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LVI. Notices respecting New Books. 



Text-books of Science. — The Elements of Mechanism. By T. M. 

 Goodeve, M.A., Lecturer on Applied Mechanics at the Royal 

 School of Mines. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1870. 

 Pp. 269. 



'T^HIS is the first published of a series of Text-books designed not 

 -*■ merely as school books, but as elementary treatises which, 

 while strictly scientific, shall exhibit the practical applications of the 

 theories they expound. The Series will comprise about sixteen 

 volumes ; and though several are announced as " nearly ready," some 

 time will probably elapse before the whole is completed. 



It is rather unfortunate that the first published of the series, how- 

 ever excellent in itself, should be a new edition, and not a completely 

 new work, as we understand the remaining volumes of the series are 

 to be. But though a new edition of a work first published in the year 

 1860, it is by no means a mere reprint, but has been rewritten and 

 greatly enlarged. In fact it contains nearly twice as much matter as 

 the first edition. The general arrangement and scope of the two 

 are the same, the enlargement being effected by the expansion of 

 some articles, and the insertion of additional articles here and there. 

 Thus : — The introduction has been expanded from seven to eighteen 

 pages. In the first edition there is an article (156) on Hooke's joint; 

 this is given almost unchanged in art. 171 ; but there is added an 

 article of nearly equal length (172) on the effect of interposing a 

 double joint between the axes. The articles on the parallel motion are 

 nearly the same in the two editions ; but in the present an additional 

 article (130) gives a brief account of the modification required to 

 adapt the parallel motion to an engine worked by both a high- and 

 a low-pressure cylinder ; and so on in other cases. 



It need scarcely be added that great improvements are hereby in- 

 troduced. The work is written with great clearness and a thorough 

 knowledge of the subject ; and though essentially a treatise on a 

 particular branch of Geometry, it will be readily intelligible to a 

 reader possessing no more than a very moderate acquaintance with 

 abstract mathematics. Its purely elementary character has rendered 

 necessary a certain want of system in the arrangement ; but a reader 

 who has mastered its contents will find it an excellent guide for 

 making out the complicated arrangements of machinery actually in 

 use. Should the succeeding volumes of the series preserve the same 

 practical and elementary character, they will be most useful aids to 

 scientific education. 



