380 Notices of Books. [July, 
even to an ordinary reader. The work is turned out with the 
neatness characteristic of extreme care and of a knowledge of 
the subject intimate in the highest degree. 
The next volume we have the pleasure to notice is that by Mr. 
Merrifield, the subject being the eminently useful one of technical 
arithmetic. Technical arithmetic has been, till within the last 
few years, a very misty affair, the operations being carried on 
mostly by rule of thumb. ‘This has decidedly not been for the 
want of published works on the subject, but arises simply from 
continually treading the same path—rules not principles have 
been inculcated. Mr. Merrifield reverses the order of things, 
and teaches principles, leaving the deduction of rules to follow 
in course. Nowhere is this more evident than in the extraction 
of roots, a simple formula for the uth root being given, and which 
can be easily remembered. Be it in the treatment of contracted 
methods of working the ordinary rules, or in elucidating the 
principles of solids of revolution, the arithmetic is the best we 
have seen. 
Natural Philosophy for General Readers and Young Persons. 
Translated and Edited from Ganot’s ‘“‘Cours Elémentaire de 
Physique.” By E. Atkinson, Ph.D., F.C.S., Professor of 
Experimental Science in the Staff College. London: 
Longmans and Co. 1872. 
Dr. ATKINSON’s translation of Ganot’s ‘‘Eléments de Physique,” 
the fifth edition of which we recently noticed, is better suited to 
more advanced pupils, who are capable of mastering the mathe- 
matical formule it contains. The present work is elementary 
and abridged of all matter likely to prove too difficult for the 
junior student. It must be understood that it is not a smaller 
edition of the ‘‘ Elementary Treatise on Physics,” but a transla- 
tion of Ganot’s ‘‘Cours Elémentaire de Physique,” a text-book 
very extensively circulated in France. Dr. Atkinson has made 
many additions, and at all times very happily. The illustrations 
are highly praiseworthy ; they are far from resembling the linear 
sketches with which many of our school-books are disfigured, 
and, indeed, in some instances, are pretty little views. The 
letterpress is clear. The work is well calculated to take its stand 
as a text-book of physics for the middle and upper classes of 
boys’ and of girls’ schools, and as a familiar account of physical 
phenomena and laws for the general reader. It will form an 
admirable hand-book for students studying to matriculate in the 
London University. 
A Manual of Chemical Physiology, including its Points of Contact 
with Pathology. ByJ.L.W.TxHupicnum, M.D. London: 
Longmans and Co. 1872. 
In Dr. Thudichum’s experience as a teacher, the printed notes 
to his ‘Researches Intended to Promote an Improved Chemical 
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