Miscellaneous Intelligence. 619 



question. In so doing it is the reviewer's duty to endeavor to 

 avoid snap-shot conclusions, pet opinions, etc., and to be as 

 fair and generous as possible. In the present instance, however, 

 the authors have incorporated throughout the text so much 

 ''fun," "biting humor," and adverse criticism of other writers, 

 have made so many references to, and laudatory comments con- 

 cerning, their book entitled General Physics, and have introduced 

 new, unnecessary terms to supplant old, universally accepted 

 ones, as to make it almost impossible to form an unbiased opinion 

 of the pedagogical merits of the case. In short, the reader's 

 attention is continually distracted from the clear, sound explana- 

 tions by remarks which should have been given as foot-notes or 

 collected in additional "essays." Under these circumstances, 

 two sentences that occur in the volume should be quoted; they 

 are: (p. iv) "The authors are teachers, and they consider teach- 

 ing to be the greatest of fun, but they never yet have been helped 

 in their work by anything they have ever read concerning their 

 profession." (p. 98) "Any discussion which places emphasis on 

 the fact that the 'electromagnetic' unit of charge divided by the 

 'electrostatic' unit of charge is equal to the square of the velocity 

 of light, but which stops short of a complete elementary discus- 

 sion of electromagnetic wave motion, is, in our opinion, mislead- 

 ing and fantastic." h. s. u. 



II. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Journal of the Ceramic Society — This new journal, devoted 

 to the arts and sciences related to the silicate industries, has been 

 recently begun (Jan. 1918) under the editorship of Professor 

 George H. Brown of Rutgers College. It is published monthly 

 as the organ of the American Ceramic Society which was founded 

 in 1899 ; it takes the place of the annual volume of Transactions 

 previously published by the Society. The prospectus of the 

 journal states that "In the American Ceramic Society, the term 

 ceramic is synonymous with 'silicate industries' and the interests 

 and activities of the Society include all branches of the clayware, 

 glass and cement industries as well as enameled wares of all 

 kinds and in addition other closely allied products are included, 

 chief among which are abrasives, gypsum and lime. The prod- 

 ucts of the three major divisions alone (clayware, glass and 

 cement) aggregate over $400,000,000 per annum." 



Membership in the Society is open to anyone interested in any 

 branch of the ceramic industries and application should be made 

 to the Society. All members receive the Journal gratis ; to non- 

 members the subscription price is $6.00 per year (12 issues), 

 payable to the Secretary in advance ; single numbers cost sixty 

 cents. L. E. Barringer (Schenectady, N. Y.) is chairman of the 

 Committee on publication and the Society may be addressed at 

 the publication office, 211 Church St., Easton, Pa. 



