Q4s KBTIEWS— ANALYTICAL STATICS. 



it will become a recognised text-book on the subject-the general ar- 

 rangement being very good, and the execution of a great part of it 

 equally so, and the collection of examples being at once bountiful 

 and judiciously selected. And yet in spite of this tbe book is disfi- 

 gured by so many defects, and contains so much that absolutely < 

 inands the aid of the teacher, that it contrasts most unfavorably 

 with the clear and systematic treatises which the author has pub- 

 lished on the Differential Calculus, and on Analytical Geometry. 

 Some of these objectionable points we will proceed to point out — our 

 space will not admit of our entering into a detailed examination of 

 the work. 



Perhaps the portion of the work which most disappointed us was. 

 the first chapter, containing an exposition of the fundamental prin- 

 ciples upon which the science is made to rest. There was unques- 

 tionably enough room for improvement : in fact we rather suspect 

 that we should have treatises upon statics in sufficient abundance, if 

 it were not that many a would-be author is diverted from the task 

 by the dread of that unhappy preliminary chapter—" Introduction 

 and Definitions," as it is called in Mr. Pratt's book— Mr. Todhunter, 

 we suppose by way of making some variation, leaves out the " and'' 

 and calls Ms first chapter "Introduction, Definitions." Unfortu- 

 nately this variation in the heading gives but too faithful a represen- 

 tation of the changes made in the chapter itself. Of course when a 

 writer professes, as Mr. Todhunter does in his preface, that his 

 work may be considered as a " re-publication with large additions" 

 of a former treatise, we have no right to complain that a great 

 portion of the new work— the main bodv of «,« a *• 7 S 



we think that we have a n'o-lif 4-^ ™™ i • ■, <""** uook. ±Jut 



Wd *nsa a WS ^Zt^ "" f^ 

 ter some ten or fifteen vea™ W at hl ° h P assed m ™' 



"Introduction J^Z^JZ?™ * *" ^tt's 

 fromPoisson's Introduction to his " S ^., ahn08t Orally 

 of this Introduction Mr Pratt ■ W v i , ^ CaD ^ e '' Out 

 and almost pedantic form fn 1^ ^ ********** - the harsh 

 and h a s intermingled some e^^ Zlt^ *» ^H 

 explanatory matter the new editor has rTh, f ^ AU this 

 g^sn smsson)andn othi b a ^ ^thlessly swept away, and 



translation is occasionally defective Let~* Pt lndeed where *» 

 Poisson opens his treatise with the abrurl T ^ ** ^P 1 * 0r two - 

 -tiers est tmt ce qu i pent ^T^T™^ ^ "^ 



sens dune maniere quel- 



