120 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in fact, were, as they ought to be, aids to 

 the proper end of the teacher. The best 

 proof of this was the number of individual 

 minds that were stimulated to a scientific 

 or intellectual career by the study of the 

 work. The hearty testimony borne by 

 Herschel and Whewell to the merits of the 

 ' Physics,' scientific as well as expository, 

 was incompatible with any infusion of clap- 

 trap. 



"It would be easy to set forth the art, 

 or rather the genius, of Arnott, in the com- 

 position of his book. He had great liter- 

 ary power, in the mere command of expres- 

 sion, and in the composition of his sen- 

 tences, which are both lucid and flowing. 

 Many scientific writers have had this much. 

 But he had also a thorough and unfaltering 

 perception of the intellectual capabilities of 

 an average reader, and never for a moment 

 presumed too much upon these. He la- 

 bored, with no small success, to bring the 

 doctrines of natural philosophy down to a 

 level of mind that had never before been 

 permeated by them ; and, if any part of 

 the subject was hopelessly intractable, he 

 passed it by. 



" Besides his amassed store of popular 

 illustrations, stated in easy language, the 

 work had the further charm of a species of 

 sentiment or eloquence, often enough at- 

 tempted in connection with science, but not 

 often so well kept up. The author fully 

 complied with Plato's condition of philo- 

 sophical teaching to exhibit the goodness 

 of the divine plan of the Cosmos. His elo- 

 quent passages on this subject, together 

 with his choicest illustrations of physical 

 laws, were largely adopted into the com- 

 mon-school reading-books. 



" The new editors have shown them- 

 selves aware of the backward state of the 

 exposition in many parts, and have freely 

 employed the power of excision and sub- 

 stitution. We should say, from a rough 

 estimate, that a full half of the work is 

 new. In the branches of Acoustics, Heat, 

 Light, and Electricity, many additions were 

 obviously necessary. In Mechanics, there 

 has been more permanence, and Arnott's 

 exposition is less interfered with ; but it 

 was essential to supplement his chapter on 

 Motion and Force with a view of the doc- 

 trine of conservation of energy, which the 



author would have been delighted to han- 

 dle in his own peculiar way, but scarcely 

 touched upon even in his latest edition. 

 However the work of revision may have 

 been distributed among the three editors, 

 they have been successful in bringing up 

 the subjects to the most recent views, and" 

 in illustrating them by well-chosen examples 

 and diagrams. The work is one likely to 

 keep its place among treatises on a similar 

 scale. Extending to nearly 900 pages, it 

 comprises a tolerably full body of informa- 

 tion in all the branches, while the reader 

 has still the benefit of the expository genius 

 and eloquence that charmed and astonished 

 the world forty years ago, and has not yet 

 been superseded." 



PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



Proceedings of the Thirty-second Annual 

 MeetiDg of the New York State Teachers' Asso- 

 ciation. 187ti. School BuUeUii, Syracuse, N. Y. 

 Pp. 119. 



On the Atmosphere of the Sun and Planets. 

 By David Trowbridge, A. M. 1876. Pp. 7. 



The Relations of Medicine to Modem Unbe- 

 lief. By Richard O. Cowling, A. M., M. D. Lou- 

 isville ; John P. Morton & Co. print. 1876. Pp. 

 11. 



Report of the Committee on Naval Affairs to 

 the House of Representaiives on a Bill to author- 

 ize and equip an Expedition to the Arctic Seas. 

 Pp. 13. 



Proceedings of the American Chemical So- 

 ciety. Vol. I., No. 2. J. P. Trow & Sons print. 



1876. Pp. 49. 



The Western Revieiv of Science and Indus- 

 try. Edited by Theodore S. Case. February, 



1877. Vol. I., No. 1. Kansas City, Mo. Sub- 

 scription, $2.50 per annum. 



Milk- Sickness. By W. H. Philips, M. D. 

 Pp. 21. 



Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Managers 

 of the House of Refuge, made to the Govern- 

 or of Maryland. Baltimore : Innes & Co. print. 

 1877. Pp. 28. 



Check -List of the Fresh -Water Fishes of 

 North America. By David S. Jordan, M. S., M. D., 

 and Herbert B. Copeland, M. S. Pp. 31. 



Rate of Set of Metals subjected to Strain. By 

 Prof. Robert H. Thurston. Pp. 10. 



Am I my Brother's Keeper ? Discourse be- 

 fore the American Public Health Association, at 

 the Annual.Meeting in Baltimore, November 11, 

 1875. By Lewis H.'Steiner, M. D. Cambridge: 

 Riverside Press print. Pp. 11. 



Kindergarten Messenger. Published by Eliz- 

 abeth P. Peabody. Cambridge, 1877. Vol. I., 

 Nos. 1 and 2. Pp. 32. Subscription, $1 a year. 



Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History. Vol. XVIIL, Part IV., ApriWuly, 1876. 

 Boston. Pp. 103. 



Seventh Annual Report of the Commissioners 

 of Fisheries of the State of New Jersey. Tren- 

 ton : J. L. Murphy print. Pp. 42. 



Geocrraphical Surveys of the United States. 

 Remarks on Prof. J. D. Whitney's Article in 

 the North AmeHcan Review, July, 1875. By 

 Gouverneur K. Warren. Washington: Judd & 

 Detweiler print. 1877. Pp. 28. 



