Editorial Notes. 
The April number of the Annals of Mathematics contains an article by Prof. H. 
B. Newson, on Hessians and Steinerians of higher orders. In this paper a sub- 
stantial advance is made in the theory of cononical forms of binary quantics of odd 
order. 
The ‘‘Elements of Physics” by E, L. Nichols and W. S. Franklin, issuing from 
the press of the Macmillan Company, has reached its third and final volume. Vol. 
[ treating of Mechanics and Heat and Vol. II on Electricity have already been 
noticed in these pages. Vol. III deals with Light and Sound, the two allied de 
partments of Physics in which the phenomena find their explanation in the proper 
ties of wave motion. 
Accordingly Vol. III opens with a mathematical discussion of wave motion. 
The authors have wisely given this discussion a geometric rather than an analytic 
form; wisely because of the fact that analytic formule are often handled with ease 
‘by the student and yet they convey to him very imperfect conceptions of the physi- 
cal phenomena they are intended to represent. This is because the formule are 
imperfectly interpreted; in other words the language of analysis, however elegant, 
is badly translated into the vernacular of familiar ideas. The results of analysis 
are never realized in the mind of the student until they are graphically presented 
either to the outward or the inward eye. Hence in Physics graphical methods 
when simple and direct are, pedagogically speaking, always to be preferred to 
analytical ones. 
Herein lies the secret of much of the surpassing clearness of this volume on light 
and sound. An abundance of well drawn geometric figures serve to convey to the 
mind accurate images of the abstract ideas. When perfection in this method is 
reached we shall have the true royal road to knowledge. ‘The writers of this text- 
book have produced a work that comes nearer to the above ideal than any similar 
work known to us. We doubt not but that this treatise on Physics will find a 
ready acceptance in such American colleges and universities as require of their 
students a working knowledge of calculus before admitting them to the courses in 
experimental and theoretical physics. Faby tS aN 
