590 Scientific Intelligence. 



4. Ostical&s Klassiker der Exahten Wissenschaften. Leipzig, 

 1908 (Wilhelm Engelmann). — The following list includes the 

 titles of recent additions to this valuable series of scientific 

 classics (cf. xxv, p. 534). 



Nr. 163. Chemisch-optische Untersuchungen ; von J. H. Jel- 

 lett. tjbersetzet von L. Frank. Herausgegeben von W. 

 Nernst. Pp. 84, mit 6 Figuren im Text. 



Nr. 164. Newton's Abhandlung tiber die Quadratur der Kur- 

 ven (1704). Aus dem Lateinischen tibersetzt und herausgegeben ; 

 von Gerhard Kowalewski. Pp. 66, mit 8 Textfiguren. 



Nr. 165. Neue Stereometrie der Fasser, besonders der in der 

 Form am meisten geeigneten osterreichischen, und Gebrauch der 

 kubischen Visierrute. Mit einer Erganzung zur Stereometrie des 

 Archimedes ; von Johannes Kepler. Linz 1615, Druck von 

 Johannes Plank. Aus dem Lateinischen tibersetzt und heraus- 

 gegeben von R. Klug. Pp. 130, mit 29 Figuren im Text. 



5. Elementary Dynaynics ; by Ervin S. Ferry, Professor of 

 Physics in Purdue University. Pp. 182. New York, 1908 (The 

 Macmillan Company). — A teacher interested in his work is apt 

 to feel like giving it permanent form in a text-book. But in 

 most cases his methods are so peculiar to himself as to render 

 the book of little value out of his own hands, and this is the chief 

 reason why half the elementary text-books have so little excuse 

 for going before the public. This is especially true of text-books 

 on Mechanics, for in them preeminently peculiarities are apt to 

 be faults — and their besetting fault is bad logic. 



These criticisms do not apply to Professor Ferry's book, for 

 reasons which best appear from the author's statement in the 

 preface of his conception of how this difficult subject should be 

 presented to beginners : 



" All technical terms should be accurately and succinctly 

 defined. In all definitions the physical nature of the thing has 

 been emphasized instead of the mathematical formula which 

 expresses its magnitude. * * The number of propositions 

 derived from experience and experiment that are to be taken as 

 fundamental should be as few as possible. It has been found that, 

 with the exception of the properties of matter, all the laws of 

 dynamics can be deduced from five simple propositions derived 

 from experience and experiment. * * The laws of the sub- 

 ject should be deduced from the definitions and fundamental 

 principles by rigid methods whenever the advancement of the 

 student will justify it. To habitually accept without proof such 

 laws as the parallelogram of forces because they agree with 

 experience induces a flabby condition of the mind. It is, however, 

 more dangerous to employ mathematical methods with which the 

 student has had insufficient practice." w. b, 



6. Plane and Solid Geometry ; by Elmer A. Lyman. Pp. 

 340. New York, 1908 (American Book Company). — This is a 

 book through which the student must work his way, relying on 

 his reasoning powers rather than on his memory. The subject 



