volumes, and attempts to deduce from it a general outline of the course of the evolution of the animal kingdom from the dawn of life to the present day. Like so many French scientific writers, Prof. Gaudry possesses in an eminent degree the power of presenting the facts of his science to the general reader in a lucid and attractive manner: in this respect the book leaves nothing to be desired. If however, its arguments be examined, there is less cause for satisfaction, many of them being illogical, and giving evidence of strong bias on the part of the author. Moreover, the neglect of much of the recent literature of the subjects discussed is greatly to be regretted.

Book Reviews

MR. LYDEKKER'S capacity for book-making seems to be unlimited. Zoological science is indebted to him for the diffusion of accurate knowledge on the fowl of the air, and “every living thing that creepeth upon the earth” and moves in the sea, from the days when the icthyosaurus disported itself in the Jurassic ocean to the present enlightened age. He is not, however, a brilliant writer, and all his works possess a sameness of diction, the dead level of which becomes oppressive after a time. The volume under review is a “popular monograph,” in which the Marsupials and Monotremes are taken in order and have their characters, distribution, and habits detailed in a more or less attractive manner. These interesting mammals are dealt with one after another, and their characteristics are described in a way that strongly reminds us of the verbal expositions of the guide of a menagerie. The thirty-eight excellently coloured plates, with which the book is embellished, help to render the analogy more realistic. This monotony, however, is probably unavoidable in a work having the scope of Mr. Lydekker's handbook, and, in fairness to him, we must say that he has struck a good compromise between zoological treatises bristling with technical details, and works designed for the profoundly ignorant. It is almost unnecessary to say that the book is thoroughly up-to-date as regards recently discovered species, one of the most interesting of these being the remarkable Marsupial Mole described by Dr. Stirling a few years ago. With the exception of the matter relating to a few species, the book is founded upon Mr. Oldfield Thomas's “Catalogue of the Marsupialia and Monotremata in the Collection of the British Museum” (1888), with the addition of some notes on fossil species of these Orders. Mr. Lydekker has made an admirable and handy abridgment of this “indispensable compendium,” and his work, though stodgy in places, will well serve the purpose of a popular book of reference on Australian mammals.

Chapters on Sound, for Beginners

WE have read this little book with great pleasure. Its object, the author tells us, is to teach a few of the simpler facts in acoustics in such a way that the learner shall not be deterred by unnecessary difficulties, either in the use of technical language or in having to provide expensive apparatus. Most successfully has the author attained the end he had in view. It is just what a child's book on science should be. Written in a simple attractive manner, without any silly childishness, it conveys a great deal of information, and that in the best kind of way. For, the learner, by a series of simple experiments, is made to lay firmly the groundwork of his knowledge on this sub ject. All the apparatus the author requires is a toy fiddle, one or two small tuning-forks, a couple of finger-glasses, a clamp, a square and a round piece of glass, a gimlet, a tall jar, silk thread, and some solitaire balls. With such homely instruments really good elementary teaching is given. The chapter on strings made to vibrate in time with tuning-forks is capitally done, and will give the learner more knowledge than he could gain from many a pretentious text-book. We should like to suggest to the author a few additions to his simple experiments, but in the limits of this notice we cannot do more than direct his attention to the Instructions in practical physics given to the science teachers at South Kensington, and printed for their use by the Science and Art Department. There is of course nothing new in the way of experimental illustration in these chapters on sound; it is the good use the author has made of what has been done by others that is the merit of this little book. We gladly recommend it to all girls and boys who will honestly go through what is to be done as well as what is to be read.

Chapters on Trees: a Popular Account of their Nature and Uses The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory

WE have here a brace of books on arboriculture and floriculture, each of which will be welcomed by a certain class of readers, and will fill a useful place in popular scientific literature. Both are written in an agreeable and attractive manner, and are bound and generally got up in a style to suit the drawing-room table. The authoress of the first (or authoresses, for though two names appear on the title-page, the pronoun used is sometimes the first person singular) must not be taken too implicitly as a guide in her scientific and structural details. Many of her statements are, to say the least, very doubtful, and bear the marks of a want of acquaintance with the recent results of botanical science. Passing by this defect, we have a great deal of interesting information and gossip about a great number of our forest-trees. There are also very good descriptions, forming the best part of the book, of many other trees of great economic value with which we are not so familiar, as the ebony, the camphor, the nutmeg-tree, &c. The illustrations—one full-sized one for every tree, besides smaller ones—are, with a few exceptions, excellent.