528 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



address of welcome by President Fraley was held on Monday 

 evening, and morning sessions on the four following days with 

 addresses and the reading of papers on various subjects. Many 

 distinguished representatives of Foreign Societies announced their 

 intention to be present. 



3. Hydrostatics and Elementary Hydrohinetics • by George 

 M. Minchin. 424 pp. Oxford, 1892. ( The Clarendon Press, 

 Macmillan & Co.). — The author professes to develop the mechanics 

 of fluids only far enough to introduce a beginner to such writers 

 as Besant, Lamb and Lord Rayleigh. Most students, however, 

 will find all that they need in this volume. The work shows the 

 same happy union of rigid analysis and clearness of statement 

 found in TTniplanar Kinematics. We find in the preface two 

 statements which seem to express the secret of Minchin's success 

 as a writer of text books. "I am convinced that more than one- 

 half of the efficiency of the teaching of any subject consists in 



the anticipation of those difficulties which are certain to 



occur to the student, and which if left unnoticed [are] like uncap- 

 tured fortresses in the rear of an advancing army." Again — 

 "The view that the fundamental notions of the differential calcu- 

 lus are a mystery .... which cannot be unveiled until great 

 experience in mathematics has been attained has long seemed to 

 be a most unfortunate fallacy." w. b. 



4. Elementary Mechanics of Solids and Fluids y by A. L. 

 Selby. 299 pp. Oxford, 1893. ( The Clarendon Press, Mac- 

 millan & Co.). — Mr. Selby is an excellent representative of the 

 English Scientific Reformers. He shows an Euclidian regard for 

 continuity of reasoning and his analysis follows the lines of 

 the Calculus; though without using its symbols. Such a text 

 book is elementary in form rather than spirit, and the student 

 who undertakes it with the equipment of a little Geometry and 

 Algebra, must read slowly enough to develop that mathematical 

 insight which is the gift of nature to only the favored few. w. b. 



5. Poole Brothers' Celestial Planisphere and The Celestial 

 Handbook. [Compiled and edited by Jules A. Colas, pp. xiv, 

 110. Chicago, 1892 (Poole Bros., 316 Dearborn St.) — A popular 

 work which will be found attractive by the class of readers for 

 which it has been prepared and will tend to increase the general 

 interest in the heavens and celestial phenomena. The planisphere 

 is well constructed and convenient for use. A full commentary is 

 given on each constellation comprising 140 figures, many of them 

 original. Much of the material is collected from recent astro- 

 nomical periodicals. Precise statement has sometimes been sacri- 

 ficed to an effort to avoid technicality. 



6. Practical Astronomy ; by Michie and Harlow. 218 pp. 

 New York, 1893. — (John Wiley & Sons). — A full and well arranged 

 guide for the observer and computer, which does not fill the place 

 of Chauvenet's Astronomy, but will save its owner much turning 

 of leaves in that book and the Nautical Almanac. The rules and 

 forms for numerical computation are especially helpful. 



