128 REVIEWS. 
Amherst, Hurst and Lattey of Oxford, England, Spinney of 
Iowa, added to those already in the field, make possible the 
selection of a text adapted to the particular conditions and aim 
of a given course. 
An addition to the above list is the recent book by Professors 
Reed and Guthe, of the University of Michigan, which, without 
doubt, will be received with interest by many instructors of 
college physics. The threefold aim of the book, as expressed 
in the preface, namely “(a) to present the fundamental facts 
of physics in a clear, concise, and teachable form; (b) to relate 
the fundamental facts to the basic laws and to the theories of 
physics in such a way as to render plain the historical growth 
of the science; (c) to put the student in direct touch with first 
hand information concerning the epoch-making discoveries of 
the past upon which the growth of the science has been based, 
as well as to afford an intimation of the marvelous progress 
of the present” has for the most part been admirably attained. 
Unless one is a firm believer that the best order of presentation 
is that which follows closely the historical development there 
can scarcely be any objection to the order in which the subject 
matter is arranged, except possibly in the treatment of the 
subject of current electricity before that of electrostatics. In 
this case the historical arrangement would seem to be the logical 
one, a knowledge of electrostatics being of fundamental impor- 
tance in the study of current electricity. Moreover, the study 
of the more interesting subject of current electricity is apt to 
detract from the interest which would otherwise be manifested 
in electrostatics. 
The authors are certainly to be commended on their third pur- 
pose, the attainment of which is largely due to a wise selection 
of references to original papers, which will enable the ambitious 
student to develop a spirit of inquiry into the methods employed 
in research, at the same time giving good examples of the logical 
interpretation of experimental results. 
The relative proportions of the book devoted to the different 
branches of physics does not vary greatly from the average of 
the more recent texts, with the exception that mechanics receives 
slightly less attention than the average, occupying about 13 per 
cent of the text, while the subject of radiation, with 7 per cent, 
receives somewhat more than the average amount of space. 
About 22 per cent of the book is devoted to molecular physies 
and heat, 8 per cent to sound and wave motion, 26 per cent to 
electricity and magnetism, 23 per cent to light, and 3 per cent 
to the electron theory. The 3 per cent devoted to the electron 
