958 
tween 1,800 and 1,900 students in the spring 
term. The number of students entering the 
‘College of Civil Engineering and the College of 
Agriculture shows large percentages of increase, 
and the attendance in the New York State 
Veterinary College issomewhatincreased. 431 
degrees were conferred in June, 1897, an in- 
erease of 50 over any preceding year. 
Dr. WALDEMAR LINDGREN, of the U. S. 
‘Geological Survey, will deliver a course of lec- 
tures on mining and metallurgy at Stanford 
University, but has not accepted a permanent 
appointment, as has been announced. 
Miss JuLiA SNow, PH.D. (Munich), has been 
‘appointed instructor in Botany in the Univer- 
‘sity of Michigan. 
Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, of St. John’s College, 
‘Cambridge University, has been appointed 
university lecturer in experimental psychology. 
Mr. W. L. H. Duckworth, of Jesus College, has 
been recognized as a lecturer in anthropology. 
Mr. J. W. W. STEPHENS, B.A., M.B., Caius 
and Gonville, has been elected John Lucas 
Walker Student in Pathology, Cambridge Uni- 
versity, vice Mr. L. Cobbett, M.A., M.B., 
Trinity ; and Mr. H. K. Wright, M.D., C.M., 
McGill University, Montreal, has been awarded 
an exhibition of the value of £50 from the 
John Lucas Walker Fund. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE AGONOID GENUS PERCIS OF SCOPOLI. 
THE generic name Percis of Scopoli has been 
universally forgotten, but must be revived, and 
lest it should be overlooked in the great work 
of Drs. Jordan and Evermann I would call 
attention to it now. The genus for which the 
name was proposed by Scopoli is generally 
known as Hippocephalus of Swainson (1839). It 
was, however, well defined by Scopoli in 1777, 
and based on the Cottus japonicus of Pallas. 
The description will be found in Scopoli’s ‘ In- 
troductio ad Historiam Naturalem’ (p. 454). 
The only species mentioned was Percis japon- 
icus. 
The genus Percis is the representative of a 
sub-family distinguished from the Agonine by 
the anterior position of the first dorsal fin and 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Vou. VI. No. 156. 
may be called Percidine. The other genera 
are Agonomalus and Hypsagonus. 
WASHINGTON, D. C. THEO. GILL. 
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 
RECENT MATHEMATICAL BOOKS. 
Elements of Plane and Spherical Trigonometry. 
By Epwin S. CRAWLEY, Assistant Professor 
of Mathematics in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania. Second edition, revised and enlarged. 
Philadelphia, E.S. Crawley. 8vo. Pp. 178. 
In the writing of a text-book on Trigonometry 
there is now-a-days practically no opportunity 
for any assertion of individuality. The subject 
is of small extent, definitely bounded, and 
crystallized into final shape. There is, indeed, a 
possibility of trimming the treatment down to 
the absolutely indispensable part of plane trigo- 
nometry, which might then be gone over by a 
class in ten weeks or even less. But the whole 
tendency is the other way, and chapters on 
trigonometric equations, De Moivre’s theorem, 
etc.—in short, a pretty complete discussion of 
the whole field—are now demanded in a text- 
book. The teacher must decide for himself 
how much of the whole material he will cover, 
and he will do well to bear in mind two facts, 
or rather two phases of the same fact, viz: (1) 
that teachers of applied mathematics constantly 
complain that their students do not bring to 
them a practical working knowledge of trigo- 
nometry; (2) that no student, however gifted 
or however taught, ever fully understands his 
elementary mathematics until he has gone 
through the Calculus. 
Professor Crawley’s book first appeared in 
1890. The present second edition has been 
revised and enlarged by: (1) the adoption of 
definitions of the trigonometric functions appli- 
cable to angles of any magnitude; (2) the addi- 
tion of a large number of exercises to illustrate 
the best methods of trigonometric reduction 
and analysis; (8) a large increase in the number 
and variety of the examples; (4) additional 
theorems on the described circles and Brocard’s 
points; (5) a new chapter on De Moivre’s 
theorem and the hyperbolic functions. <A 
previous knowledge of logarithms is expected 
of the student, and the book is without tables. 
The plane trigonometry occupies 119 pages, and 
