Notices respecting New Books: Rara Mathematica, &c. 221 



water is basic; for many nitrates, hyposulphites, &c., are 

 known, the constitutional or superadded water of which can- 

 not be removedby the same agency without destroying thesalts. 



XXX. Notices respecting New Books. 



A Brief Account of the Life, Writings, and Inventions of Sib. Samuel 

 MoRLAND, Master of Mechanics to Charles the Second. 



Kara Mathematica ; or, A Collection of Treatises on the Mathe- 

 matics and subjects connected with them, from ancient inedited ma- 

 nuscripts. No. I. — Deightons, Cambridge ; Parker, London. 



THESE two works are anonymous ; but they carry with them 

 sufficient evidence of a close intimacy with the subjects to 

 which they relate. 



The little attention paid by Englishmen to the history of science 

 in England is not a new subject of reproach. Almost every human 

 pursuit has had its history investigated, its fragments published, 

 and its cultivators biographed, except science : perhaps this class 

 of researches requiring a combination of knowledge and tastes that 

 rarely go together, may be the chief cause. There is so little seem- 

 ing, so little real, fraternity between the taste for decyphering an- 

 cient manuscripts, and that for pure scientific investigation, that we 

 hail this class of publications as a real boon to the reputation of 

 England. 



Of the first of these works, it will be unnecessary to say more 

 than that it is a succinct history of the life of a man of great powers 

 of mind, whose life was marked by the usual vicissitudes of the fol- 

 lowers of a court in perilous times, and who was reduced at the 

 end of his career to penury. Attached to this, is a short and inter- 

 esting discussion of some points connected with the early history of 

 arithmetic. 



The Rara Mathematica, No. 1. contains : — 



1. Sacro-Bosco de Arte Numerandi. 



2. A Method used in England in the Fifteenth Century for taking 

 the Altitude of a Steeple or inaccessible object. 



3. A Treatise on the Numeration of Algorism; from a MS. of the 

 fourteenth century. 



4. William Bourne on Optic Glasses; written about 1580. 



5. Johannes Robyns de Cometis. 



We think it unnecessary to say one word concerning the historical 

 value of these tracts, as their importance will be at once admitted. 

 We shall, however, on a future occasion give an analysis of them, 

 and of such others as may appear in subsequent numbers ; but we 

 may here express our anticipation of their furnishing materials for a 

 decision upon some important points connected with scientific history, 

 which have been, as yet, but very vaguely discussed. 



Finally, a work like this may safely repose upon its own intrinsic 

 value, without any recommendation of ours ; and we have therefore 

 merely felt it necessary to call the attention of our readers to its ex- 



