NA TURE 



November 2S, 1901 



Of the other institutions named, Dr. Meyer considers 

 that the small museum of the Academy of Sciences is a 

 model of its kind ; and that the Art Museum is in many 

 respects remarkalile, and, like the other institutions, 

 worthy the best attention of all interested in such matters. 

 The Newberry and John Crerar Libraries, which are for 

 reference only, display many features of their own, and 

 will in the near future be of the highest importance as 

 the scientific libraries of the Central United .States. The 

 Chicago Puljlic Library, on the other hand, is a circulating 

 one, which lends out, according to the author, millions 

 more volumes than any other institution in the world ; it 

 is, in fact, a unique institution. As to the I'niversity, 

 which is described in considerable detail. Dr. .Meyer has 

 no doubt that it is assured of a great future, the progress 

 it has made and the influence it e.\erts, after an e.xistence 

 of only a decade, being little less than marvellous. 



To all practically interested in museum and library 

 work and progress, Dr. Meyer's observations and 

 criticisms should be invaluable. R. L. 



The Mechanical Triumphs of the Ancient Egyptiiins. 



By Commander F. M. Barber, U.S. Navy. Pp. x + 



123. (London : Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1900.) 



Price jS. 6d. 

 The writer is a well-read sailor, who has devoted much 

 time to answering as plausibly as possible the common 

 query of travellers, " How did the Egyptians transport 

 such great stones from their quarries as the stones for 

 the pyramids, the colossi and obelisks, and lift them to 

 their present positions ?" 



He discusses the Egyptian knowledge of the mechanical 

 powers, the capstan and windlass known in the first 

 three dynasties, the single pulley B C. 3500, the inclined 

 plane very early, the screw and the Spanish windlass 

 also early. 



He thinks that the heavy stones of the lower parts of 

 the pyramids were brought on rafts by water, then up 

 long inclined planes of gentle slope to their actual 

 positions. The lighter stones of the upper parts may 

 have been lifted, possibly also the casing stones, by 

 levers, but he finds reason to believe that the screw-jack 

 was in common use for this and other purposes. He 

 describes the quarrying, the carrying and polishing of 

 very hard stones with such tools as the Egyptians pos- 

 sessed ; he is much at home in his discussion of the 

 shapes and strength of boats used for conveying two 

 obelisks at a time and how they were towed, and he 

 compares the modern methods of lifting obelisks into 

 position with his plausible account of how the ancients 

 performed such operations. 



Cours lie Maihcmatiques A l' Usage des Eleves-Architectes 

 et Ingdnieurs Frofessd d I'^cole des Beaux-Arts. Par 

 Carlo Bourlet. Pp. iii + 244. (Paris: C. Naud, 1902.) 

 Price fr. 8. 

 This is an elementary treatise on what is often called 

 higher mathematics, the parts of which are taken up in 

 the following order : — Differential calculus ; analytical 

 geometry of two dimensions with calculus applications ; 

 integral calculus ; three-dimensional geometry. It seems 

 to be made up of the most elementary parts of three or 

 four treatises, but there is nothing new in the treatment. 

 One might have expected the author to illustrate the 

 well-known rules of differentiation by showing how ap- 

 plicable they are to the problems of the builder and 

 engineer, to have greatly shortened the proofs and 

 lessened the number of rules for differentiation, and so 

 forth ; but we here find practically nothing of the kind. 

 The conic sections are still the important curves ; the 

 student gets rules enough for the most elaborate 

 diflferentiation and integration and, in fact, enters in 

 the most orthodox way upon a course of pure mathe- 

 matics ; but this book is in no way written to satisfy 

 NO. 1674, VOL. 65] 



the special needs of the architect or engineer. But the 

 author is to be praised for teaching the calculus, in 

 however dry a manner, before coordinate geometry. 

 We wish he had used the calculus to help in teaching 

 coordinate geometry, but he only makes a combination 

 after he has taught both subjects. 



Physical Determinations. By W. R. Kelsey, B.Sc, 

 A.LE.E. Pp. xii -I- 316. (London : Edward Arnold, 

 no date.) Price 4.f. bd. 



This book contains, in a space of 310 pages, 185 sections 

 each of which deals with generally one and sometimes 

 more experiments. The subject-matter spreads over the 

 whole range of physics. It is consequently packed 

 tightly ; and so the author has had to omit details, but 

 he has endeavoured to give sufficient information to 

 enable a class to start work without waiting for individual 

 instruction from the demonstrator. It is claimed that 

 the book contains most of the exercises which have been 

 set at the London Intermediate and B.Sc. examinations. 



The exercises are of very variable degree of difficulty 

 and are not graded, so that a teacher adopting this book 

 for elementary classes will have to make a careful 

 selection. One use of the book will be to look up the 

 whole subject the night before an examination. 



' S. S. 



Proceedings o] the Aristotelian Society. New Series. 



Vol. i. Pp. 239. (London : Williams and Norgate, 



1901.) 

 The existence of the Aristotelian Society illustrates one 

 of the best features of English philosophical study, its 

 freedom from the tendency, often so strongly marked in 

 continental countries, to organise itself into little schools, 

 each with some master, whose decisions are unquestion- 

 able, and his band of unquestioning disciples. The 

 present volume, like its predecessors, is pleasingly marked 

 by the tone of free inquiry and unprejudiced discussion 

 natural to a society in which adherents of the most 

 various philosophical principles attempt to make them- 

 selves reciprocally intelligible. The contents of the book 

 include contributions to most departments of philosophy, 

 except that there is no paper dealing directly with ethics. 

 Among the essays concerned with metaphysics the most 

 important are the three in which Dr. Shadworth Hodgson, 

 the Nestor of the society, defends his well-known views 

 on causation, substance, and the nature of the conscious 

 subject of psychology, and the discussion of identity by 

 Mr. G. E. Moore. Of the papers on other subjects 

 perhaps the most attractive is Mr. Sturt's on "Art and 

 Personality." Mr. Beneke's discussion of the ".Aspect 

 Theory of the Relation of Mind to Body " is suggestive, 

 though impaired by the writer's voluntary abstention from 

 metaphysical thoroughness. A. E. T. 



The Play of Man. By Karl Groos. Translated by 

 Elizabeth L. Baldwin. Pp. ix -I- 412. (London : 

 Heinemann, 1901.) 

 Prof. Groos's work, '• Der .Spiel des Menschen," has 

 already been noticed in this column, in connection with 

 the appearance of the German original. It is therefore 

 superfluous to say more than that the work, both for 

 we;ilth of information, soundness of judgment and charm 

 of literary style, is in every way worthy of its earlier 

 companion study of "The Play of .\nimals." Apart 

 from its purely psychological interest, the book has a 

 serious value for the pedagogue who desires to form 

 his own judgment as to the educational effects of games 

 and the uses and dangers of the play-impulse. It is to 

 be hoped that so good a book will have in its English 

 dress the deserved success already attained in this 

 country and America by "The Play of .•\nimals." The 

 translator has done her work well, and Prof Baldwin 

 contributes a preface and a few footnotes. 



