44 Jcetunt ef B«tks.'^$ter4«type Printing, 



Contributions to Phyfical and Medical Knowledge, principally from the Weft of England, 

 Collefted by Thomas Beddocs, M.D. odavo, 539 pages. Briftol, printed for Longman 

 and Rees, London. 

 I received this work too late in the month to give it that attentive perufal which is requifite 



to enable me to give an account of its contents. The reader has already feen an extradl in the 



prefent number. 



Tables Portat'tves de Logarithms, fcfc. or Portable Tables of Logarithms ; containing the 

 logarithms of numbers, from i to 108,000; the logarithms of fines and tangents for every 

 ffcond in the 'firft five degrees, and for every ten feconds of the remaining degrees of the 

 quadrant ; and alfo for every ten-thoufandth part of the arc, according to the new centefimal 

 divifions of the quadrant (to feven decimal places) : with a preliminary difcourfe on the explication, 

 ufe, and fummation of logarithms, and their application to aftronomy, navigation, pradlical geo- 

 metry, and the computation of intereft : to which are added, a table of logiftic logarithms, 

 with other tables of ufe for computing the longitude at fea. By Francis Callet, ftereotype edi- 

 tion; engraved, call, and printed by Firmin Didot, 1795, in the third republican year. Sold 

 at Paris by Didot, price 14 livres, and in London by Taylor and De BofFe, price 18s. 



In addition to the acceptable information to men of fciencc, that a good edition of this ufe- 

 ful work is at prefent to be had, I (hall take this opportunity of noticing the flereotype me- 

 thod of printing, which Didot has purfued with much fpirit, and with the advantage, as I un- 

 derftand, of fupport from the French government in thefe tables. The term ftereotype is de- 

 rived from the words s-;pjof , firmus, rvnogt riota ; doubtlefs on account of the immutable con- 

 nedion between all the parts of the form from which the impreflion is to be given. I have 

 not heard what may be the peculiarities of the method of Didot, for every ingenious man will 

 make his improvements in the art he undertakes to carry into efFeQ ; but I fcarcely need take 

 notice to thofe who are acquainted with printing, that the projed of foldering a whole form 

 together, or of cafting a new form from an impreflion made by a general fyftem of types, or 

 page ready compofed, i^ not in itfelf new. Rochon mentions * the Salluft of Ged, under the 

 title, C. Crifpi Salujlii Catilinarii & yugurthini Hijioria^ Edinburgi, Gulll. Ged, Auri Faber 

 edinenfis non typ'ts mobilibus ut vulgo fieri filet, fed tabcll'is feu laminis fufis excudebat, 1744, in 

 i6nv). which, he fays, is well printed, and perfectly fimilar to a book printed with moveable 

 types. Didot now, it feems, follows the fame procefs as Ged, that is to fay, he cafts 

 plates from which he afterwards makes his imprefllons ; but the logarithms are from foldered 

 types. The advantage of Ged's method is, that only a few original types, comparatively 

 fpeaking, are neceflary to form the page, which is to ferve as the pattern for the fub- 

 fequent cafts; that thefe cafts or plates, fetting the type at liberty to be again ufed in 

 other works, may be preferved for the purpofe of printing as many impreffions of the 

 work as may afterwards be wanted ; that the rifle of any greater number of impreflions 

 than the public may adlually caH for, is, by this invention, done away, and that even the 



* Journal'de Phyfique, IV. Dr. S. 364. See alfo Profeffor Wilfon's paper in PhiloC Journal, 11,000. 



plates 



