760 Notices respecting New Boohs. 



Memoir and Scientific Correspondence of the late Sir George 

 Gabriel Stokes, Bart., Sc.D., LL.D., D.C.L., Past Pres. E. S., 

 .Kt. Prussian Order pour le Merite, For. Assoc. Institute of 

 France, etc., Master of Pembroke College and Lucasian 

 Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge. 

 Selected and arranged by Joseph Larmor, D.Sc., LL.D., Sec. 

 E. S., Fellow of St. John's College and Lucasian Professor of 

 Mathematics. 2 vols. Cambridge : at the University Press. 

 1907. Vol. I., pp. xii + 475. Vol. II. pp. vi + 507. 



The two volumes now before us form a fitting sequel to the 

 collection of Sir Gr. G. Stokes's Mathematical and Physical Papers, 

 the last two volumes of which had been prepared for publication 

 by Dr. Larmor. They contain all that, after careful scrutiuy, 

 appeared to be of sufficient; interest in the voluminous corres- 

 pondence of Sir G. Gr. Stokes to justify publication. The question 

 of an authoritative memoir of his life having arisen, his daughter — 

 Mrs, Laurence Humphry — undertook the by no means easy or 

 simple task of preparing one, and the interesting account which 

 forms the opening part of the first volume is from her pen. Mrs. 

 Humphry's contribution is followed by a selection of letters to 

 Lady Stokes, letters on Science and Eeligion to A. H. Tabrum, 

 and Appreciations by Colleagues. The remainder of the work 

 contains the scientific correspondence, and covers — as might have 

 been expected from the versatility of Sir Gr. Stokes's genius — a vast 

 amount of ground. Nothing, perhaps, illustrates better the high 

 esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries, and the 

 implicit faith which was placed by workers in the most varied 

 departments of science in the soundness of his judgment, than 

 the constant stream of enquiries addressed to him, as revealed in 

 the two volumes before us. The readiness with which he 

 answered all such enquiries, and the interest which he was 

 always capable of taking in the work of others, cannot but excite 

 admiration. The letters relating to scientific subjects, though not 

 strictly classified, appear under two headings, " General Scientific 

 Career " and " Special Scientific Correspondence." No letters to 

 or from Lord Kelvin are included in the present collection, and 

 we are informed by the editor that they are to form a special 

 volume. 



The first volume is embellished with two portraits of Sir 

 G. Stokes, and one of Dr. Eomney Eobinson, while the presenta- 

 tion bust of 1899 to Pembroke College forms the subject of a 

 frontispiece to the second volume. From a typographical point of 

 view, the two volumes are all that could be desired. 



Index of Spectra. Appendix E. By W. Marshall Watts,. 



D.Sc. London : W. Wesley & Son. 1907. Pp. 67. 

 This appendix to the author's Index of Spectra contains the 

 spectra of radium emanation, chromium (spark), palladium (arc 

 and spark), and polonium. 



