676 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 202. 



was made that the publication of a series of 

 ' Scieutific Memoirs ' would shortly be com- 

 menced by Harper & Brothers, under the edi- 

 torial direction of Professor Ames, of Johns 

 Hopkins University. They were to relate 

 mostly to physical science, and were to include 

 only memoirs of first importance, and generally 

 only such as are not very easy of access, or 

 which are found only in some language other 

 than English, or in a form otherwise incon- 

 venient. Professor Ames has secured the edi- 

 torial assistance of a number of well-known 

 students of physical science, and it is gratifying 

 to know that in the near future many of the most 

 important memoirs relating to this great de- 

 partment of human knowledge, many of which 

 have marked epochs in the history of science, 

 will be available in a convenient and compara- 

 tively inexpensive form. 



The plan will now be better understood after 

 an examination of the first volume of the series, 

 which bears the title given above and is edited 

 by Professor Ames himself. It is a very at- 

 tractive-looking octavo of about one hundred 

 pages. A preface of one page is followed by 

 Gay-Lussac's paper, read at the Institute on 

 September 15, 1807, on a ' First Attempt to 

 Determine the Changes in Temperature which 

 Gases experience owing to Changes of Density, 

 and Considerations on their Capacity for Heat. ' 

 This is an extremely interesting and important 

 memoir, not hitherto easily accessible, although 

 it was reprinted in Leipzig in 1896. Its prin- 

 cipal interest is in the evidence of Gay-Lussac's 

 anticipation of some of the most important con- 

 clusions of Joule and Thomson, which they 

 worked out with great skill and originality 

 nearly half a century later. Twenty years ago 

 and earlier there was much bitter controversy 

 over the credit due Mayer for his share in the 

 development of the principle of the Conserva- 

 tion of Energy. The importance of his work is 

 greatly enhanced by the recognition of his ac- 

 quaintance with Gay-Lussac's experiments, 

 which, says Professor Ames, is now generally 

 admitted. 



This memoir is followed by a paper upon the 

 same subject, published in 1845, and by several 

 others on the Thermal Effects of Fluids in Mo- 

 tion, the joint work of Joule and Thomson. 



These constitute the most important literature 

 on the subject and have been the foundation of 

 the modern thermodynamics. 



The editor, while adhering closely to the 

 original, has found condensation necessary and 

 possible in portions of the reproduction. Brief 

 biographical sketches of Gay-Lussac and Joule 

 are given, and, when the interest which always 

 attaches to the personality of men who do great 

 things is considered, it seems a pity that a page 

 or two was not given to each of these, instead of 

 a brief paragraph. The mere dates of birth 

 and death, and such like, are not usually the 

 most interesting facts relating to a human life. 



This and other volumes of the series soon to 

 appear will undoubtedly meet with a hearty 

 welcome, for they will make it easy for all stu- 

 dents to possess the essence of what is of the 

 very highest importance in the literature of ex- 

 act science, either current or classic. 



M. 



Thermodynamics of the Steam-Engine and Other 

 Seat-Engines. By Cecil H. Peabody, Pro- 

 fessor of Marine Engineering and Naval 

 Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology, Boston, Massachusetts. New York, 

 J. Wiley & Sons ; London, Chapman & Hall. 

 4th ed. Rewritten and reset 8vo. Pp. 522. 

 Price, $5.00. 



This is a new and revised, rearranged and ex- 

 tended issue of the well-known work of Pro- 

 fessor Peabodj', now ten years old. The book 

 has been carefully and completely revised, to 

 bring it up to date in theory and in current prac- 

 tice. Considerable new matter has been intro- 

 duced and the whole has been reconstructed in 

 such a manner as to make it substantially such 

 as its author would have prepared as a new 

 treatise on its subject at the present time. It 

 is an excellent piece of technical work and un- 

 doubtedly will more than sustain the reputation 

 which it has already acquired. This volume is 

 a standard treatise on Clausiusian thermody- 

 namics in our technical schools and among engi- 

 neers, and, so far as the reviewer is informed, 

 the only treatise of that school which presents 

 any satisfactory discussion of applied thermo- 

 dynamics having value for the engineer engaged 

 in professional work relating to the heat-en- 



