ISIS.] Analyses of Books, 5^ 



tvater, when nothing disturbs it. In calm weather, it sometimes 

 sleeps in this situation. It sometimes ascends with so much 

 force, as to leap entirely out of the water ; wlien swimming at 

 its greatest velocity, it moves at the rate of seven to nine miles 

 an hour. 



Its maternal affection deserves notice. The young one is 

 frequently struck for the sake of its mother, which will soon 

 come up close by it, encourage it to swim off, assist it, by taking 

 it under its fin, and seldom deserts it while life remains. It is 

 then very dangerous to approach, as she loses all regard for her 

 own safety in anxiety for the preservation of her cub, dashing 

 about most violently, and not dreading to rise even amidst the 

 boats. Except, however, when the whale has young to protect, 

 the male is in general more active and dangerous than the fe- 

 male, especially males of about nine feet bone. 



The principal enemies of the whale are the sword-fish and 

 thrasher. It is probable that the shark is also an enemy to the 

 whale, for it attacks the dead carcase ; and the whale is seen to 

 fly those quarters of the sea where the shark abounds. 



Hitherto no accurate representation of this vast animal has 

 appeared in the writings of zoologists. The drawing here en- 

 graved I executed in Greenland, and its accuracy was proved, by 

 finding that it agreed in every particular with the numerous in- 

 dividuals I afterwards met with in the Arctic Ocean. 



Article IX. 



Analyses of Books. 



Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 

 for the year 1812. — Part I. This part contains the following 

 papers : — 



L On the Grounds of the Method which Laplace has given 

 in the Second Chapter of the Third Book of his Mecanique Ce- 

 leste^for computing the Attraction of Spheroids of eyery Descrip^ 

 tion. By James Ivory, A.M. 



IL On the Attractions of an extensive Class of Spheroids. B| 

 J. Ivory, A.M. 



These two papers are, perhaps, the most profound which 

 have appeared in Britain on any mathematical subject for 

 many years ; and would be sufficient alone, though the author 

 had done nothing eke, to raise him to the rank of one of the 

 first mathematicians of the age. Uncommon pains have been 

 taken to render these papers as perspicuous as possible : but it 

 seems scarcely possible that they should be understood without a 

 previous acquaiatance with the Mecanique Celeste @f Laplace. 



