128 Reviews and Notices of Books. 
remembered that mathematical studies had not at that period 
begun to assume the importance at Cambridge which they have 
since acquired, partly through Barrow’s writings, partly through 
those of Newton. Long after these lectures had been published, 
Barrow had heard only of two persons having read them through, 
Slusius and James Gregory, and it is probable that, like the 
“Principia,” they made their way slowly. But they are now 
established as part of the standard literature of the country. We 
trust they may again find their way into the hands of youth. We 
trust, at any rate, that this edition may find many readers, and 
allure some kindred spirits into the paths which Barrow trod 
so well. 
Attractions, Laplace’s Functions, and the Figure of the Earth. 
By Joun H. Pratt, M.A., Archdeacon of Calcutta. Second 
Edition. 
We have great pleasure in introducing this little work to our 
readers, both for its author’s sake and its own. Archdeacon 
Pratt is one of those persons who have succeeded in devoting 
themselves heartily, and with full efficiency, at the same time, to 
the duties of a working clergyman and to the extension of science. 
When appointed to the chaplaincy of the late Bishop of Calcutta, 
about four and twenty years ago, he resolved to make his mathe- 
matical pursuits the main elements of relaxation, arguing that the 
overworked mind recovers its elasticity better from change than 
from want of occupation. Wisely confining himself mainly to one 
branch of the science, he has steadily devoted his recreation 
hours—not hore subsecive, as our friend Dr Brown calls those 
he has snatched from sleep (?)—to the examination of the subject 
of which this volume treats. Papers from the author were read 
before the Royal Society in 1855-58-59 and 1860, which will 
be found amongst the Transactions of that Society. In these 
papers he has examined the effect of the Himalayas, and the 
mountain ranges beyond them, on the plumb-line in India, He 
has examined also into the consequences of the fact, that whereas 
in the north there is an excess of dense mountain matter, in the 
south there is a corresponding deficiency, as the ocean stretches 
away from Cape Comorin to the south pole. He endeavours to 
explain the difficulty which those calculations have brought to 
light—namely, that the amplitudes of the arcs from Kaliana to 
Kalianpur, and from Kalianpur to Damargida, determined geo- 
detically, were so little in excess, as they proved to be of the same 
amplitudes determined astronomically—by attributing to the In- 
dian arc a curvature different from that corresponding to the mean 
