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COLLECTED PHYSICAL PAPERS. By Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose. (Longmans. 10s.)—Professor Bose has of recent years been much before the public in connexion with his work on the response of plants to various stimuli,' but his early scientific work lay in the field of pure physics: He started his researches at the time when men like Sir Oliver Lodge were obtaining striking results with the newly discovered " wireless " waves, and he turned his attention to the produc- tion of very short electromagnetic waves. He succeeded in producing wave-lengths of about one inch, with the result that all the apparatus needed to demonstrate the properties of the waves could be very much reduced in size. Consequently, he was able to verify the fact that the waves produced by electric oscillators have the properties of ordinary light waves in somewhat more detail than had previously been possible. In the Collected Physical Papers now published he reprints all the early papers on electric waves, as well as a general address on the same subject delivered at the Royal Institution. The papers are mostly short and lively, and bear witness to great experimental ingenuity. The book also contains papers giving an account of many of Professor Bose's extraordinarily sensitive recorders, used by him in his demonstrations of plant movements. The results are obtained with very simple means, supplemented by great dexterity. It will be a great convenience to those who wish to consult these papers to have them collected in one volume. The illustrations are, in many eases, poor, but as the book is sold at a low price for a work of this kind, one must not complain tol much.
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