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NATURE 



{Oct. 24, 1878 



the papers themselves, which might be added as foot- 

 notes, or incorporated in the text ; and perhaps more 

 distinction might be drawn between the longer researches, 

 or more valuable memoirs of the year, and mere passing 

 scientific observations. However, it is easier to criticise 

 than to compile a work like the one before us. Our 

 readers will form some idea of the comprehensive nature 

 of this "annual record" by the following summary of its 

 table of contents : — Astronomy, together with reports of 

 the American observatories, contributed by Mr. Holden, 

 of the United States Naval Observatory, Washington. 

 Physics of the globe, followed by general physics, 

 written by Prof. Barber, who also contributes the next 

 section on chemistry. Mineralogy by Dr. Dana, and 

 geology by Dr. Sterry Hunt. Hydrography and geo- 

 graphy follow, the geography of North America being 

 specially full. Microscopy, anthropology, zoology, and 

 botany are contributed by able men in each department. 

 'Agriculture, engineering, technology, and industrial 

 statistics are less full, and some of the abstracts given in 

 technology would, we think, have found a better place 

 under the head of physics, such, for example, as the 

 telephone, phonograph, &c. 



The observatory reports are a feature of the present 

 volume, information being given concerning \\\& personnel 

 of each observatory, its principal instruments, the subjects 

 of special observation during the past year, and those to 

 be taken up during the coming year, and lastly the 

 principal publications emanating from each observatory 

 during the past year. 



The bibliography at the end of the annual, giving the 

 list of works on science published during 1877, seems 

 most thoroughly and ably done, and so also is the index 

 to the whole volume, and the concise and useful necrology 

 of scientific workers. W. F. B. 



Choice and Chance. An Elementary Treatise on Permu- 

 tations, Combinations, and Probability. With 300 

 exercises. By W\ A. Whitworth, M.A. Third edition, 

 revised and enlarged. (Deighton, Bell and Co., Cam- 

 bridge.) 



We have all three editions before us, and so are able to 

 mark the growth of this work, which has been very con- 

 siderable. The number of pages in the last edition is ten 

 less than that of the second edition, but the volume is 

 much thicker, and much of the matter is in smaller type. 

 The work had already attained the position of a standard 

 one on the subjects of which it treats, and it maintains 

 and even improves its position in the present edition. 

 Here, even in the elementary parts are to be found many 

 propositions of great utility which are not to be met with, 

 so far as we know, in any form elsewhere. We do not 

 mean to say that they are not known to mathematicians, 

 but writers have not introduced them into the text-books. 

 Besides chapters on Permutations and Combinations, we 

 have a chapter on Distrihdion, that is the separation of a 

 series of elements into a series of classes, and one on 

 Derangements (if a series of elements have been ar- 

 ranged, or if they have a proper order of their own, and 

 we place them in some other order, we derange them). 

 Under the head of chance we have a full treatment of 

 that part of Probability which usually finds a place in alge- 

 braical treatises. Remarks " On the Disadvantages of 

 Gambling," which formed an appendix to the last 

 edition, here forms part of a chapter which also has a 

 few paragraphs to show that insurance is the reverse of 

 gambling, and discusses the effect of the repetition first 

 of a fair wager, secondly of a wager at odds, thirdly of 

 a fair wager on a scale proportioned to the speculator's 

 means, the general case of a lottery with prizes of dif- 

 ferent value, and closes with a fairly exhaustive account 

 - of the Petersburg Problem. The novelty of this edition 

 is a chapter on the geometrical representation of chances. 

 We shall hope to see this chapter considerably enlarged 



in a future edition. The whole treatment may be said 

 to assume nothing but what a well-primed algebraical 

 student should be able to master. What is much wanted 

 is a general treatise on the subject of Probability for 

 English students. Mr. Todhunter's history of the theory 

 down to the time of Laplace is a most interesting 

 and able one, but it does not fill up the gap. In this 

 branch, as in many others, we are dependent upon 

 French writers, and still must have recourse to the 

 works of Laplace, Poisson, and Liagre. 



Pine Plantations on the Sand- Wastes of France. Com- 

 piled by John Croumbie Brow.?, LL.D., &:c., &c. 

 (Edinburgh : Oliver and Boyd. London : Simpkin 

 Marshall and Co., 1878.) 



The subject of the reclamation of sand-wastes by the 

 planting of coniferous trees or of grasses, shrubs, or other 

 plants is one always of much importance. The extension 

 of pine plantations has a two-fold interest over and above 

 the primary cause of planting, namely, that arising from 

 the general improvement in the appearance of the country, 

 as the plants make growth and develop themselves into 

 goodly forms, and ^that which is more utilitarian, but 

 withal equally important — in the production of timber. 

 Anything that can be done towards reducing the desolation 

 of these French sand-wastes is a point gained not only, 

 as Dr. Brown points out, for the benefit of France her- 

 self, tut as indicating that what has been accomplished 

 there may also legitimately be expected elsewhere, " not 

 necessarily by the same means, but by means as appro- 

 priate, if they can be discovered." As will be seen from 

 the title, the book does not claim originality, it professes 

 to be a compilation, and the copious extracts, with the 

 usual inverted commas, extending often over continuous 

 pages makes this announcement unnecessary. Neverthe- 

 less a good work has been done in bringing together in 

 a convenient form a great deal of valuable matter, scat- 

 tered about in various books inaccessible for the most 

 part to readers for whom the present work is intended, 

 and amongst whom it will, no doubt, chiefly circulate ; 

 containing as it does detailed information on every 

 branch of coniferous culture, from a consideration of the 

 soils most suitable to satisfactory culture, to the collecting 

 of the resin, and other economic products, and the 

 diseases and injurious influences to which the plants are 

 subject. 



From the range of country under consideration, it will 

 be understood that the pines treated of are limited to 

 very few species, such as Pimis sylvesiris, P. maritima, 

 and P. pinaster. J. R. J. 



La Morfologia vegetate. Esposta da T. Caruel. (Pisa, 

 1878.) 



A NEW text-book of vegetable morphology, characterised 

 by freshness both in the mode of treatment and in the 

 illustrations, is an acquisition to botanical literature, even 

 though written in a language which is unfortunately not 

 familiar to most English readers. Prof. Caruel startsj 

 with the primary classification of all vegetable structures 

 into the thallus, which displays no external differentiation, 

 and the cormus, consisting of a central stipes (caulome), to 

 which are attached appendages (phyllomes) more or less 

 differing from the stipes. Under the head of the thallua 

 he then discusses propaguli (of Muscineae), conidia, spo- 

 ridia (including zoospores), sporules (or spores, properly 

 so-called), the pollen, and phytozoa (or spermatozoids). 

 The general description of the cormus leads to an account 

 of the various special forms which it assumes, viz., to 

 the morphology of flowering plants and vascular crypto- 

 gams ; and to the various modes of the reproduction of 

 cormophytes by a process of impregnation, that is, the 

 union of the contents of two dissimilar cells. Finally, 

 Prof. Caruel discusses the various subjects connected 

 with the genesis of species, and concludes with the 



