May 21, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



807 



of the original plan are preserved. The book 

 constitutes an excellent college course on 

 physics when supplemented, as it is meant to 

 be, by full experimental illustrations on the lec- 

 ture table. It is in no sense a laboratory guide, 

 nor does it imply the existence or use of a 

 laboratory. 



For the great majority of students such a book 

 and such a course ought to be supplemented by 

 the use of a collection of problems illustrating 

 the various divisions of the subject, and which 

 are quite necessary to fix its principles. 



The Problems and Questions in Physics, by 

 Matthews and Shearer, will fairly well satisfy 

 the demand for such a collection. The selec- 

 tion and arrangement of problems is, on the 

 whole, very satisfactory, but the authors seem 

 to have been continually in doubt as to whether 

 they were not, after all, making a 'text-book.' 

 Certain subjects are discussed at greater or less 

 length, although the same matter will be found 

 in almost any standard text. Considerable cost 

 and space might have been saved by adhering 

 strictly to the plan of a book of problems, and, 

 indeed, some of the discussions do not tend to 

 clarify the subject in any degree. No student 

 can go through this book, however, without 

 being greatly benefited. 



Similar in grade to and not diflfering materially 

 in plan from the new edition of Anthony and 

 Brackett is the Elements of Physics, by Nichols 

 and Franklin, the third and last volume of 

 which has just been issued. Light and Sound 

 are the subjects considered, and the treatment 

 is largely mathematical yet elementary. There 

 are no problems or exercises, and the scheme 

 assumes lecture-table illustrations and occa- 

 sional expansions by the instructor supple- 

 mented by actual laboratory practice by the 

 student. Those who are familiar with the 

 earlier volumes of this series will not need to 

 be told that the work is well done and that the 

 publication of this volume completes a valuable 

 addition to the growing list of available text- 

 books for use in colleges and in engineering or 

 technical schools. 



Professor Nichols also offers, in the Outlines of 

 Physics, a text-book for the use of high schools 

 or academies, a thorough knowledge of which he 

 hopes may be accepted in lieu of a year of more 



advanced mathematics now required for admis- 

 sion to some colleges. There are some serious 

 objections to this plan, to which extended con- 

 sideration cannot be given in this place, for they 

 in no way concern the character of the book 

 under consideration. Every question concern- 

 ing the relation of the secondary school to the 

 college has two very distinct sides, but looking 

 at only one of them, namely, the college side of 

 the question, it may seem hardly wise to ex- 

 change a preparation in mathematics, which is 

 undoubtedly more perfectly accomplished than 

 anything else in secondary schools to-day, for a 

 course in physics, instruction in which is far 

 from what it should be. Professor Nichols's 

 book contains a good resume of the principles of 

 the science, and is intended to serve at once as 

 a text-book and laboratory guide. There is 

 much difference of opinion among teachers of 

 physics as to the wisdom of such a combination, 

 many holding that really substantial results in 

 the laboratory are only obtainable after a course 

 in a good text-book with lecture-table illustra- 

 tions, and that encouraging the average student 

 to do laboratory exercises from the start is like 

 plucking fruit before it is ripe. The immediate 

 result is unsatisfactory, and subsequent perfec- 

 tion is well-nigh impossible. To those who be- 

 lieve in the method, however, Professor Nich- 

 ols's book ought to take rank as one of the best 

 of its kind, and, on account of its sound expo- 

 sition of fundamental principles, much ahead of 

 many that have appeared within the last dec- 

 ade. 



Very similar in general character is the Inter- 

 mediate Course of Practical Physics, by Schuster 

 and Lees, which comes to us from the labora- 

 tory of Owens College, Manchester, to which 

 physicists are already indebted for a number of 

 high-class text-books. This book is extremely 

 well done and will be of interest and value to 

 all concerned with elementary instruction in 

 physics. It is more nearly a laboratory guide 

 than is Nichols's Outlines and should be used in 

 connection with a text book. It may be criti- 

 cised for the rather coarse experimentation 

 which is occasionally employed. The standard 

 of the laboratory should always be high, as the 

 value of the work to the student depends al- 

 most entirely upon the degree of refinement and 



