6Q Notices respecting Keic Books. 



feeling assured that a great meteorological work has been commenced 

 in India with every prospect of its being carried on successfully, so 

 that in a few years it will rank with the greab American and 

 Mauritius systems, the oue gathering aud disseminating meteoro- 

 logical data over the North-American continent, the other working 

 up the meteorology of the Indian Ocean most advantageously, for 

 the benefit of the numerous vessels traversing its surface. We are 

 not unmindful of the labours in this direction of Piddington, who 

 effected for the Bay of Bengal and the China Sea what Meldrum 

 has for the Indian Ocean ; and we look forward with confidence 

 for some important and valuable contributions on the storms that 

 visit the Bay of Bengal in future volumes of the ' Indian Meteoro- 

 logical memoirs. Indeed the meteorology of India will not be com- 

 plete without a resume of the storms which have visited India and 

 the Laws deducible from them ;* and we are satisfied, from the 

 Reports before us, that India possesses men fully equal to the work. 



The Theory of Sound. By Joms T William Strtttt, Baron Bayleigh, 



M.A., FM.S., formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 



Vol. I. London : Macmillan, and Co. (8vo. Pp.' 326). 



This is the first volume of a work of great scientific importance. 

 Its object is to supply the student with a complete view of the 

 mathematical treatment of the subject ; to do for it in its present 

 stage of development what was done for it as it stood forty years 

 ago by Sir J. Herschel's " well-known article on Sound " in the 

 ' Encyclopaedia Metropolitan a.' In the present volume the author 

 does not get so far as to treat of Atmospheric vibrations. So ela- 

 borate a treatment of the vibrations of other bodies, it might be 

 thought, would turn the treatise into a general treatise on wave- 

 motions ; its limits, however, are determined by a sort of common 

 sense. But it will be best to let the author speak for himself on this 

 subject. 



" In the choice of topics to be dealt with in a work on Sound, I 

 have for the most part followed the example of my predecessors. 

 To a great extent the theory of Sound, as commonly understood, 

 covers the same ground as the theory of Vibrations in general ; but 

 unless some limitation were admitted, the consideration of such 

 subjects as the Tides, not to speak of Optics, would have to be in- 

 cluded. As a general rule we shall confine ourselves to those 

 classes of vibrations for which our ears afford a ready-made and 

 wonderfully sensitive instrument of investigation." (P. vi.) 



Of the ten Chapters comprised in the present volume, the first 

 three are introductory. The first gives a brief view of the leading 

 facts concerning the propagation of Sound, and those relating to 

 musical notes and tones ; the second treats of harmonic motions 

 kinematically ; and the third discusses very fully the case of a 

 vibrating body having one degree of freedom. The next two 

 Chapters (the fourth and fifth) are devoted to the consideration of 

 vibrating systems in general ; the last five to the special systems of 

 Strings, Bars, Membranes, and Plates. 



