December 15, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



863 



though Quetelet mentions this writer in his 

 " Histoire des sciences mathematiques et 

 physiques chez les Beiges," and Jules Dewert 

 and Modeste Soons have recently written upon 

 his work, he is practically unknown to Eng- 

 lish and American mathematicians. Born in 

 1508, dying probably about 1562, he claims to 

 have been a professor of mathematics in Borne 

 in 1546, and he certainly held such a chair in 

 Ferrara in 1548. His works, eleven in num- 

 ber, relate chiefly to the use of the sphere and 

 the annulus, although some were purely 

 astrological in their contents. One of his 

 books was translated into English under the 

 title " A Booke concerning navigation, trans- 

 lated into English by Richard Eden," London, 

 n.d. Like most of the secondary writers of 

 his time, he plagiarized freely from the works 

 of others, but his " De annuli sphaerici f abrica 

 & usa " (Falermo, 1550) shows not a little 

 originality. 



Professor J. H. Graf, of Berne, whose con- 

 tributions to the history of mathematics in 

 Switzerland are well known, has a series of 

 articles on " La correspondence entre Ludwig 

 Schlafli et des methematiciens Italiens de son 

 epoque." This is a suitable sequence to Pro- 

 fessor Graf's earlier articles on the correspond- 

 ence between Schlafli and Jakob Steiner and 

 between Schlafli and Cayley. 



Professor G. Vivanti has an interesting note 

 on Luigi Forni, a Pavian mathematician 

 (1780-1856), whose Nuove Ricerche (Pavia, 

 1811) is not without merit. There are bio- 

 graphical articles of some length on Luciano 

 Orlando (1877-1915), a prolific writer, and 

 Ruggiero Torelli (1884-1915), a worthy con- 

 tributor to modern higher algebra and the 

 theory of curves. The numerous reviews by 

 Professor Loria himself are of special interest. 



David Eugene Smith 

 Columbia University 



"the american mineralogist" 

 The American Mineralogist is a new maga- 

 zine, devoted to the interests of the scientific 

 mineralogist, the student of mineralogy, 

 curators of museums, and collectors of min- 



It is a successor to The Mineral Collector, 

 founded in 1885 and discontinued in 1909; 

 and appropriately, the first article in the new 

 magazine consists of an appreciation of the 

 contributions of Arthur Chamberlain, pub- 

 lisher of The Mineral Collector. Other ar- 

 ticles in the first number treat of lamellar 

 calcite, columnar manganocalcite, the chem- 

 ical elements ; and the reports of the meetings 

 of the New York and Philadelphia Mineralog- 

 ical Clubs are given. The magazine reviews 

 abstract articles on mineralogical subjects, so 

 as to make the work being done in this science 

 available to those who do not have access to 

 the more technical journals. 



The second number is devoted to an ac- 

 count of the wonderful gem minerals of Mada- 

 gascar. In the third number is an article on 

 glauberite crystal-cavities, in which the meth- 

 ods used in interpreting these curious " holes " 

 in certain geological formations are described. 

 Stevensite, an alteration product of pectolite 

 from New Jersey, is shown to deserve recogni- 

 tion as a definite mineral species by Mr. M. L. 

 Glenn. A poem, called " The Physico-chem- 

 ical View," a satire on the mannerisms of 

 several Washington scientists, is included. 



The Exchange Column of The American 

 Mineralogist is an excellent feature and one 

 that will interest every private collector or 

 curator of a museum who may wish to dispose 

 of his duplicate material for some specimens in 

 which his collection is lacking. Thus both 

 parties are benefited, and the various min- 

 eralogical dealers will keep those informed 

 who are in need of such materials. 



The American Mineralogist is edited by 

 Wallace Goold Levison, and the associate 

 editors are Edgar T. Wherry, of the TJ. S. 

 National Museum; Samuel G. Gordon, of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 

 Pa., and W. Scott Lewis, of the Erotona Insti- 

 tute, Los Angeles, California. The magazine 

 is octavo in size, and the numbers already 

 issued have given sufficient assurance that the 

 typography will continue to be excellent. As 

 this special field has never before been covered, 

 the journal should meet with considerable en- 

 couragement and success. G. F. K. 



