r 165 ] 



X. Notices respecting New Hooks. 

 A College Course of Laboratory Experiments in General Physics. 

 Bif S. \V. Str.ytton and E. A. Milltkan. (Chicago, University 

 of Chicago Press, 1898.) 



THE experiments described in this volume are such as would be 

 included in an elementary course of accurate physical measure- 

 ments ; they involve a knowledge of theory derivable from a first- 

 year course of lectures. The authors give references to works in 

 which the theory of the experiments may he read, and occasionally 

 to others which describe practical manipulation. The volume is 

 consequently supplementary to these text-books, and furnishes 

 instruction concerning the details of experiment with apparatus 

 such as is used in the University of Chicago. Only in a few cases 

 does this apparatus differ greatly from that of other laboratories; 

 the book may therefore be found useful for British students. — J.L.H. 



2 f ' 

 On the Definite Integral "T^ 1 e~ t2 dt, with Extended Tables of 



Values. By Dr. James Burgess (pp. 65, 1! 

 Dr. Glaisher in his Report upon Mathematical Tables (Brit. 

 Association, 1873, p. 2) cites this integral as a familiar instance 

 of a function occurring in several distinct subjects, one which is 

 of importance in the determination of the probable error in the 

 method of least squares, in astronomical refractions, and in the 

 theory of heat (see also the reference cited by our author from an 

 article by Dr. Glaisher in our columns, Phil. Mag. vol. xlii. 1871). 

 Todhunter, in his ' History of the Theory of Probability,' p. 486, 

 states that Laplace suggested that it would be useful to tabulate 

 its values (178:')), hut Dr. Burgess points out that Euler probably 

 discovered it, in a slightly different form, about 1730. The 

 opening pages (1-5) give an account of previous tables, lie then 

 gives some formulae available for the computation, which arc 

 mainly three. Pages 27-65 are entirely taken up with the tables, 

 which appear, from a statement on page 25, to have been in hand 

 for manv years. The limits of t in (1) pages 27-39 are taken 

 from t = to £=1-250 ; in (2) pages 40-64, from #=1-000 to 3-000. 

 This excellent piece of work is a memoir published in the Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (vol. xxxix. part ii. Xo. 9). 



XL Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from vol. xlv. p. 543.] 



March 9th, 1898.— W. Whitaker, B.A., F.R.S., President, 



in the Chair, 



THE following communications were read : — 

 1. 'Note on Clipperton Atoll.' By Rear- Admiral Sir W. J. 

 Wharton, K.C.B., F.R.S., Hydrographer to the Admiralty. 



This atoll, 600 miles from North America, in lat. 10° 17' N., 

 long. 109° 13' W., possesses a lagoon which is now completely cut 



