180 NATURE FEBRUARY 14, 1942, VOL. 149 ROGER JOSEPH BOSCOVICH hero, it may have been wise. In truth, Boscovich seems to have been spoilt by success in early life. Roger Boscovich, S.J. ( 1711-1787) His character was warped by vanity, egotism and Forerunner of Modern Physical Theories. By H. V. petulance ; finally, disappointed with the measure of Gill. Pp. xviii+76. (Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, appreciation which came to him, he became the prey Ltd., 1941.) 7s. 6d. of melancholy and before his death sank into fits of HOUGH the author speaks (p. 64) of "Newton madness. R everting to the practice of an earlier age, T and other scientists of the time, including Boscovich wrote a long work, "De Solis et Lunro Boscovich" as though they were roughly contem• Defectibus", a synopsis of in verse, which porary, this is clearly misleading; for Newton was Delambre described as uninstructive to an nearly seventy when Boscovich was born at and unintelligible to anybody else. It is hard without (Ragusa) in Dalmatia. This means that one was proof to accept the legend of greatness. In some a man of the seventeenth, the other of the eighteenth ways Boscovich seems a survival from an age long century. Similarly, when at the outset of his "Theoria past rather than a forward­looking man of the Philosophiae Naturalis", Boscovich asserts that his eighteenth century. For that century had its really own system is midway between that of Leibniz and great men, and Boscovich can scarcely be reckoned that of Newton, it may be suspected that this is of their company. H. C. PLUMMER. true in the sense that, but for the of dates, both would have expressed equal disagreement with his ideas. It is, in fact, hard to understand what he NEWTONIAN ATTRACTION did mean, for the particles of his system never came into mutual contact and they are not subject to the An Introduction to the Theory of Newtonian action of a surrounding m edium. Yet Boscovich Attraction emphatically denied the possibility of action at a By A. S. Ramsey. Pp. ix+l84. (Cambridge: At distance. the University Press, 1940.) lOs. 6d. net. In spite of this inconsistency in his natural HE preface states that this book was written at philosophy, Boscovich was a voluminous writer who T the suggestion of some students who were achieved a considerable reputation in his lifetime and unable to find a book on the subject suitable ·for even now cannot be dismissed altogether lightly. In their requirements. The seven chapters deal with order to understand these facts it is necessary to preliminary ; gravitational attraction have a clear account of the physical theory which and potential, simple applications ; attraction and Boscovich developed. But the present small work potential internal points, spheres ; theorems of La• scarcely touches the history or explains why the place, Poisson and Gauss, general theory ; Green's theory took the shape it did, or in what way it was theorem; harmonic functions; attract,ion of ellipsoids. founded on the contemplation of experimental facts. In writing an account of a branch of applied In the absence of this background the system seems mathematics in which the subject­matter has long purely intuitive and to owe its power of adaptation since been stabilized, an author can still choose his to later problems to good fortune rather than to method of presentation, and it is interesting to see intrinsic merit. that in the first chapter the reader is introduced to Indeed the origin of this eighteenth century system vector methods. With the vector notation estab• seems to have been in the main metaphysical. Its lished, one rather re !fets that the matter is not greatest influence was exercised in Great Britain, and pushed to a conclusion with the introduction of particularly in Scotland. In this way it came to the Gauss's general theorem in the symbolic form attention of Lord Kelvin, who fou,nd a use for it in his later work on elasticity and molecular . j n X dS = j V X dv Similarly J. J. Thomson, when presented with the puzzling properties of his newly discovered electron, for t.he relation between surface and volume integrals. had recourse to the ideas of Boscovich. Now again From this form flow the various pa rticular cases of Fr. Gill recalls the Boscovichian corpuscle and sets this theorem and Green's theorem. There is the it to the task of explaining the interference and added advantage that the emphasis is thus laid on diffraction of light, the Bohr atom and even wave a statement which is of general application to mechanics in a primitive form. More than this, potential theory whether in gravitation, electricity, Boscovich had some clear ideas of the principle of magnetism, or hydrodynamics. Indeed, the student relativity as it involves the perception of scale and of any one of these subjects is seldom forcibly pre• orientation. His view of space and time was interest• sented with a clear picture showing how much ing, though clearly derived to a great extent from belongs simply to general mathematics and how t he Newtonian theory of fluxions. much to the particular subject which he is studying. The Boscovichian particle is an infinitesimal centre Gauss's normal induction theorem and Poisson's surrounded by a field of which is alternately equation may be cited as instancE's. an attraction and a repulsion at different close The book as a whole is intended for students distances, ultimately becoming a positive attraction taking an honours course, but the needs of the of the normal gravitational type. Further than this student reading for a pass degree are not forgotten. the nature of the particle is undefined, and so it The author writes with the clarity and flair for makes a capital plaything for the . But exposition to which readers of his other text­books more is wanted to establish a scientific reputation are accustomed. There are numerous examplE's at on a sound foundation, and contacts with the past the end of each chapter, many taken from Cambridge are even more important than contacts with the and papers, the easier examples being future. divided from the more difficult. The book completes Hence it may be regretted that here so slight a the series on mechanics which the author has pro• sketch of the life and character of Boscovich has been duced in recent years and takes a worthy place included. Yet, if the object was to present a scientific among them. L. M. MILNE­THOMSON.

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