To summarize modern science_ in a single small volume is
the 'aim of Mr.- J. G. Crowther in An Outline' of the Universe (Kegan Paul, 12s. 6d.). He modestly describes his book as ".an essay in scientific journalism.,"1 We regret that his con- ception of journalism permits him to hold that accuracy of fact is desirable but less important than accuracy of atme- sphere." This is- a poor excuse for telling us on one page that' the diameter of Canopus is one-tenth that of sun, :and on the next that Canopus is large enough to contain the whole orbit of Venus. Mr. Crowther informs us that the crust of the, earth is of the order 30 miles thick—" that is about 40,000 feet." He assures-us that "the points oil the hub -of a-wheel' Obviously 4nove more quickly than those on the spokes."-, Einstein, according to Mr. Crowther, " is not a mathematician of the highest order" ; but he could probably have done better than this. The atmosphere of Mr. Crowther's book lacks kcidity in-such a sentence as this : " If the planet, which has been named Pluto, is both smaller than the Earth and six times as massive, it must be twenty or so .times as dense as water, which makes one wonder what it is made-of, for in that: case it would be fifty or a hundred times denser than water, and material of that-density is quite unknown at the low tem- perature of the planets." This may be journalism--7of .a kind. --but it is not scientific.
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