Abstract
TILL the publication of Hummel's “Leben der Erde” there were scarcely any popular scientific works published in Germany, which may seem strange, seeing that that country has claimed, probably with justice, the intellectual leadership of the world for many years past. It is possible there is less need for popularising the results of science in Germany than in England and France, seeing that the German system of education is so thorough and comprehensive. Germans also have a greater tendency to go about everything in a systematic way; and this is shown with great force and clearness by Mr. Matthew Arnold to be especially the case in their educational organisation, which discourages the acquirement of knowledge in an irregular and haphazard way. In this country again, as well as in France, “the people” generally make their first acquaintance with subjects in which the German people are grounded when at school, long after they have left school from popular scientific treatises. These two works are constructed on somewhat the same plan as the well-known French works of Flammarion, Guillemin, and Reclus, and appear to us to be well and often eloquently written, and so far as we have been able to test them, are accurate and wonderfully full. In the second the authors aim at giving every-day illustrations of physical and chemical laws, and at showing their practical and economical bearings. They divide it into four sections:—1. General phenomena of motion as applied to solid, liquid, and æriform bodies. 2. Sound, light, and heat. 3. Magnetic and electric phenomena. 4. Chemical phenomena. Hummel's Leben den Erde, we should think, would be the more popular of the two, both from the subjects treated of, the greater picturesqueness of language, and the greater abundance and attractiveness of the illustrations, some of which are very fine, though on the whole, not so well executed as such illustrations generally are in corresponding English and French works. He endeavours to show the relation of the earth to other heavenly bodies, gives its geological history, describes its physical geography, including the phenomena of land, water, and air, and concludes with a very eloquent account of the organic life of the earth. On the whole, both works seem to us very creditable to their authors.
Das Leben der Erde.
Blicke in ihre Geschichte, nebst Darstellung der wichtigsten und interessantesten Frazen ihres Natur-und Kulturlebens. Ein Volksbuch von A. Hummel. (Leipzig: Verlag von Friedrich Fleischer, 1872).
Physikalische und chemische Unterhaltungen.
Ein Volksbuch von Dr. Otto Ule und A. Hummel. (Leipzig: Verlag von Friedrich Fleischer, 1873.)
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 8, 44 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008044b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008044b0