73U 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 



luncheons which were served in the hall of 

 the society on Thursday and Friday af- 

 forded many opportunities for meeting old 

 friends and making new ones. The cul- 

 minating social event was the dinner given 

 by the resident to the non-resident members 

 at the Hotel Bellevue on Friday evening. 

 On this occasion addresses were made by the 

 president of the society, Professor Edgar 

 F. Smith, of Philadelphia ; Hon. George F. 

 Baer, of Philadelphia; Professor Simon 

 Newcomb, of Washington; Professor Ed- 

 ward S. Morse, of Salem ; Professor George 

 F. Barker, of Philadelphia ; Professor Will- 

 iam B. Scott, of Princeton; Professor 

 Josiah H. Penniman, of Philadelphia; 

 Mr. Henry LaBarre Jayne, treasurer of 

 the society, and Dr. I. Minis Hays, one of 

 the secretaries. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Vorlesungen iiber Experimentalphysik. Von 



August Kundt. Triedrich Vieweg und 



Sohn. 1903. 



Few courses of lectures on general physics 

 have been so well known as those of Professor 

 Kundt at the University of Berlin. They were 

 renowned throughout the world of students for 

 their clearness of exposition, the enthusiasm 

 both of lecturer and of listener, and the won- 

 derful manner in which the facts of physics 

 were illustrated by lecture-room experiments. 

 Professor Kundt died in May, 1894, and steps 

 were immediately taken to present to the 

 world, in the form of a text-book of physics, 

 his famous course of lectures. This has just 

 been done, and the volume at hand from the 

 press of Friedrich Vieweg is one of 851 pages 

 illustrated with more than 500 figures in the 

 text. There is an excellent portrait of Kundt, 

 and a short but appreciative biography. 



The lectures which are here reprinted are 

 those given in the winter and summer semes- 

 ters of 1888-9, which were noted by one of his 

 students and afterwards were revised and 

 worked over by Kundt himself. They are now 

 published under the editorial supervision of 

 Karl Scheel, who very wisely has made no at- 



tempt to add chapters, or even notes, with the 

 idea of making the lectures describe the facts 

 of physics which have come into prominence 

 since the death of Kundt. 



The course of lectures in general physics 

 which has been given at the University of 

 Berlin by a long line of distinguished men, 

 including Helmholtz, Kundt and Kohlrausch, 

 is one designed specially for students of medi- 

 cine, or those who wish to become acquainted 

 with the phenomena of physics, but who do 

 not necessarily intend to follow more advanced 

 work in physics, and who do not regard this 

 course as of fundamental importance. This 

 fact necessarily has a most important bearing 

 on the character of the lectures given. In the 

 majority of cases in American universities and 

 colleges physics is now taught largely owing to 

 its educational value, in the sense that in or- 

 der for a student to follow the course intel- 

 ligently he must exercise certain mental 

 qualities which are of the utmost importance 

 in any scheme of education. The character 

 of text-book, therefore, which would best rep- 

 resent the needs of these two kinds of classes 

 is quite different ; and the main interest in this 

 book of lectures of Kundt centers in his mode 

 of presentation of the various branches of 

 physics in order to meet the demands made 

 by his conditions. 



One can not do better in reviewing the book 

 than to give a few details in regard to the 

 number of lectures assigned to various sub- 

 jects, and to note their order of arrangement. 

 In all there are 150 lectures : 39 in mechanics 

 and properties of matter, 17 in acoustics, 31 

 in heat (including five on the kinetic theory 

 of gases), 43 in electricity and magnetism and 

 20 in light. This division is most interesting 

 and, in some respects, surprising. In treating 

 the subject of mechanics there are one or two 

 introductory chapters followed by one in which 

 are introduced the ideas of mass, force, work 

 and energy; then the subjects of equilibrium 

 and machines are introduced; gravitation and 

 various pendulum problems are next discussed, 

 and then the lectures return to the questions 

 of centrifugal force and moments of inertia. 

 There follow six lectures on liquids, seven on 

 gases, three on solids and six on the bound- 



