The New Physics and Its Evolution

This is one of the "International Scientific Series," and is translated from the French. It represents an attempt to pass in review all the changes that have taken place in the views of physicists, and all the principal discoveries made in physics, and its practical applications, during the past ten years. The pages of this small volume contain space far too small for the carrying through of such a feat adequately, even though the technical side of the subject is touched upon very slightly. But the principal difficulty in the accomplishment of the task the author has set himself lies in the fact that it is scarcely conceivable that a single brain can grasp all provinces of modern physics, and give expert opinions upon subjects ranging from say, modern methods of accurate measurement to chemical thermodynamics and the relations of the ether and matter. Nevertheless, on looking through the book, one has to admit that the author proves himself to be a sound scholar, possessed of exceptionally catholic taste and of a rare power of getting at the best route to the heart of many a labyrinthine subject. But though the author professes to set forth the fundamental facts of each branch of physics before discussing the modern developments of that branch, we fear that the extremely condensed form of the preliminary pabulum will prove almost completely non-nutritive to the average reader. Indeed, we think that even ardent students of physics, when they come across portions of the book dealing with branches unfamiliar to them may find these portions of but small instructiveness. Further, if the reader be a physicist and also a specialist in some technical matter, and will read carefully the part of the book touching upon his own branch of work, he may easily find various evidences of slightly imperfect grasp of proportion. The author is at his best, on the other hand, in the art of taking a broad view of some large region of theoretical physics. For example, he is excellent in the first chapter on the evolution of physics, where he convinces the reader that the torrent of modern discoveries is not revolutionary, but only evolutionary, and that to-day we add to ordered knowledge at a greater rate than did our grandfathers, only because the number of seekers has increased in all countries, while their quality has not diminished. In such vein the author very happily and very cleverly discusses many matters of wide and general interest to physicists and thus makes the book well worth perusal by all to whom physics is important. -Electrical Engineering, Volume 3 [1908]