(1)Faculté des Sciences de Paris: Cours d'astronomie (2)Trattato di astronomia siderale

Abstract

THE problems presented by the need for specialisation in science have been evident long enough to become a commonplace, but recent years have seen them grow rapidly more acute and insistent. In physics, for example, the yawning gulf grows daily more apparent, and, by a curious paradox, the more desperate the efforts made to find a unifying scheme for all physical phenomena, the more extravagant and impossible become the demands on a single mind attempting to cope with all the problems of the subject. How a man like the late Lord Rayleigh, if spared beyond the allotted span, would have kept abreast of modern developments, is uncertain, though he would doubtless have found some way of doing so. What seems quite clear is that, without going outside the familiar range of his own thought, he could have continued to enrich the science by invaluable contributions of characteristic quality. As new fields are added, the old do not become less worthy of cultivation. The danger of neglect must be avoided, even by recognising the need for distinct classes among the husbandmen.

(1) Faculté des Sciences de Paris: Cours d'astronomie.

Tome 3: Astrophysique. Par Prof. Jean Bosler. Pp. v + 723 + 47 planches. (Paris: Hermann et Cie, 1928.) 140 francs.

(2) Trattato di astronomia siderale.

Per Prof. Giuseppe Armellini. Vol. 1: Parte generale. Pp. xi + 94.(Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1928.) 85 lire.