2l8 



NATURE 



\7an. 5, 



Units," but it seems to us that too much importance is 

 commonly given to the well-known table of dimensions. 

 Without very full and very clear explanations of the whole 

 subject (and these are not to be found in the book before 

 us), the table and the remarks given in connection with it 

 are worse than useless ; they only serve to confuse an 

 intelligent pupil whose own common-sense will carry him 

 safely through any calculation which he can be reasonably 

 expected to make. 



We cannot avoid calling attention, before closing this 

 notice, to some most painful defects in style, because it 

 is, we are of opinion, of the utmost importance that 

 students should be trained from the very beginning to 

 write and speak with due respect to ordinary proprieties 

 of literary composition. It is not to the faults of English 

 grammar and to uncouthness of language that we would 

 call attention most particularly, though- such faults 

 abound. Thus, on p. i6 the student is recommended to 

 "puzzle this out"; and on p. 72 we find the following 

 sentence : — 



" There ivill be a fall of potential, or an electrical hill, 

 from this body A down to the walls, &c. [sic). Such was 

 the case if only we change the sign of the charge in 

 Chapter IV. § 14." 



On p. 248 we find the following : — 



" Failure of a Smee's Cell to decompose Water. — If the 

 back E.M.F. e of an electrolytic cell would be greater than 

 the E.M.F. E of the battery, then such a battery will 

 fail to drive a current through, and decompose, such 

 a cell." 



The worst fault in style is, however, the introduction, 

 on every page of the book, often in every line, of contrac- 

 tions of all sorts. Thus we have, through the whole of 

 the electro-static part, ■\- and - for " positive " and 

 " negative " ; and we have bodies " +ly electrified " and 

 "-ly electrified." Throughout the electro-chemical part 

 we scarcely once have hydrogen, or zinc, or sulphuric 

 acid mentioned by name, but always H, Zn, and H2SO4. 

 This becomes confusing, to say the least, when the 

 author is dealing with the " Connection between E.M.F.'s 

 and ' Heats of Combination.'' " Here, " if we represent by 

 by H^n the heat in calories evolved by the solution of 

 I gramme of Zn in dilute H2SO4, then H^n is called the 

 heat of combination of zinc with dilute H2SO4." 



Worse, perhaps, is the use of " AV " and " the algebraic 

 sum of the different AV's " where " AV " stands for the 

 words " difference of potentials." This is done every- 

 where throughout the first part of the book ; and by and 

 by, when we are introduced to AV's producing E.M.F.'s, 

 and to " Thomson and Peltier E.M.F.'s," human patience 

 absolutely fails. In the list of abbreviations we are told 

 that a second of time is denoted by i" "sometimes." 

 It ought to be never. 



It is scarcely necessary to say that, were there no merits 

 in the book before us, it would hardly be worth while to 

 enter into a discussion of its faults. But the work is 

 really of great value, and were the materials somewhat 

 rearranged, the writing improved, nine-tenths of the 

 paragraph breaks taken away, and the multitude of notes 

 incorporated with the text, it would prove a n-.ost 

 important text-book in electricity and magnetism. 



INDO-CHINA AND THE INDIAN 

 ARCHIPELAGO. 



Miscellaneous Papers relating to Indo-China and the 

 Indian Archipelago. Reprinted for the Straits Branch 

 of the Royal Asiatic Society. Second Series. Two 

 Volumes. (London : Triibner and. Co., 1887.) 



THE new series of papers relating to Indo-China, like 

 its predecessor, consists of reprints from various 

 periodicals which are not within the reach of ordinary 

 readers. Thus in the present volumes we find papers 

 of great interest, and some of considerable importance, 

 reproduced from the Journal of the Royal Geographi- 

 cal Society of forty years ago, from the Journals of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal, of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society, and from the publications of various Dutch 

 Societies. With regard to the latter, it may be said that 

 they are the most valuable papers in the volumes, for the 

 Dutch have long studied with great assiduity the land and 

 people under their rule in the Malay Archipelago. Their 

 scientific services, in Java especially, are recruited from 

 Holland with the utmost care ; the members are spread 

 over the scattered Dutch possessions from Northern 

 Sumatra to New Guinea ; they are constantly studying 

 the problems presented to them by man and Nature 

 around them ; and the consequence is that the Verhande- 

 lingen of the Society of Arts and Sciences at Batavia, the 

 Indische Tijdschrift, and other publications in the mother 

 country, as well as in Java, are full of papers written by 

 skilled and qualified persons who have devoted special 

 attention to subjects connected with the Malay Archi- 

 pelago. The editor of these volumes is indebted to these 

 Dutch publications for such papers as that on the rocks 

 of Pulo Ubin, by Mr. J. R. Logan, the greatest English 

 student of this region that ever lived, although there are 

 certain members of the Straits Civil Service who promise 

 to rival him ; for Mr. Groeneveldt's " Notes on the Malay 

 Archipelago and Malacca," a modest title under which is 

 concealed a learned examination of a vast quantity of 

 Chinese literature with a view to ascertaining what the 

 Chinese knew about the region ; Father Borie's account 

 of the Mantra tribe, and several others. 



The experiment of collecting in this way from various 

 sources the papers relating to a particular region is, we 

 believe, a novel one. In this instance it appears to be a 

 success. Here in four volumes, obtainable at a moderate 

 price, we have the contents — so far as they relate to the 

 Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, and appear to a 

 skilled editor to be of permanent value — of more than a 

 score of periodicals, many of which are quite inaccessible 

 to ordinary students, and which, even in London, could 

 only be examined in the British Museum, the India 

 Office, and possibly the Royal Asiatic and Royal Geo- 

 graphical Societies. The Council of the Straits Society, 

 which advanced the funds for this excellent undertaking, 

 is to be congratulated on its public spirit, and we trust it 

 will not lose, even in a pecuniary sense. Whether it does 

 or not, it has placed every student of the region within 

 which its members labour under an obligation by the 

 production of these volumes. Other learned Societies in 

 various parts of the globe might well emulate this example, 

 for there is nothing more laborious or bewildering than 

 to hunt through old periodicals without adequate indexes 



