220 
NATURE 
| Fan. 4, 1883 
Assurance Office. The marriage was a most happy one» 
and surrounded by a family of seven children, of whom 
three at least died before their father, De Morgan 
sought his happiness, as we have endeavoured to show, 
in his home, amongst his books, and in the earnest dis- 
charge of his professorial and other duties. 
The Memoir is charmingly written, and abounds in 
graphic details, which bring clearly before the reader the 
picture of a simple, manly character that was unique in 
its idiosyncrasy. A prominent object in its production 
has been to tell the story of the Professor’s connection 
with University College, and of the events which led to 
his leaving it. “After the lapse of sixteen years I trust 
that the narrative will provoke no revival of the some- 
what acrimonious controversy which ensued.’’ 
Another feature of the work is the selection from De 
Morgan’s extensive correspondence with contemporary 
scientific men; these letters are full of interest, and 
abound in utterances characteristic of the writer. Always 
effective and to the point, they are often very humorous : 
the humour, indeed, sometimes borders upon trifling. 
Instead of thinking that Mrs. De Morgan has exceeded 
due limits in her selection, we would have welcomed a 
far larger number of specimens. On p. 333 De Morgan 
states that he had corresponded for thirty years with Sir 
W. Rowan Hamilton, but no specimens of the correspon- 
dence are given. In one or two cases Mrs. De Morgan 
has deviated from the general rule she laid down for her- 
self, and to this deviation we are indebted for some very 
interesting letters from the late Sir Frederick Pollock, 
which enlighten one as to what was required to be read 
for the Senior Wranglership at the beginning of the 
present century. Is it too much to hope that another 
volume may be issued containing a further selection from 
the correspondence, and also a few of the more valuable 
of the early papers, such as those which appeared in the 
Fournal of Education, and in the Companion to the 
British Almanac? We venture to give the following 
extract from a letter we received under date May 15, 
1869, as an ordinary specimen of his writing to one who 
had no special claim upon the writer:—“... I should 
decidedly object to the reference made to Barrow on the 
last leaf. ‘Dr. Barrow with an orthodox dislike to give 
unnecessary credit to a Moslem author has misled. . . . ” 
When was there an orthodox dislike to Mahometans 
being discoverers in science? And what possible reason 
is there for imputing any such feeling to Barrow, a man 
of most unimpeachable fairness, except in this, that when 
he had a congregation by the ears he would hold on for 
three hours until they prevailed on the organist to ‘ blow 
him down.’ He had lived among the Turks at Smyrna 
and Constantinople, and was certainly not ill-inclined to 
a Mahometan, as such. But this much is enough: the 
imputation is quite new, or nearly so, and should not 
appear without proof in the odzter dictum of an historical 
writer who obviously makes it a theory to explain some- 
thing he has found.... P.S.—I think that for one 
orthodox man who might be supposed likely to rob a 
Mahometan of geometry, I could find three who would 
have been more likely to toss it back again with the 
remark that such infidel stuff was only fit for Mahound 
and his slaves.” 
A list of writings is appended. In this we notice the 
| following slips :—‘‘ Elements of Arithmetic,’ the dates 
should be ‘1st edition, 1830; 3rd, 1835”; on p. 403, in 
(18) for “ No. 3” read § 3 of (15) supra”’; p. 404, in (18) 
dele “1,” and in (6) for “Trigonometry” read “ Geo- 
metry ; p. 405, (5) should, of course, be “ Pdx+ Ody+ 
Rdz”; p. 406, in 1849, insert “Remarks’’ after ‘f Sup- 
plementary”; in (1), (2), we think the dates are inaccu- 
rate ; p. 407, read ‘‘ Alfonsine.” 
We remark also that no account is taken of communi- 
cations to the Mathematical Society. These were ten in 
number, not counting the Opening Address, which forms 
the first number of the Society’s Proceedings. The only 
papers printed are “A Proof that every Function has a 
Root” (No. vi., a mere notelet) ; “ Remark on paper by 
Mr. Woolhouse ‘on General Numerical Solution’ ” (No. 
xiv.); and ‘On the Conic Octagram” (No. x. pp. 26-29). 
In this last paper occurs the characteristic note: “ This 
presentation of the second hexagon was actually sug- 
gested to me by observing that S/ozse Pascal has two 
hexagrams, and the jocose inference that there ought to 
be two hexagons in the theorem (given in the paper). My 
own names are both octagrams ; but though I bow before 
the coincidence, I have no suggestion to acknowledge.” 
There is a fairly full “Index of Names, &c.,’ but we do 
not grasp the principle upon which it is drawn up, as 
some names are inserted and others left out. We failed 
at first to identify ‘‘ Prof. John Adams” with “ Neptune” 
Adams. There are also the following corrections to be 
be made :—Read “‘J. Baldwin Brown,” “ Arthur Cayley ” 
(both here and in the “Budget of Paradoxes’’ the 
famous mathematician is called “ George”), Hanssen (for 
Haussen), Encke (for Hencke), Royal Society (insert the 
most important reference to p. 172), Sedgwick, Rey. C. 
Simeon (not J.), insert John Taylor, p. 122, and dele “p. 
124”’ under Sedley Taylor. On p. 306 we presume + 
should be *, and on p, 286, for 1866 read 1865; the 
present writer succeeded George De Morgan as teacher 
in the session 1865-66. R. TUCKER 
FISHES OF SWITZERLAND 
Faune des Vertébrés de la Suisse. Par Victor Fatio, Dr. 
Phil. Vol. IV. Histoire naturelle des Poissons. 
partie I. Anarthropterygiens. II. Physostomes-Cypri- 
nidés. 8°. pp. xiv. et 786, avec 5 planches. (Généve 
et Bale: H. Georg, 1882.) 
ae an interval of nearly ten years Dr. Fatio has 
issued another volume of the series of excellent 
monographs, in which he gives the results of his researches 
into the vertebrate fauna of Switzerland. The first 
volume, published in the year 1869, contained the Mam- 
mals ; the third (1872) the Reptiles and Batrachians ; the 
second, which will be devoted to Ornithology, being still 
in course of preparation. The one now published, which 
is the fourth of the series, treats of a part of the Fishes, 
which class will be concluded in the fifth. 
No one who studies this volume will be surprised at 
the long lapse of time which intervened between its 
appearance and that of the preceding. The author had 
not the advantage of being assisted in his work by collec- 
re 
tions already formed and available for the purpose, but 
had to collect the materials himself; a labour which, 
; ven ina small country like Switzerland, takes years to 
