580 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 21. 



It is not pleasant to be obliged to record 

 the complete failure of Professor Palmer's 

 attempt to ' make the sound German speak 

 good English.' The ' sound German ' seems 

 to be unusually refractory in his hands, and 

 frequently refuses not only to ' speak good 

 English,' but also to speak any kind of 

 intelligible English at all. . 



An unpleasant appearance is given to the 

 pages by the translator's unfortunate prac- 

 tice of introducing phrases from the original, 

 sometimes directly, sometimes in curiously 

 infelicitous translation. Thus, in the sec- 

 tion in which the applications of the first 

 law of heat to chemical reactions are dis- 

 cussed we read, to express thermal evolu- 

 tion or absorption, either ' Warme- 

 tonung,' which is clear enough, but out of 

 place, or ' heat toning,' a phrase which one 

 struggles vainly to comprehend. Thus he 

 replaces the word element by the remark- 

 able expression 'ground-stuff.' He advo- 

 cates the introduction of the term ' Knall 

 gas,' and employs it faithfully himself. 

 Rarely the translation attains to complete 

 unintelligibility, e. g., on page 149 : 



" The choice of a suitable hypothesis to 

 be advanced can be easily made, now or 

 never, in the case before us." 



It must be admitted that Professor 

 Palmer's English is by no means pleasant 

 reading. Those with any feeling for the 

 right use of language will be incessantly ir- 

 ritated by it, and even others will be not 

 infrequently annoyed by the unnecessarj'' 

 difficulties which it introduces. 



The defects of the translation are un- 

 doubtedly serious. But for this there is 

 much compensation. It is plain that the 

 translator has followed the wonderful de- 

 velopment of the new science faithfully, and 

 his own comprehension of the subject is 

 evident on every page. The student who 

 will forgive the obvious defects, which, after 

 all, concern rather the appearance than the 

 substance, and give to the book an earnest. 



thoughtful reading, can not fail to derive 

 from it a large amount of valuable infor- 

 mation. 



Robert H. Bradbury. 



Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of 

 Engineering Education, Vol II., BrookljTi 

 Meeting, 1894. Edited by Professors 

 Swain, Baker and Johnson. Svo, pp. 

 viii., 292. $2.50. 



This excellent collection of interesting 

 and helpful papers is issued to the members 

 of the Society ; but, as we understand from 

 an inserted slip, copies may be obtained 

 from the Secretary, Professor J. B. Johnson, 

 of Washington University, St. Louis, at the 

 regular price paid by members. The vol- 

 ume is well made up, and its contents justify 

 a good form of make-up. The book con- 

 tains the usual statement of the objects of 

 the Society, the rules, and the lists of 

 oflScers and members, followed by the com- 

 plete papers of the the meeting of 1894. 

 The Society was organized in Chicago in 

 1893, and its next meeting, at Brooklyn, is 

 that here given record. Its membership, 

 already about 160, includes probablj' the 

 majority of the recognized leaders among 

 representatives of the department of educa- 

 tion to which its belongs. The discussions 

 are mainly on subjects of immediate inter- 

 est to the teachers in the professional engi- 

 neering schools, and are necessarilj' of great 

 importance to them and their pupils, though 

 perhaps less attractive to the average reader 

 than are discussions of educational mat- 

 ters generally. The requirements for ad- 

 mission, the character and designation of the 

 degrees properly conferred, the teachers and 

 the text-books, methods and extent of shop 

 and laboratory work, and forms of cun-i- 

 cula suitable to this special work, are the 

 main topics, and they are well and dispas- 

 sionately treated. The volume is full of 

 useful and instructive matter. 



E. H. T. 



