504 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Aside from these criticisms, the general scope of the volume is excellent. 

 Would that there were more equally comprehensive ones on other branches 

 of radio work ! 



Philip R, Course y. 



MISCELLANEOITS 



Archimedes. By Sir Thomas Heath, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., F.R.S., Sc.D. 

 Men of Science Series, edited by S. Chapman, F.R.S. [Pp. 58.] 

 (London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. New York : 

 The Macmillan Co., 1920. Price is. net paper ; is. net cloth.) 



Sir Thomas Heath and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge are 

 to be congratulated on the publication of this very able little work. No 

 branch of history is really more edifying and interesting than the history of 

 mathematics ; and when we reach a (still) higher stage of civilisation men will 

 recognise this fact. The advance of mathematics is probably coincident with 

 the advance of human intelligence — when the former ceases, the latter is 

 probably temporarily in decline. Actual science is nothing but reasoning 

 based on measurements, and is, therefore, essentially mathematical ; and 

 until it becomes mathematical it is only sub-science — though this is not 

 nothing. 



Histories of mathematics are apt to be too cursory to be really useful. 

 This small work is so ably done that it describes not only the results of 

 Archimedes but exactly how he reached them. Undoubtedly he was the 

 culminating man of science of the ancient civiUsation of Europe — and Newton 

 was perhaps the only other man of science who can be classed with him. It 

 is wonderful to note how nearly Arcliimedes came to the Calculus. The 

 proposition regarding the area of a triangle in terms of the sides was his, 

 and not Heron's, as usually stated. (By the way, Heron's name is not in 

 the chronology at the end of the book, nor is that of Claudius Ptolemaeus, of 

 Alexandria, nor those of several others.) Without using a single figure, Sir 

 Thomas Heath gives perfectly lucid demonstrations of all Archimedes' pro- 

 positions which he deals with. 



We noticed some time ago the same author's admirable Euclid in Greek 

 (Cambridge University Press, 1920). Like the work mentioned above, it 

 not only fulfils the promise of its title but also delights us with a lucid history 

 of ancient geometry. As the author says, there is no subject " better cal- 

 culated than the fundamentals of geometry to make the schoolboy (or the 

 grown man) think." 



Handbook of Metallurgy. By Prof. Carl Schnabel. Translated by 

 Prof. Henry Louis. Third Edition, revised by the translator. 

 Vol. I: Copper — Lead — Silver — Gold. [Pp. xxi -f- 1171. with 705 

 figures.] (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1921. Price 40s, net.) 



Prof. Carl Schnabel's Handbook of Metallurgy, through its translation 

 by Prof. Henry Louis, is well known to EngHsh metallurgists, and the 

 third edition, which is now issued, is certain of a favourable reception. It is 

 not, as in former cases, simply a translation, but a revision carried out entirely 

 by Prof. Louis himself ; because, as he points out, the chief recent 

 advances in metallurgical practice having taken place in English-speaking 

 countries, there was no reason to wait for the publication of the third German 

 edition. The matter added by Prof. Louis is of distinct value and in 

 every way excellent, with the result that this book is a marked improvement 

 on previous editions. 



The first volume, which has now been published, consists of four parts 

 covering the metallurgy of copper, lead, silver, gold. The first, on copper. 



