Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 305 



Clarendon Press Series. A Treatise on Statics, containing the funda- 

 mental Principles of Electrostatics and Elasticity. By G-eoegb M. 

 Minches", M.A. Dublin, Professor of Applied Mathematics in the 

 Royal Indian Engineering College, Cooper's Hill. Second Edition, 

 Corrected and Enlarged. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1880. 

 (8vo, pp. x and 518.) 



We noticed the first edition of this work at the time of its pub- 

 lication (p. 386, vol. iv. fifth series), and expressed our sense of its 

 great merits as a comprehensive treatise on Statics. We need not, 

 therefore, do more on the present occasion than mention the leading 

 points in which this second edition differs from its predecessors. 

 There are, of course, numerous minor alterations and corrections, 

 such as those which are almost invariably required in the second 

 edition of a mathematical work abounding in examples, or as the 

 division of chapter 6 of the first edition into chapters 6 and 7 of 

 the new edition. Besides these alterations there are additions of 

 importance — such as the articles in chapter 5, on the force polygon 

 and the funicular polygon, and on the construction derived from 

 them of the resultant of a given system of forces in one plane ; and 

 those on " Astatic Equilibrium," a subject on which an interesting 

 paper was published not long ago by the author in the Proceedings 

 of the London Mathematical Society. The most important addi- 

 tion, however, is chapter 16, on what we pointed out as an omitted 

 subject in our notice of the first edition. It treats of the Equilibrium 

 of an Elastic Solid, and consists of three sections, viz. the "analysis 

 of small strains," the " analysis of stresses," and the " expression of 

 stress in terms of strain." Although the chapter runs to the 

 length of sixty-two pages, it may be surmised that the author felt 

 himself rather in want of space, qr he would hardly have given so 

 important a theorem as " the equation of three moments " in the 

 form of an unworked example. However, the chapter is a most 

 valuable addition to the work, and one that will require and repay 

 the student's closest attention. 



The present edition is issued as a volume of the Clarendon Press 

 series, and is printed in the ordinary octavo form. The latter cir- 

 cumstance has greatly improved its appearance ; it has also given it 

 the air of having been greatly enlarged ; but so far as we have com- 

 pared the two editions this does not seem to have been the case, 

 except so far as chapter 16 is concerned. 



XL. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON THE TEMPERATUKE OF FROZEN LAKES. BY F.-A. FOREL. 



TJST 1879 some interesting thermometric soundings beneath the ice 

 -*- of the Scotch lakes were published in ' Nature,' vol. xix. p. 421, 

 by Mr. J. T. Buchanan, which have considerably modified the 

 accepted ideas upon the limit of the vertical propagation of cold 

 in fresh water. Instead of finding at the bottom, as was ex- 

 pected, a layer of water with the temperature of 4° C. (that of 



