236 



SCIENCE. 



[VuL. X. No. 249 



tions are only such simple diagrams as are required to elucidate 

 the text. Besides being an advantage in other respects, this plan 

 sets free a vast amount of space which can be utilized in the more 

 thorough presentation of the principles of the science. For illus- 

 trations of these principles, by experiment or from facts drawn 

 from observation, the instructor is held responsible, as he is also 

 for their practical application. 



In adopting this plan, the authors have unquestionably made a 

 decided advance. Although the treatment is mathematical wher- 

 ever desirable, it is assumed that the student has no knowledge of the 

 differential and integral calculus. In several instances the method 

 of limits has been used, however, and students who are familiar 

 with the calculus will have no difficulty in its application. The 

 subject is treated in the usual five grand divisions, mechanics, heat, 

 magnetism and electricity, sound, and light. 



Many physicists will not be able to agree entirely with the authors 

 in some of their fundamental definitions and statements in the 

 chapters upon mechanics. A close examination of these reveals 

 several inconsistencies, into which they appear to have been led by 

 the adoption of certain time-honored definitions and terms. Some 

 of these questions have received a good deal of attention during 

 the past few years, in the columns of this journal and elsewhere, 

 and probably the disputants are no more nearly in agreement than 

 they were in the beginning ; but it seems tolerably certain that 

 even the average student will experience a certain turbidity of mind 

 when he places the definition of ' momentum ' (viz., " the mo?>ientum 

 of a body is its quantity of motion" ) and that of ' motion ' (viz., " the 

 change in position of a material particle is called its motion " ) a 

 very little nearer together than they are now found on the pages of 

 the book. The first sentence of the introduction, " Every thing 

 which can affect our senses we call matter" has a ring of material- 

 ism about it which one would hardly expect from at least one of the 

 two famous institutions of learning from which the book comes. 



If these and other similar statements are admitted to be defects, 

 they are of minor importance, and do not materially detract from 

 the general excellence of the treatise. It is to be greatly regretted, 

 however, that the publisher has not done his part as well as the 

 authors have done theirs. In mechanical execution the book is 

 substantial, but very far from attractive in its appearance. 



Indtistrial Peace. By L. L. F. R. PRICE. New York, Macmillan. 

 8". 



Those who have given attention to the treatment of the labor- 

 question in England have heard of Arnold Toynbee, the young Ox- 

 ford graduate who founded an institution in the eastern part of 

 London for the purpose of bringing young men of education into 

 contact with the ignorant poor. After the death of Toynbee at an 

 early age, a memorial fund was raised in his honor, and devoted to 

 the work of spreading information by lectures and publications on 

 the subjects in which he was interested ; and the volume before us 

 is the first to be issued by the trustees of that fund. The greater 

 part of the work was first read before the Statistical Society of 

 London, and was published in the journal of that society for March, 

 1887. 



Mr. Price opens his work by remarking, what is sometimes lost 

 sight of by enthusiastic reformers, that " there is not, nor indeed is it 

 probable that there can be, any single panacea for social ills. . . . 

 So diversified are the details of even contemporaneous industrial 

 society, that any scheme which professes to cure all economic mal- 

 adies by an uniform unalterable method of treatment may almost 

 be said to carry with it its own condemnation " (p. I). Some persons, 

 he remarks, think that co-operation is destined to remove all indus- 

 trial difficulties ; but upon this point he thinks that experience is 

 not encouraging. Co-operative distribution has prospered in Eng- 

 land to a surprising extent ; but in co-operative production there 

 were in 1884 only ;£8oo,ooo of capital employed, and only 6,300 

 men. He believes, therefore, that whatever advance may be made 

 in co-operation and profit-sharing, the old relation of wage-payer 

 and wage-receiver will still continue ; and the object of his essay is 

 to inquire by what means this relation can be made more harmo- 

 nious. 



The means that he relies on are the creation of boards of concil- 

 iation and arbitration, and the establishment of sliding scales of 



wages. As an example of the former class, he describes the for- 

 mation and working of the board of conciliation organized in 1869 

 in the iron trade of the north of England, which he considers an 

 excellent test of the system, since the fluctuations of wages in the 

 iron trade are greater than in most others, and also because before 

 the board was organized the relations between workmen and em- 

 ployers was very unfriendly. In spite of these difficulties, however, 

 the method of conciliation has proved a great success. The 

 machinery consists of a board comprising representatives of both 

 sides and a standing committee appointed by the board. All 

 questions are first investigated by the committee, and, if they can- 

 not agree, the matter is laid before the board ; and, if an agree- 

 ment is not reached there, an arbitrator is called in to render a de- 

 cision. The system is similar to the conseUs de priid'hommes 

 that exist in France and Belgium ; but Mr. Price objects to these 

 on account of their legal character, which is contrary to the tradi- 

 tions of English, and, we may add, of American life. He examines 

 at length the working of the boards of conciliation, and then pro- 

 ceeds to consider the method of sliding scales, by which wages are 

 made to vary with the price of the product. The establishment 

 and maintenance of such scales have been attended with consider- 

 able difficulty, owing to disagreements as to what standard of 

 prices and wages should be taken as a basis ; but nevertheless 

 they have proved successful in many English collieries, and are still 

 in force there. The special advantages of these scales, in Mr. 

 Price's opinion, are their elasticity and their automatic action ; but 

 he does not fail to point out at considerable length the difficulties 

 attending the working both of the sliding scales and of the boards 

 of conciliation. The chief of these are, " the possibility that the 

 decision might fail to secure loyal adherence, the contentiousness 

 connected with the preparation and discussion of elaborate argu- 

 ments, and the difficulty of determining upon a satisfactory basis 

 and of ascertaining accurate data" (p. 89). 



Such is a brief analysis of the methods of 'industrial peace' 

 that have been tried with no little success in England ; and we 

 would earnestly recommend a study of them to the leaders of our 

 American trade-unions and to the employers with whom they are 

 perpetually contending. It is the duty as well as the interest of 

 both parties to maintain peace, and any methods that have been 

 successfully employed for this purpose ought to be carefully con- 

 sidered by them, and, if possible, put into practice. They will not, 

 of course, solve all industrial problems ; but the substitution of 

 peaceful methods for contentious ones would of itself be a great gain, 

 and would pave the way for further improvements in the future. 



Elementary Practical Physics. By B. Stewart and W. W. H. 

 Gee. Vol. II. Electricity and Magnetism. New York, Mac- 

 millan. 16°. 



All who are familiar with the contents of the first volume of 

 this work will extend a hearty welcome to the second. Every 

 teacher of physics by laboratory methods has felt the need of a 

 good handbook or guide, which, in the hands of the student, would 

 afford some relief from the labor of giving individual instruction in 

 the details of manipulation, which, when the number of students is 

 large, becomes simply enormous. 



Since the publication of Pickering's ' Physical Manipulations ' 

 fifteen years ago, the pioneer in this field, a number of attempts 

 have been made to supply the want. It is safe to say that none 

 have been more successful in producing a book at once satisfactory 

 in plan and material than Professors Stewart and Gee, in this series, 

 the second volume of which has now appeared. 



In its general character it resembles the first volume. One of 

 the leading features of the series, very prominent in this volume, is 

 the fulness of detail concerning all operations, the making of every 

 experiment, and the nature and construction of every piece of ap- 

 paratus used. Nearly all of the instruments described are such as 

 were constructed in the laboratory of the authors : they are simple 

 in design, and instructions for their ^production are so clear that 

 even the unskilful can hardly fail. The amateur instrument-maker 

 is also greatly aided by the numerous diagrams and cuts illustrat- 

 ing methods of construction. 



The value of this feature of the work can hardly be overesti- 

 mated, for it is a fact that many good teachers have little inventive 



