Fune 26, 1873] 
but the angle or bend (crosse) can be easily understood ; 
in other places this word is correctly translated. Several 
minor errors in which nouns are rendered as adjectives 
and sentences are incomplete, will be no doubt corrected 
in a second edition. 
Mr. Flemming has made some modifications in the 
general plan of the work, which will decidedly render it 
more useful to English readers. The descriptions of the 
anatomy of the ruminants, as well as those of the cat, 
dog, and birds, are in small type, so that it is not at all 
difficult, by omitting all but the large type, to study the 
bones, muscles, and nerves of the horse, without having 
to sift these out from the much larger mass of informa- 
tion respecting the other animals, as has to be done 
in the French edition. He has also added many notes, 
which in most cases bear on practical points in veterinary 
art ; and he has omitted, wisely we think, the paragraphs 
of the original, which have reference to the dromedary 
and rabbit. Several of the unnecessary illustrations of 
human dissections, which can be found in many other 
works on the subject, have been omitted, and they have 
been replaced to advantage by others which further illus- 
‘trate that of the horse, and also the recent advances in 
our knowledge of the structure of the tissues of the animal 
body. 
Students of human anatomy are too apt to think that 
anthropotomy is the only subject of the kind which has 
been worked out thoroughly and in detail, but a glance 
at the book before us will soon remove that impression ; 
and we are convinced that no one who has made any 
progress in a medical education could more profitably 
employ an occasional spare hour, than by a perusal of 
parts of this translation by Mr. Flemming of M. Chau- 
veau’s most excellent treatise. 
RECENT ARITHMETICS 
Arithmetic in Theory ana Practice. By J. Brook-Smith, 
M.A., LL.B. (Macmillan, 1872.) 
A Treatise on Arithmetic. By J. Hamblin Smith, M.A. 
(University Press, Cambridge, 1872.) 
Figures made easy. A First Arithmetic Book. By Lewis 
Hensley, M.A. (Clarendon Press Series, Oxford, 1872.) 
Notes on Arithmetic and Algebra. By the Rev. S. E. 
Williams, M.A. (Cambridge : J. Hall and Son, 1872.) 
OST persons engaged in tuition have often this 
= critical question proposed to them, ‘ Whose 
arithmetic do you recommend?” and as almost every 
teacher of mathematics fancies he has something new or 
varied to say on the subjects he has long taught, many 
rush into print, and thus submit their claims to considera- 
tion to a wider circle than that they have hitherto ad- 
dressed. “As many arithmetics as teachers of the 
science,” is perhaps as true a doctrine as that which 
applies to men and their opinions, certainly the writing 
of treatises on the subject has not of Jate years 
got into disfavour with the body referred to, and a 
second edition of De Morgan’s Arithmetical Books, 
would show a considerable increase in number of authors 
if brought down to the present date. Every year sends 
forth a heap of candidates for the public favour. On the 
whole perhaps arithmetic has been very fairly treated ; 
most of the treatises that have come under our own 
Bei 
NATURE 
159 
eyes have possessed something to recommend them. 
We have grouped together for our present considera- 
tion some of the most recent works on the science. 
Without doubt the first book on our list is entitled to the 
place of honour ; it is, we think, the best work that has 
appeared for some years, the only work claiming to be 
ranked on the same high platform with it, being the 
“Arithmetic Theoretical and Practical,” by W. H 
Girdlestone, M.A. (Rivingtons, 1870): the two have 
much in common. In this treatise the leading proposi- 
tions are discussed and reasoned out in a lucid and 
accurate manner ; the fundamental principles are clearly 
stated, and there is a valuable collection of examination 
papers for the student to try his powers upon. The 
writer is a disciple of De Morgan, to whom, as well as 
to other eminent writers on Arithmetic, he acknowledges 
his indebtedness. The book is quite up to approved 
modern standards, as it gives contracted methods of 
work, and treats of the metric system, and of the 
application of per-centages. It needs no further commen- 
dation, and after stating that it is a good practical work, 
we advise a student in want of a good treatise, to get 
this, and make it part and parcel of his mental furniture, 
The “get-up” of the book, its external dress, its inner 
garniture, is not merely neat but positively elegant, and 
possibly indicates the high interest the author takes in 
the subject upon which he has written so well. 
Mr. Hamblin Smith’s work calls for no special 
comment: the ability with which the author has written 
on other subjects will doubtless induce many to purchase 
the book, It is hard to write anything new on so 
hackneyed a theme, and there are few who have been 
able to raise the treatment of it above the ordinary fair 
orthodox level. We b- lieve it to be a sound book, but it 
could have been dispensed with (especially with our first 
considered work in the field) except as it serves to fill up 
a niche in a connected series of text-books. The writer 
in this case also aims at teaching not so much rzles 
as principles, and he rightly treats the so-called rude of 
three by the rational method now so generally adopted. 
The book may be recommended as a school-book, and 
this is probably the object the writer had in view. There 
is a copious collection of examination papers, which 
occupies nearly one-sixth of the whole work. 
The third work on our list is concerned with much 
lower ground than the two former ; it is written for mere 
infants, so to speak, in the science—it is anA BC; the re- 
ceiving vessels are small and their capacity consequently 
for acquiring such new ideas as are presented to them 
at the outset of their inquiries also small ; our author, 
with the ability only acquired by careful thought and 
experience, prepares right food, and not too much of that, 
for each lesson. In forty lessons the pupil is carried from 
“first notions of counting” to “division of fractions.” 
With careful oral teaching we believe the book to be 
well adapted for the end aimed at. It is printed in the 
effective style of the “Clarendon Press” Series, and is 
further recommended by its cheapness. 
The “ Notes” presuppose a general knowledge of the 
subject, and give for the most part no explanation of the 
rules. The book is intended to act more as a “refresher” 
than as an “instructor,” yet in the addition, multipli- 
cation, and division of recurring decimals, together with 
