May. 1912. 



KN()WLi:i)c.i: 



203 



is Hsu.illy rigorously excluded. Johns' " Forest Trees " was 

 in its day highly esteemed, as presenting the artistic and folk- 

 lore aspects as well as the structural characters of trees, and 

 it is for the former rather than the latter that it may still find 

 a place in the literature of Botany. F. C. 



Four Place Tables. — By E. V. Huntington, i^ pages. 



9-in. X7-in. 



(Mass.: The Harvard Cooperative Society, Cambridge.! 



(London : E. & F. N. Spon. Price 3 • net.) 

 A casual glance at the thirty-two pages of this book, 

 followed by a reference to the price (sixty cents, in America, 

 in London 3s. net.) induced a closer study with a view to 

 discovering the cause of this comparative costliness. There 

 are a gcjod many distinctive merits in the book. First of all, 

 by the arrangement of tabs on the margin, it is made easy to 

 manipulate the book with the left liand and turn rapidly from 

 one table to another. Next there is no table of anti-logarithms, 

 which like tobacco and alcohol are luxuries and bad for the 

 young. Then, in addition to the ordinary table of logarithms 

 of numbers from 100 to 999, there is a special table from 

 1,000 to 1.999: and the same device for saving interpolation 

 is adopted in the case of the logarithms of tlie trigonometrical 

 functions for angles between and 10 and between 80° and 

 90\ There are tables for conversion from minutes into 

 decimals of a degree and vice versa, also for siiuares and 

 square roots, cubes and cube-roots, reciprocals, e" and e~", 

 Napierian logarithms and useful constants. The directions 

 for use arc clear and brief. .Altogether the book deserves a 

 trial. W. n. K. 



Table of Logarithms and Anti-logaritlmis I I'our figures). — 



By Major Hannvxgton, F.S.S., F.l.A. 41 pages. 



<Si-in. X5A-in. 



(Charles & Edwin Layton. Price 1 6- net.) 



This small book of logarithms is intended for the computer. 



It should prove very handy and convenient, for it is very 



clearly arrranged and the printing is good. A. C. K. 



Table of Logarithms and Anti-logarithms to five places of 

 Decimals. — By E. Erskine Scott. 3S3 pages. 9-in.X6-in. 

 (Charles & Edwin Layton. Price 5 - net.) 

 The pubhshers preface this volume of logarithms and anti- 

 logarithms by a note stating that they hope the book may 

 suit the requirements of students better than the more costly 

 edition issued in 1892. The tables are clearly arranged, the 

 first column containing numbers up to four places of decimals. 

 The book is necessarily rather bulky, containing 383 pages, 

 but its clearness makes up for this fault perhaps. The anti- 

 logarithms are printed on green paper, which ;ivoids chance of 

 mistaking them for logarithms. A. C. E. 



ORNITHOLOGY. 

 The Great Atik.—Hy Thomas Parkin, M.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S. 

 36 pages. 5 plates. SA-in. X 5i-in. 

 (Hastings: Burfield & Pennells. Price 2/-.) 

 Mr. Thomas Parkin has been at very considerable pains to 

 bring together the records of all the sales by public auction of 

 the Great Auk and its eggs between the years 1806 and 1910. 

 We find from his book that previous to the year 1869 the 

 value of a Great .'Vuk's egg ranged from twenty to thirty 

 pounds. In 1869 the price had risen to sixty pounds, in 1880 

 to one hundred, and in 1888 to two hundred and twenty-five, 

 while six years later three hundred and fifteen was reached, 

 and in 1900 the record price was obtained, namely, three 

 hundred and thirty pounds fifteen shillings. It will be seen on 

 page 194 of this number that at a recent sale two eggs fetched 

 only about half this sum. but as Mr. Stevens pointed out at 

 the time they were not first-class specimens, and he had no 

 doubt but that a really good one would still fetch a big price. 

 It maybe mentioned that with orie exception (when a specimen 

 was disposed of as part of a collection in 1908) all the .\uk's 

 eggs sold for more than twenty pounds have been knocked down 



at Stevens's. There are two instances, however, of outside sales 

 where the buyers got two eggs for a song. The Kent sale is men- 

 tioned on page 194 of thisnumber. Fourteen years previously (in 

 1880) Mr. Small picked up two eggs at Edinburgh for thirty-two 

 shillings. For one of these Lord Lilford gave one hundred 

 pounds and for the other, one hundred and seven pounds two 

 shillings. Only five records of the sales of the bird itself arc 

 given by Mr. Parkin. The record price is three hundred and 

 fifty pounds, obtained in 189,t, while the last sold realised 

 three hundred and fifteen pounds. The author learns from 

 Mr. Edward Bidwell. who has made a special study of the 

 subject, that there arc now eighty skins in existence and 

 seventy-three eggs. 



The frontispiece to the pamphlet is from a photograph taken 

 at Stevens's during the sale of an Auk's egg. Plate II is from 

 a life-sized photograph of an egg in the possession of Mr. 

 Parkin. Plate 111 shows another egg, Plate IV' a stuffed 

 specimen of the bird with an egg, and Plate V the London 

 Museum, otherwise known as the Egyptian Hall, in which 

 there used to be two eggs. One of these and a specimen 

 of the bird were bought by Dr. Leach for the British Museum 

 in 1819 for sixteen pounds fifteen shillings and sixpence, while 

 the other egg onlv fetched between ten shillings and a pound. 



\V. M. W. 

 PHYSICS. 

 Laboratory Problems in Physics. — By F. T. Jones and 

 R. K. Tatnai.i.. 81 pages. 67 illustrations. 7'-in.X5-in. 



(Macmillan & Co. Price, 2 6.) 

 .\ useful laboratory manual, containing hints for practical 

 work in Elementary Mechanics. Hydrostatics, Sound, Heat, 

 Electricity and Magnetism, and Light, in the order given. A 

 feature worthy of note is the prominence given to Revision 

 questions and applications. The diagrams are clear, and 

 teachers may gather some useful hints from them. In 

 particular, a simple water-trap for " heat of vaporisation " has 

 caught our eye. The order of subjects is. of course, largely a 

 matter of individual taste : but the problems on Electricity 

 and Magnetism are arranged in a sequence diftering in many 

 respects from that usually adopted in English schools. In 

 many instances the experiments ate expressly headed " Review 

 E^xperiment." calling attention to the opinion expressed by the 

 authors that a preliminary view of the subject (presumably in 

 lecture) should precede the laboratory work in such cases. 

 Manv teachers of phvsics will probably agree with them. 



W. D. E. 



Physicocheinical Calculations. — By Jo,SEPH Knox, D.Sc. 

 188 pages. 7i-in. X5-in. 

 (Methuen & Co. Price 2/6.) 

 This book is based on Abeggand Sacken's; " Physikalisch- 

 Chemische Rechen Auggabcn," but it is not a mere trans- 

 lation, for the book is .arranged carefully in subjects, and a 

 short introduction to each chapter and new set of problems 

 has been written. It should prove valuable to the teacher of 

 physical chemistry as well as the student. .\. C. E. 



Waves and Ripples in Water, Air, aud Aether. — Second 

 issue. By J. A. Fleming, F.R.S. 299 pages. 85 illustrations. 



8-in.X5-in. 

 (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Price 2 6 net.) 

 Many of those who attended Professor Fleming's lectures at 

 the Royal Institution on the above subject, wished that he 

 would reproduce them in print ; their popularity may be gauged 

 by the fact that this is the second issue. Professor Fleming 

 describes numerous experiments to illustrate in a manner 

 intelligible to the majority of readers the most interesting 

 phenomena of wave motion. Water waves and waves made 

 by ships, sound waves, and electrom.agnetic waves, are 

 examined and the results expounded in a delightfully clear 

 manner. Just as Turner on being reproved for his idleness, 

 when he spent a morning throwing stones into a pond, replied 

 that he had not been idle, but had learnt how to paint a ripple, 

 so no one who intelligently follows Professor Fleming through 

 the pages of his book will have misspent his time. It is surely 



