IOO 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 4, 1884 



sion of the brain-pan, in the former the growth of the 



■ 1 3 on 1 lie contrarj arrested bythe premature cl 



..t the cranial sutures and lateral pressure of the frontal 

 bone." ' 



The 1 hapter on the 1 urious French Creole patois cur- 

 rent amongsl the Haytians will be found instructive by 

 students of such jargon itse iphonic laws and pei 

 structure, or rather absence of structure, are illustrated 

 by a number of passages from popular songs and pro- 

 verbs, such as the characteristic — 



That is- 



" \ jue 1 ii he li mulatte, 

 Mulatto ]).i\n n i ■ ;w 



" Negi ches m il ilto, 



Mulatto impo. ei ishes ne ;i 



lieyond oral compositions of this sort there is no local 

 literature, and the public records, diplomatic communica- 

 tions, and correspondence of all sorts are written in more 

 or less grammatical French. None of the full-blood 

 blacks have aspire! to the honours of authorship, or 

 attempted any sort of literary composition beyond an 

 occasional political essay or manifesto. In this as in all 

 other respects there seems to be an impassable gulf even 

 between them and the coloured portion of the population. 

 The book is furnished with a useful map of Hayti ; but 

 there are neither illustrations nor index. 



A. H. KEANE 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Hilfsbuch fur den Schiffbau. Yon Hans Johow. Berlin: 



Julius Springer, 1SS4.) 



This handsome volume belongs to the class of publica- 

 tions known as "pocket-books," of which there are many 

 examples, in English, adapted to the use of various 

 branches of engineering. It is essentially a compilation 

 of facts, formula;, and methods likely to prove useful to 

 shipbuilders in the course of their ordinary work ; and 

 it will bear favourable comparison with anything of the 

 kind previously published. In the range of its informa- 

 tion, and the extent ,h well .1, variety of the sources 

 drawn upon, Mr. Johow's book surpasses all others 

 intended for the use of ship-builders ; evidencing wide 

 research and a thorough acquaintance with the literature 

 of the profession. It cannot fail to prove valuable .is a 

 book of reference in the offices of all ship-yards, and 

 should be of great assistance to draughtsmen, especially 

 in carrying on calculations or details of design. 



The arrangement of the book is excellent, and it is 

 admirably produced, the numerous tables and diagrams, 

 as well as the mathematical investigations, being clearly 

 printed and easily followed in reading. This has been 

 accomplished without making the volume large or ex- 

 pensive. Five principal sections embrace the contents. 



The first section contains a mass of general information 

 and tables, designed to facilitate reference and save 

 labour. In the mathematical subdivision of this section 

 appear tables of the squares, cubes, square root, cube root, 

 &C., of numbers up to 1000 ; trigonometrical table- ; 

 braical and trigonometrical formulae of various kinds. 

 Another subdivision deals with " mass and weight," 

 full pa the weights and measures of \ 



countries, and tabli sion of one system to the 



others. 1 ibl weights of materials follow, and are very 



extensive and well arranged ; in addition, there is a 

 summary of the principles of strength of materials, in- 



" I. -1 Razza Negra Del su i stal &c. " p 



(Tu 



iS6«.) 



1 luding Worrier's valuable invest i| tte " fatigue " 



oi id <■ Brief < h 



of heat, chemistry, and galvanism ; and finally a good 



deal oi information fh n details of design, 



fs, &c. 



The second section deals with the theory of ship- 

 building. It gives particulars of various systems of 

 mechanical construction for the forms of ships ; deals 

 with the problems of buoyancy and stability, and 

 i'es methods of calculation; gives approximate 

 formula' for use in preliminary investigations ; and deals 

 in a practical fashion with ocean waves, propulsion of 

 -In] is by sails, the action of the rudder, fluid resistance, 

 and propulsion by steam power. L'nderthe last heading 

 appears a most comprehensive summary of the various 

 methods proposed for approximating to the engine-power 

 required to give steamships their assigned speeds. Lastly 

 there is a chapter on compass-correction. 



The third section deals with more practical questions 

 relating to the lading and freeboard of ships; their outfit 

 of anchors, chains, boats, pumps, &c. ; the armaments of 

 war-ships ; the methods of testing materials used in ship- 

 building, Oxx. 



In the fourth section arc contained detailed infor- 

 mation relating to the propelling machinery, boilers, 

 and propellers of ships ; the rules of the I'.oard of Trade 

 for boilers ; and tables, &c, for use in trials of speed. 



The fifth and last section contains details of the lftw - 

 and regulations affecting German and foreign shipping, 

 various rules for calculating tonnage, and our Board of 

 Trade regulations for passenger-steamers. An excellent 

 index concludes the book. 



It cannot be supposed that such a great mass of infor- 

 mation has been brought together and greatly condensed 

 without some sacrifices and possible errors; but the 

 author has evidently taken pains to insure accuracy, and 

 his book should command a wide circulation both in 

 Germany and abroad. W. H. W. 



A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied 

 Mathematics: containing Propositions, Formula, 

 Methods of Analysis, with Abridged Demonstrations. 

 By G. S. Carr, MA. Vol. i., Sections x., xi., xii. 

 (London: Francis Hodgson, 1884.) 



J Our notices of the former sections will be found in 

 vol. xxii. (p. 582) and vol. xxvi. (p. 197). These sections 

 are occupied with the Calculus of Variations (pp. 441 to 

 450), Differential Equations (pp. 460 to 545), and the 

 Calculus of Finite Differences (pp. 546 to 560). In the 

 first section we have not detected any mistakes of any 

 importance, in fact only one or two typographical faults. 

 The second section commences with an unfortunate slip 

 1 in the numbering of the articles, which is not pointed out 

 until the next sheet is commenced (p. 473). In this sec- 

 tion there are numerous errata, of which we indicate a 

 few. In § 3276 the first term in the last line should 

 have the mark of differentiation with regard to x affixed. 

 We note mistakes in §§ 3342, 3382, 3392, 3394, 3399, 

 3407, 3431. 3447, 3499, 3520, 3521, 3537, 3570. These 

 are mostly for wrong references, and the 

 articles are cited for the benefit of students. The last 

 ! section appears to be quite right, with the exception of a 

 raphical error in g 3703. We have not undertaken 

 to «ork out and verify each article, but wc have gone 

 through each, and the above small list of mistakes will 

 in idea of the care exercised in the editing of this 

 part. We repeat our former advice, viz. that a student 

 who wishes to refer to the " Synopsis" for refreshing his 

 ive named branches should at the 



il 1 his reading his text-book have this manual by 



On, II"' in' mainly based upon 



Jellett (fo 1 ile (for the two latter 



