July ii, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



25 



the intensive method. It required great courage on the part of 

 Dr. Peter, Dr. Lutaud, and others in France, and Dr. B. W. Rich- 

 ardson in England, to oppose the fashion. Had they not been 

 actuated by a pure love of science, they would have been silenced. 

 It is, however, not unsafe to prophesy that the intolerance of the 

 new school in France, as shown in its treatment of Professor 

 Peter, will bring about its own downfall. 



Have we any treatment, then, that is satisfactory, based on 

 these discoveries ? The only answer to this question must be an 

 emphatic "No !" The clinical observer has been very patient, 

 knowing that he could afford to wait. Professor Peter, one of 

 the greatest of contemporary clinical observers, and the worthy 

 successor of Trousseau, has endeavored to save medicine from the 

 reign of terror formed bi' the coterie which, in the name of 

 science, anathematized all who ventured to doubt their theories. 

 "You are unscientific," said the coterie; "you do not believe in 

 our methods of modern research, and you cannot have a hearing." 

 This kind of language has silenced many, because, when there is 

 a fashion, men foolishly imagine that they will be looked on as 

 progressive if they go with the tide. Martyrdom is not so eagerly 

 sought after; and social ostracism is the penalty, too often, for 

 appearing in a minority, as did M. Peter at the Academy. Clini- 

 cal observers may, however, take heart: there are signs that the 

 cloud will lift, and that medicine will yet be emancipated from 

 the trammels of what has been so well called "vaccinomania." 



BOOK-EBVIEWS. 



Advanced Physiography. By John Thornton. London and 

 New York, Longmans, Green, & Co. 13°. $1.40. 



This book treats of advanced physiography as defined by the 

 syllabus of the Science and Art Department of South Kensington, 

 London. It embraces a concise statement of astronomy; an ac- 

 count of the size, shape, and density of the earth; a brief consid- 

 eration of atmospheric and oceanic movements and of terrestrial 

 magnetism: and some mention of certain other things on which 

 questions might be asked in the science and arts examinations. 

 Several sample examination-papers are appended, so that the stu- 

 dent may, as it were, see what he is studying for. The examina- 

 tions certainly are of value, and tend to turn school studies in 

 directions approved of by competent educators; but, when it 

 comes to writing a book to meet the examinations, the lover of 

 pedagogics may well rebel. Mr. Thornton has done his task con- 

 scientiously. He has searched through good works for his mate- 

 rials, and has said something of every thing that the most ingen- 

 ious examiner could ask about, and said it concisely and well, 

 as a rule. He has avoided the staleness of old text-books, and 

 has introduced many results of recent investigations; but, for all 

 this, his book still leaves the impression of leading its students to 

 South Kensington, rather than to good mental training. More- 

 over, the frequent wholesale quotation from other text-books 

 gives the impiession that the author is too greatly a compiler, and 

 too little an investigator. In these modern days, when the prepa- 

 ration of school-books is considered worthy work for the director 

 of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, for the superintendent 

 of our Nautical Almanac Office, and for other eminent scholars, 

 it makes us a little impatient to meet a book that is so distinctly 

 a compilation as this one is; but perhaps we lay too great empha- 

 sis on this point. Books on physiography, as here defined, must 

 be in great part compilations, 



If not an investigator, the author is evidently a practised 

 teacher; and his chapters, paragraph headings, and illustrations 

 show an aptitude in methods of statement and explanation that 

 must bear good result. The careful account of the different 

 methods of finding the masses of the planets, the full description 

 of modern spectroscopy, and the extended chapter on comets and 

 meteors, may be cited in evidence of this. The accounts of the 

 tides and of the winds are distinctly less successful. Occasional 

 lapses appear, such as, "Heat and light are forms of radiant en- 

 ergy," or as latitude being shown as an angle at the centre of the 

 earth, or as making our tornadoes identical with West Indian 

 hurricanes and Chinese typhoons; but errors of even this minute 



kind are not common. Condensation of statement in certain 

 chapters will either leave much work for the teacher, which is 

 not otijectionable if he is equal to it, or will leave the scholar in a 

 very confused state of mind; and this leads back to our starting- 

 point, that a book prepared to enable students to meet examina- 

 tions is not the best kind of a book for securing intellectual train- 

 ing. 



Oraphical Statics. By LtnGi Ckemona. Tr. by Thomas H. 

 Beare. Oxford, Clarendon Pr. 8°. (New York, Macmillan, 



13.25.) 



Those who are accustomed to make use of mathematics as a. 

 tool, and who are not able to ascend into the higher regions of 

 pure mathematics farther than is necessary to secure their practi- 

 cal ends, especially the engineer seeking the solution of the prob- 

 lems in kinematics and in mechanics that come to him in the 

 course of his regular professional work, often have occasion to 

 remark upon the extremely limited range of problems which are 

 capable of solution by algebraic processes, and upon the greater 

 effectiveness of the geometric methods. A glance at any treatise, 

 on any branch of engineering, will show how narrow is the field 

 of application of the algebraic systems to the practical work of 

 the constructor. Where the elements are few, the conditions- 

 very simple, and the results sought similarly easy of expression, 

 algebraic methods come in play; but, as in astronomy, the intro- 

 duction of a little wider generalization, of a single new condition, 

 often carries the problem entirely outside the field of application 

 for the algebraist. Algebra does marvellous work, but its limits 

 are soon reached. Graphical methods are often found to be far 

 more satisfactory, not only in their ease of application, but in the 

 readiness with which the results may be comprehended and 

 translated into the language, and represented by the work of 

 every-day practice. Thus it happens that "graphical statics" has 

 come forward, within a very short time, as the most valuable tool 

 of the engineer. 



The father of the system, in some sense, is the well-known Cul- 

 mann, whose treatises have been translated into English by Du- 

 bois; but some work had been done even before he attempted 

 collating and systematizing it. Rankine did much in this field; 

 and many minor writers have added, each his mite, to the sub- 

 ject. We observe that Cousinery is credited with many contri- 

 butions to the subject by the writer of this latest treatise. Pro- 

 fessor Cremona begins by the presentation of the system of signs 

 adopted, in which he follows Moebius, and then takes up the 

 work in the usual way, giving the standard methods of arith- 

 metical treatment, the graphics of the four rules; the discussion 

 of the processes of graphical involution and evolution; the solu- 

 tion of numerical equations; and the discussion of the centroids. 

 The second part consists of a discussion of reciprocal figures, in- 

 cluding Rankine's theory of structures and polygonal frames, and 

 Culmann's work in the same department. The work is well 

 written, the system satisfaciory, and the methods in detail logical 

 and exact. Professor Beare is entitled to commendation for his 

 admirable translation; and both he and its author deserve much 

 from the English-speaking reader and student of "Graphical 

 Statics." 



Like all the work of the Clarendon Press, the book-making is 

 excellent, and deserving of all praise. 



Cycling Art, Energy and Locomotion. By Robert P. Scott. 

 Philadelphia, Lippincott. 13°. 



Tms is an interesting little 12mo treatise on the art of the 

 wheelman, which, in a space of three hundred pages, gives a 

 good historical summary, and an account of the later forms of the 

 wheel, and of the principles of their construction and operation, 

 and presents the mathematical and scientific principles of their 

 balancing and propulsion. One of the most interesting chapters 

 In the book is that in which the author gives the graphical meas- 

 urements obtained by him with an autographic apparatus devised 

 by himself to record the resistances to the motion of the machine 

 and the pressures of the foot on the pedal. Exact knowledge on 

 these points has not heretofore been obtainable, and this inve^ti- 

 gation is a real contribution to our knowledge in this field. The 



