120 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 917 



neers, he has written many papers and books 

 and for thirty-five years he was a college pro- 

 fessor. His product, however, can hardly be 

 called a really good book. 



The author is chief examiner on engineer- 

 ing for the London Board of Education. At 

 the request of this board a few years ago he 

 gave to a group of teachers a series of lectures 

 upon the " Mechanics of Building Construc- 

 tion, with the object of perfecting their knowl- 

 edge of the subject and at the same time il- 

 lustrating the manner in which it should be 

 taught." These lectures have been expanded 

 and form the basis of the present text. 



In giving the original lectures and in this 

 work of revision it may be conjectured that 

 the author's duties as examiner were ever 

 present in his mind and unconsciously influ- 

 enced his style of writing. The attempt is 

 made to explain methods of estimating the 

 strength of all structural parts met in English 

 building practise. The method chosen is gen- 

 erally that of working out particular problems 

 rather than developing the principles involved. 

 In those parts where some attempt has been 

 made to develop principles, the writing seems 

 very careless. In some cases the simplest 

 things are explained and some of the important 

 ones are omitted. While a considerable por- 

 tion of the book naturally has to do with flex- 

 ure, the simple principles of the theory of flex- 

 ure are not given. It is apparent that the 

 writer has not had the same class of readers 

 in mind while he was writing different parts 

 of the text. 



The book will doubtless be of assistance to the 

 men who are preparing for the examinations 

 referred to. It can hardly be recommended 

 to the general student. It seems, however, 

 especially well fitted for the use of an archi- 

 tect or builder who has taken up his work 

 without a proper education; his familiarity 

 with the subjects treated will enable him to 

 read the parts in which he is interested with 

 some understanding; but it is a question 

 whether such a man should be encouraged to 

 malic his own calculations unless he is willing 

 to begin at the beginning in his study of the 

 subject; otherwise it is almost certain that 



he will make mistakes due to the fragmentary 

 character of his information. 



The book is arbitrarily divided into thirty 

 lectures for the supposed convenience of 

 teachers who, while giving lectures upon the 

 subject, may wish to follow the author in a 

 servile manner. Graphical solutions are used 

 throughout in preference to algebraic solu- 

 tions; the figures illustrating the text are very 

 numerous. The subjects treated cover fairly 

 well the simpler problems likely to be met in 

 building work in England; they do not in- 

 clude steel building construction as practised 

 in America. 



O. H. Basquin 



NOETHWESTEEN UNIVEESITY 



The Evolution of the Verieirates and their 

 Kin. By William Patten, Ph.D. Phila- 

 delphia, P. Blakiston's Son and Co. 1912'. 

 Pp. xxi 4- 481. 



Twenty-two years ago there appeared in the 

 same number of the Quarterly Journal of 

 Microscopical Science two papers, one by 

 Professor Gaskell and the other by Professor 

 Patten, both maintaining the inadequacy of 

 all the theories that up to that time had been 

 proposed to account for the origin of the 

 vertebrates and advocating a new one, namely, 

 the derivation of the vertebrate phylum from 

 crustacean-like ancestors. For more than two 

 decades both authors have devoted themselves 

 to working out the details of their theories 

 and we now have the results of their labors 

 collected into single volumes, that by Professor 

 Gaskell having appeared about a year ago, 

 while that of Professor Patten now lies be- 

 fore us. 



It must be confessed that a certain amount 

 of scepticism will obtrude itself into the con- 

 sideration of both works, not from any pre- 

 dilection for older theories, but on account of 

 the fact that on a common foundation the two 

 authors have built up systems of homologies 

 utterly incompatible the one with the other, 

 the result being that the reader, despairing in 

 his search for the truth in either system, is 

 inclined to cry with Mercutio, " A plague o' 

 both your houses." Professor Patten's views, 



