SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, 



565 



remainder of the book is taken up by a con- 

 sideration of the national code of rules for 

 electric wiring. This code, which has gradu- 

 ally been molded into its present shape by 

 the underwriters, is now generally accepted 

 by the best electrical companies. It is the 

 result of a careful study of past accidents 

 due to faulty wiring, and much experi- 

 mental work with the various insulators and 

 electric appliances. As the rules are neces- 

 sarily short and contain many technical 

 terms, Mr. Robb has, where necessary, de- 

 fined the terms, and after each rule has 

 stated the reasons for it. The book is well 

 conceived, and should find a large field of 

 usefulness especially among architects, who, 

 as the author says, are not nearly so well 

 up in electrical matters as they should be. 



The essay for which a prize of five hun- 

 dred dollars from the Henry M. Phillips 

 fund was awarded by the American Philo- 

 sophical Society in 1896 has been printed in 

 the Proceedings of the Society. Its subject 

 is The Theory of the State, and the writer 

 is George H. Smith, of Los Angeles. Mr. 

 Smith makes four chief divisions of his dis- 

 cussion, namely, (1) the nature of the state, 

 (2) its functions, (3) its rights or rightful 

 powers, and (4) the principles that should 

 govern its political organization. In an in- 

 troductory chapter he criticises the doctrine 

 of absolute sovereignty as generally received 

 in modern times, which he regards as stand- 

 ing in the way of an intelligent investigation 

 of his subject. After discussing other defini- 

 tions of the state he defines it as " an autono- 

 mous society of men," and proceeds to treat 

 of the functions of such an organization. 

 The rights or just powers of the state he 

 treats as a subdivision of jurisprudence, 

 using this word to mean the whole science 

 of right. In his final chapter he deals with 

 the principles of political organization, de- 

 scribing the several kinds of government, 

 and discussing the principles that should gov- 

 ern the distribution of the sovereign powers. 



The Elementary Treatise on Electricity 

 and Magnetism, by G. C. Foster and E. At- 

 kinson (Longmans, $2.25), affords a sub- 

 stantial college course in its subject. The 

 work is a translation, considerably modified 

 with the consent of the author, of Joubert's 

 Traite EUtnentaire d^Electricite. A notable 



departure from the original consists in the 

 introduction of that view of the nature of 

 electrical phenomena which was originated 

 by Faraday and developed by Maxwell. This 

 has involved keeping in view throughout the 

 volume the dual character of electrification 

 and emphasizing the essential part played in 

 familiar electrical phenomena by the dielectric 

 medium in which they occur. On the same 

 account the idea of lines and tubes of force 

 has been early introduced, and charge, capac- 

 ity, and energy are spoken of as belonging to 

 the electric field as a whole, rather than to 

 the conductors which bound it. The work is 

 almost exclusively devoted to the laws and 

 principles of the science, giving but little at- 

 tention to applications and none to history, 

 and nearly all of its three hundred and 

 eighty-one illustrations are cuts of laboratory 

 apparatus or diagrams. The authors have 

 made more use of mathematical reasoning 

 than M. Joubert did, so that processes of 

 calculation by the aid of formulas appear in 

 every chapter. 



It would seem possible to select a labora- 

 tory manual of chemistry suitable for almost 

 any class from among those now published. 

 One recently prepared by Prof. Edward H. 

 Keiser, of Bryn Mawr (American Book Com- 

 pany, 50 cents), furnishes a list of two hun- 

 dred and sixty-eight elementary expei'imenta 

 illustrating the properties of the common ele- 

 ments and the chief laws of chemical action. 

 Certain of these experiments, designated Lab- 

 oratory Demonstrations, are intended to be 

 performed only by one or two of the more 

 skillful students in the presence of the whole 

 class. Questions are interspersed with the 

 directions, some of which can be answered 

 from the observations made on the experi- 

 ments, and the rest from the text-book or 

 lectures that will accompany the manual. 



Mr. Arthur H. Hiorns, who is the author 

 of several books on related subjects, has now 

 written Principles of Metallurgy, a some- 

 what more advanced work than his Ele- 

 mentary Metallurgy, and containing new 

 methods that have been introduced in recent 

 years (Macmillan, $1.60). The arrangement 

 of the matter is thus outlined in the pref- 

 ace : " The physical properties of the metals 

 are considered first ; then the chemical prin- 

 ciples involved in the various processes are 



