Astronomy and Mathematics. 1 09 



IY. Astronomy and Mathematics. 



1. An Introduction to Celestial Mechanics ; by F. R. Moul- 

 ton. Second revised Edition. Pp. xvi, 437 ; 62 figs. New York, 

 1914 (The Macmillan Co.). — The issue of a second edition of 

 Professor Moulton's work points not only to a continued interest 

 in celestial mechanics but also to the fact that the volume satisfies 

 a need. The gap between a text-book on descriptive astronomy 

 like that of Young and the big treatise of Tisserand in four 

 quarto volumes requires filling by just such a publication. The 

 student who has mastered it and desires to specialize in any of 

 the departments of celestial mechanics will have received the 

 necessary foundation and will be enabled to go forward without 

 having continually to return in order to supply some lacuna in 

 hjs information. 



A few additions have been made but this second edition is not 

 very largely increased. The author has, however, rewritten 

 several portions, as suggested by experience in using the book in 

 the class-room, and has brought those subjects which have 

 advanced in the interval of eleven years, up to date. Two excel- 

 lent features of the work are the problems and the bibliographies 

 at the end of each division. e. w. b. 



2. Memorabilia Mathematical or the Philomath's Quotation- 

 Book ; by R. E. Moritz. Pp. vii, 410. New York, 1914 (The 

 Macmillan Co.). — A volume containing over a thousand quota- 

 tions from more than three hundred writers should be a boon in 

 these days of addresses and public lectures. Here is material 

 referring to the values and excellencies of mathematics gathered 

 from poets, philosophers, historians, scientists and mathemati- 

 cians, grouped under twenty heads and cross indexed under 

 nearly seven hundred topics. Professor Moritz's collection is 

 essentially a dictionary of quotations, but unlike most dictiona- 

 ries the curious reader can open it almost anywhere and peruse 

 several pages in succession without suffering from mental conges- 

 tion. While every student of mathematics must welcome the 

 appearance of a volume which can set forth in non-technical 

 language the excellencies of his subject, one cannot help feeling, 

 on glancing through it, that many of the quotations might have 

 been omitted without loss. A commonplace remark apart from 

 its setting, and there are many such printed, is apt rather to repel 

 than to attract. Nevertheless, it should stimulate an interest in 

 the history of the subject and should for that reason be within 

 easy reach of the student. e. w. b. 



3. Publications of the Allegheny Observatory of the Uni- 

 versity of Pittsburgh. — The following have been recently issued 

 (see vol. xxxvi, 89): Yolurae III, No. 4. The Orbit of A. Tauri; 

 by Frank Schlesinger. Pp. 23-30. 



No. 5. Spectrographic Observations of <£ Persei; by Frank 

 C. Jordan. Pp. 31-41. 



No. 6. Thermo-Electric Measurements of Stellar Radiation; 

 by A. H. Pfund. Pp. 43-48. 



