Abstract
TO attempt to write the history of any virile institution, covering three-quarters of a century, in some 13,000 words is to accept very grave limitations in respect of mode of presentation and depth of treatment: when the institution in question happens to be the Cavendish Laboratory there is the added difficulty that the whole subject is one with which the general reader is sadly unfamiliar. For it must be supposed that the slim volume under review is addressed to the general reader. - Yet the intelligent non-specialist will derive some solid benefit from pondering Dr. Wood's pleasant but essentially sober account. He may not sense the rare atmosphere of the place, which has been the inspiration of so much that has been important for the advancement of knowledge over the last fifty years, nor catch the excitement of discovery which so often has flared to fever-heat within the once drab walls ; but he will have a record of development from which certain facts emerge which repay consideration.
The Cavendish Laboratory
By Dr. Alexander Wood. Pp. 59 + 8 plates. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1946.) 2s. 6d. net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
FEATHER, N. The Cavendish Laboratory. Nature 157, 857 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157857a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157857a0