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IT is difficult to select any other vocation into which so many branches of science enter as mining. Some subjects which originally were thought to be parts of mining are now complete courses of study in themselves, and there are many subjects necessarily grouped together to form a complete training for a would-be mining engineer, including a part of each one of the subjects with drawn. Formerly, it was the fashion for writers of text-books on mining to try to give a comprehensive view of the subject as a whole, but such has been the growth of knowledge and inquiry in this direction, that it is now impossible to give more than a very elementary view in a single volume. The Working of Coal and other Stratified Minerals. By H. F. Bulman. (Bonn's Mining Series.) Pp. 338. (London: Ernest Benn, Ltd., 1927.) 42s. net.

IN his history of ethnological theory, Prof. Lowie gives a survey of the course of progress in the theoretical study of culture and of the growth of knowledge through the improvement of technique for gathering the requisite information. For these his wide knowledge of the literature of the subject and his critical detachment render him peculiarly well fitted, and he has done so in a most interesting manner. Although the history covers a period of some hundred years, it records the infancy and adolescence of a new branch of learning which only now is attaining recognized scientific status. The History of Ethnological Theory By Prof. Robert H. Lowie. Pp. xiii + 296. (London: G. Harrap and Co., Ltd., 1937.) 10s. 6d. net.

IN a discussion of yeast taxonomy from a biochemical point of view, Barnett1 made some valuable suggestions for its improvement. These emphasized : (1) the possibility that each group of yeasts may require its own particular set of biochemical tests ; (2) that many of the biochemical tests now used in yeast taxonomy are of dubious value ; (3) that our present understanding of the diverse biochemical processes carried out by these organisms is often very inadequate. The author accepted the view that taxonomy should embody a synthesis of results from various fields of inquiry, and that the progressive growth of knowledge necessarily renders any system of classification impermanent.

Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Edited by Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave. (Proceedings of the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science, London, September 1970.) £3.50 boards; £1.00 paper.