NATURE 
[May 30, 1912) 
ever, looked upon with suspicion by many owing 
to the obvious danger that the work degenerates 
into mere mechanical operations, without any 
intelligent appreciation on the part of the pupil 
of what he is doing, and of the physical principles 
underlying the experiment. This danger seems 
to be almost entirely avoided in the volume before 
us. 
At Winchester College, as the author explains 
in the preface, 
“Each student ‘~ given a printed slip describing 
the experiment to be performed and containing 
questions designed to test whether the experiment 
had been understood. These slips were then 
pasted into a note-book, and full supplementary 
descriptions, with diagrams, graphs, and answers 
to the questions, are entered by the student as 
well as the actual experimental results.” 
The present note-book is a development of this 
system, the underlying plan being that when the 
experiments have been worked through, 
student should have a text-book of elementary 
practical physics, largely written by himself, to 
which he can refer when preparing for any 
definite examination. The experiments are 
briefly described on the left-hand pages, the right- | 
hand pages being blank, to receive descriptions, 
by the student, of important experimental details 
and calculations. Sketches and diagrams are to 
be drawn in the blank spaces on the left-hand 
page. Volume i. contains the simpler experi- 
ments on measurement, hydrostatics, heat, light, 
magnetism, electrostatics and current electricity ; 
while in the second volume are to be found more 
advanced experiments on the same subjects. This 
volume includes in addition some experiments on 
surface tension. It is greatly to be regretted that 
experiments on dynamics, statics, and sound are 
omitted entirely. The experiments are numerous 
and well chosen, and (except for the omissions 
mentioned) cover the whole range of elementary 
physics. There is no doubt that a student who 
had worked through these two volumes, and 
had filled in the supplementary descriptions and 
diagrams, would be very well equipped for a 
higher course. 
One of the most valuable features of the book is 
the large number of short questions (“ Why?” 
“Why not?” “How?” “What do you notice? ”’ 
“Why ether rather than water?” “Why use the 
high-resistance coil?” and so on) which are found 
in brackets among the printed directions. The 
student is required to answer these questions 
when writing up an experiment. He is thus en- 
couraged all along to think things out for himself. 
This feature will be a valuable corrective against 
the experiments being performed mechanically. 
NO. 2222, VOL. 89] 
the | 
| The book contains a few blank pages for addi- 
tional experiments, and is well supplied with graph 
paper. 
We heartily commend this book to the notice 
of those who have to deal with large classes in 
elementary practical physics. G. 
LOGARITHMIC TABLES. 
Tables of Logarithms and Anti-logarithms to Five 
Places. By FE. Erskine Scott. Students’ 
editian: Pp. , 383. )9(ondon:) ‘Cy andeeb. 
Layton, n.d.) Price 5s. net. 
Table of Logarithms and Anti-logarithms (Four 
| Figures), 1 to 10,000. Arranged by Major- 
| Gen. J. C. Hannyngton. Pp. iv+41. (London: 
C. and E. Layton, n.d.). Price 1s. 6d. net. 
Four Place Tables of Logarithms and Trigono- 
metric Functions. Unabridged edition. Com- 
leepiled’ by Prof. i. \ Huntineton: = pase: 
| (Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.: the Harvard Co- 
operative Society; London: E. and F. N. 
Spon, Ltd., n.d.) Price 3s. net (60 cents). 
HE old French saying, 
Dans la gendarmerie 
Quand un gendarme rit 
| Tous les gendarmes rient 
Dans la gendarmerie, 
applies with considerable force to writers of 
mathematical text-books. Tor some time past the 
| market has been inundated by a flood of books of 
logarithmic tables. In these circumstances it is 
| impossible for a reviewer to say that any single 
| book of the collection supplies a long-felt want, 
and all that can be done is to give as precise a 
description possible of the contents and 
arrangement of the different tables so that a 
_reader can select that one which most closely 
meets his actual requirements. 
Now Hannyngton’s and Erskine Scott’s tables 
are exactly similar in character, and only differ in 
the fact that Hannyngton’s are four-figure and 
Erskine Scott’s are five-figure tables. Both books 
contain logarithms and_ anti-logarithms, and 
nothing else, and in each case all numbers are 
tabulated separately so that the use of interpola- 
tion is obviated, every logarithm or anti-logarithm 
being entered separately. This, of course, makes 
the tables ten times as long, and provides com- 
pensating advantages in the matter of conveni- 
ence. Those whose work is facilitated by this 
arrangement, and is limited to the use of 
logarithms, will appreciate the efforts that have 
been made to supply what they prefer. In 
Erskine Scott’s book the anti-logarithms are 
printed on green paper. 
Huntington’s four-figure tables, on the other 
as 
