76 

Mr. Gunther regards them as “ the founders of what 
has been the most brilliantly successful mathematical 
school in the world.” 
Considerable space is given to Recorde’s work, and 
it is remarked that ‘‘ although Recorde was a Fellow 
of All Souls, yet two years back his name was quite 
unknown there, and not one of his numerous printed 
books is in the College Library.” It has been 
possible, however, from existing documents, to re- 
construct the catalogue of Recorde’s private library, 
and this is given. The first section closes with 
references to the work of Edmund Gunter (1581- 
1626), William Oughtred (1574-1660)—not an Oxford 

Fic. 1.—Cista Mathematica. By the courtesy of the Librarian of the Bodleian Library. 
‘ 
man, but a clever mathematician who “ appears to 
have given private tuition in mathematics to many 
Oxford men,’”—Christopher Wren (1632-1723), Seth 
Ward (1617-1689), John Wallis (1616-1703), and 
Nathaniel Bliss, who was Savilian professor of geometry 
from 1742 to 1765. 
The second part consists of a descriptive list of 
early mathematical instruments belonging to the 
University and colleges of Oxford, including some 
allied instruments in the collections of the Royal 
Society, Mr. Lewis Evans—whose large and valuable 
collection, at present exhibited in the Bodleian, is 
now offered as a gift to the University (see NATURE, 
December 9 and 16, 1922, pp. 783, 828),—and a few 
others. Of special interest is the seventeenth-century 
oak chest—cista mathematica (Fig. 1)—in the Bodleian 
Portrait Gallery, which originally contained the various 
NO. 2777, VOL. 111] 
NATURE 

[ JANUARY 20, 1923 

demonstration models of the Savilian professors, as 
detailed in the 1697 catalogue of the Bodleian Library. 
In spite of its three different locks, the only portions of 
the original equipment now remaining are two small 
beechwood spheres. Other interesting objects de- 
scribed are the “ Circles of Proportion” of Oughtred, 
and the instruments from. the Orrery collection in 
Christ Church College. This collection, which consists 
of elegant examples of the work of John Rowley and 
others at the beginning of the eighteenth century, has 
been “shut up in a cupboard” since 1731, the year 
in which it came to Christ Church as part of a bequest 
of Charles Boyle, fourth Earl of Orrery. 
The excellent condition of most 
of these instruments affords ample 
testimony to the efficiency, in this 
instance, of the “shut cupboard ” 
method of preservation, Unfortun- 
ately, this happy result is excep- 
tional, the more usual experience 
being of the Mother Hubbard type. 
Such collections, formed so that 
posterity may be able to see actual 
examples of the fine work performed 
by makers in the past, in some way 
or other often dwindle, disperse, or 
disappear. Various causes—war, fire, 
the carelessness or ignorance of a 
custodian, exigencies of space re- 
quired for other purposes, the trans- 
ference of such objects from one 
department to another concerned 
only with modern developments and 
with no sense of the high value of 
a actual early instruments as original 
documents—tend to produce such a 
result. Experience in all countries 
shows that the safest and most efficient way to preserve 
such specimens of the work of men who have played 
a big part in the development of modern civilisation 
is to exhibit them under the proper conditions of 
security afforded by a national museum, so as to be 
available continuously for inspection. A Museum of 
Science should be rich in such objects, which testify 
in a very real manner to the state of advancement in 
past times in the art of constructing scientific instru- 
ments. 
The last part of Mr. Gunther’s book consists of 
short notes, arranged in chronological order, on 
mathematical instrument makers from the latter part 
of the sixteenth to the early part of the nineteenth 
century. We look forward with interest to the 
publication of the next instalment, which will deal 
with astronomy at Oxford. 

