August 15, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



271 



NEW TEXT-BOOKS IN PHYSICS. 



Physics for High School Students. By Henry 

 S. Carhart and Horatio N. Chute. Bos- 

 ton, Allyn & Bacon. 1902. 

 Physics; a Text-Book for Secondary Schools. 

 By Frederick Slate. New York, The Mae- 

 millan Company. 1902. 

 Principles of Physics. By Frank M. Gilley. 



Boston, Allyn & Bacon. 1901. 

 A Laboratory Manual of Physics. By Henry 

 Crew and Robert E. Tatnall. New York, 

 The Macinillan Company. 1902. 

 Physical Determinations. By W. R. Kelsey. 

 London, Edward Arnold; New York, Long- 

 mans, Green & Co. 1902. 

 No criticism of a school text-book can be 

 quite fair without a clear apprehension of the 

 author's point of view, which may differ quite 

 radically from that of the critic. In the ab- 

 sence of an opportunity for personal inter- 

 change the critic has no resource but to judge 

 from his own standpoint, incurring the risk of 

 appearing to indulge in too much praise or 

 too much censure, in proportion to the degree 

 of accordance or discordance between himself 

 and those whom he wishes to treat with jus- 

 tice. 



The first of the group of books named is a 

 new and wholly rewritten edition of a text- 

 book issued nearly ten years ago, which has 

 been extensively used. Each of the authors 

 had already become well known as an exposi- 

 tor, the one in the university and the other in 

 the high school. Each holds firmly to an opin- 

 ion, which has been repeatedly expressed in 

 print by the present critic, that in physics the 

 class room and the laboratory should be pro- 

 vided with separate books, which may be 

 equally necessary to the student. That in- 

 tended for the class room should be confined 

 to a clear, well-methodized presentation of 

 principles, accompanied with a goodly num- 

 ber of well-graded numerical problems. There 

 may be outline descriptions of experiments, 

 but only of such as are suitable for class room 

 demonstration, to be performed by the teach- 

 er. For the elementary laboratory, on the con- 

 trary, the student needs a manual in which the 

 instructions are chiefly for his guidance in 

 manipulation. The class book is not a mere 



reading book. Its use is necessarily accom- 

 panied with much oral discussion by the teach- 

 er, and for this provision should be made in 

 the text by much judicious omission of details. 

 According to prevailing American usage the 

 class book serves as the basis of much recita- 

 tional work, and in its preparation this end 

 should be kept always in view. No modern 

 teacher will merely ' hear lessons ' from it ; but 

 for convenience in actual use a well-arranged 

 text-book is an important aid; and one that is 

 written by even a fine scholar without the 

 teacher's instinct or experience may be a 

 source of keen suffering to its user, whether 

 young or old. 



Messrs. Carhart and Chute have been par- 

 ticularly successful in fulfilling these condi- 

 tions in this new edition of their class text- 

 book. The amount of mathematical preparation 

 expected of the student is small, but formulas 

 are introduced enough to make him appreciate 

 their value in the solution of problems. 

 Illustrations are sufficiently numerous, always 

 simple, and none of them superfluous. 

 Both metric and British systems of units are 

 employed, the preference in general being giv- 

 en to the former. The book is well arranged, 

 with many short paragraphs and suggestive 

 headings ; and its statements are clearly and 

 carefully worded. It is worthy of unreserved 

 commendation. 



The volume by Professor Slate was pre- 

 pared for California high schools, and in some 

 particulars its aim is perhaps a little higher 

 than can be reached by many of those for 

 whom it was written. The style is discursive, 

 such as might be adopted by a lecturer who is 

 accurate and conscientious, but who does not 

 emphasize salient ideas to any great degree. 

 In arrangement the subdivision is not so clean 

 cut as in the volume by Carhart and Chute, 

 and long paragraphs are frequent, but the rea- 

 soning is generally good and suggestive. The 

 book may be regarded as the reproduction of 

 a series of well-prepared lectures, without the 

 interruption of experimental details. An ad- 

 mirable outline of experiments, intended to 

 aid the teacher, is reserved for the latter part 

 of the volume. This includes many references 

 to Chute's 'Practical Physics,' to which the 



