again; but then no standard library or
closely related to cortical funneling in
ways that are not at all understood.
Von Békésy does not adopt a single
viewpoint or comprehensive theoretical position toward funneling and inhibition processes. Rather, he showsthe
advantages of a many-sided investigation
specialist researcher on Newton and
his period can afford to be without constant access to this fundamental work
of the highest caliber.
The Newton that is found in the
pages of this volume is already the
of these phenomena. The experiments
presented succeed in demonstrating
just rewards of the Principia and be-
funneling
and
inhibition
as
elder statesman of science, reaping the
proc-
ginning,
of different phenomena in a way that
reveals similarities will provide stimulating insights not only to sensory physiologists and psychologists but also to
those interested in more complex perceptual and decision processes. Von
Békésy’s research clearly fulfills the quotation from Goethe inscribed at the beginning of the book—Willst du ins
Unendliche schreiten geh nur im End-
lichen nach allen Seiten.
JacosB BECK
Department of Psychology,
University of Oregon, Eugene
Newton as an Elder Statesman
The Correspondence of Isaac Newton. Vol.
4, 1694-1709, J. F. Scort, Ed. Published
for the Royal Society by Cambridge University Press, New York, 1967. 611 pp.,
illus. $38.50.
With the publication of this fourth
volume the monumental Royal Society
edition of the correspondence of Newton has now turned the corner toward
completion of its seven volumes. It is
very fortunate that J.
F.
Scott was
available and willing to shoulder the
heavy burden of continuing the work
which had been carried so far by the
late H. W. Turnbull.
The present effort covers the years
1694-1709, and since Newton’s earliest
letters were from 1661 the four volumes represent about three-quarters of
his writing years (he died in 1709),
leaving the next three volumes to contain the last quarter of years, the undated material, and the collected indexes and scholarly machinery. This
fourth
volume,
though
only
slightly
larger in pages than its predecessors,
carries almost twice as many individual
items. As a sign of the times, in the
lapse of five years or so during the
change of editors, the price of the
volumes has jumped to half as much
1298
2
esses common to different sensory organs and to different levels of the nervous system. The research reported thus
discloses the commonality among diverse phenomena. The pulling together
seven
years
after
its
pub-
is some possibility that a group of the
Royal Society amateurs may have ac-
tually met at Newton’s house; it gives
an image far from that of the completely antisocial recluse.
Of more direct scientific interest in
this volume, apart from the already
mentioned and very extensive contributions to lunar theory, there is a fine
dissertation on the quantifying of de-
lication, to toy with the idea of extending it in a second edition. To continue his work with the fundamental
grees of heat in the temperaturescale,
lunar. theory he had need of the ob-
in the range. To speak, however, of
servations of Flamsteed; and so developed one of the most famous and
unpleasant altercations between scientists of great worth but incorrigibly
prickly character. Further m the matter of rewards, Newton was appointed
to his office at the Royal Mint, an
office which was intended as a sinecure,
but taken so conscientiously and seriously that one must credit quite a lot
of the later economic strength and se-
curity of England to the effictent re-
with
astute experimental observations
on melting points and other fixed marks
the matter of scientific content rather
than the historical information of the
letters must bring up another publication that has just started to come
forth from the Cambridge University
Press in their same superlatively competent style. The new series is that of
The Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton, of which the first of a projected
set of eight volumes has just come out,
edited by D. T. Whiteside [reviewed
in Science, 13 Oct. 1967]. Now that
Nobel prizewinner should be drafted
we have both sets of Cambridge University Press volumes begun and full
variorum edition of the Principia long
Member of Parliament, and his being
this passing of the halfway point of the
Correspondence as a signal that Newton
studies have now become very much an
excitingly successful and full-time occu-
forms and administration of Newton;
perhaps one might suggest that the next
to a similar
of Postmaster
period comes
eventful term
“sinecure” in the office
General. From the same
Newton’s absolutely unas a Whig University
knighted, though exactly why he got
these two honors still remains a rather
dark mystery.
As usual with the Newton material—
and we can expect nothing different
from the remaining volumes—there is
hardly a trace of the human being
existing within this scientist shell. Even
the tirade at Flamsteed, though vioIently angry, nevertheless maintains a
certain impersonality. Just a touch of
the triumphant mathematician may be
seen in number 561, where he copies
at length the challenge to solve the
problems of the brachistochrone as just
proposed by Bernouiili, then adds, “Thus
far Bernouilli. The solutions of the
problems are as follows. . . .” Perhaps
most importantis the interesting matter
of number 695 and number 697, where
Newton writes to Sloane to arrange for
Francis Hauksbee, well-known inventor of electrical machines and of a fine
new air pump, to bring his pump and
demonstrate the phenomena of vacuum.
Whatis interesting is that Newton suggests that Hauksbee cometo his house
where he can “get some philosophical
persons
to
see
his
Expts who
will
otherwise be difficultly got together.” It
must be supposed from this that there
promised and on its way, we may take
pation for very competent people.
DEREK J. DE SOLLA PRICE
Department of History of Science and
Medicine, Yale University,
New Haven, Connecticut
Whither Queues?
Queuing Theory: Recent Developments
and Applications. Proceedings of a NATO
Science Committee conference, Lisbon,
Sept-Oct. 1965. R. Cruon, Ed. Elsevier,
New York, 1967. 240 pp., illus. $13.50.
“Queuing theory” is a term of recent
vintage (the
1940’s) for mathematical
studies of situations producing congestion and hence delays or waiting lines
(queues). The typical mathematical
model is that of a service system in
which a stream of demandsfor service
appears before a service center with
one, Or many, servers, and either the
time epochs at which demands are
made or the service time required. or
both, have a probabilistic (stochastic)
character. With the appearance of a
flood of recent books, the study of
this model in all its many guises, elabo- ..
rations, and variations may be regarded
SCIENCE. VOL. 158