1877-J 
Notices of Boohs. 559 
He even reminds manufacturers, municipal and sanitary 
authorities, &c., that “ it is not the business of the Courts to 
give instructions in sewage purification. 
The second part of the work is devoted to “ Riparian Rights 
and their Protection.” The author treats of such rights arising 
ex jure naturae , or by way of easements or custom, of their pro- 
tection by injunction or by an aCtion for damages. The appendix 
contains statutory provisions relative to water-courses and the 
vesting of sewers, There are also tables of statutes and of 
cases. 
As far as we are capable of judging this work is a valuable 
contribution to the literature of the sewage question, the law of 
which, as well as its chemistry and its engineering, requires to 
be brought clearly before the public. 
The New Formula for Mean Velocity of Discharge of Rivers and 
Canals. By W. R. Kutter. Translated from articles in 
the “ Cultur-Ingenieur,” by Louis D’A. Jackson, A.I.C.E. 
London and New York : E. and F. N. Spon. 
The author tells us in his preface that “while the lead in 
engineering progress generally, both theoretical and practical, 
seems to have been almost entirely taken by the English-speak- 
ingraces, and whilst improved construction, perfected appliances, 
and higher economy have progressed in the last thirty years at 
a speed perhaps greater than has ever been previously known, 
yet in the hydraulic branches of engineering no similar claim can 
be very satisfactorily made out for our own country. This 
seems at variance with our present requirements. 
“ We have in India a vast empire existing in a state of mutual 
dependence with England, whose enormous wealth is dependent 
on its population, whose population is dependent upon agricul- 
ture, and whose agriculture depends chiefly upon irrigation ; 
where water is like silver, and the science of its judicious appli- 
cation and control is like gold. We have in semi-tropical regions 
large colonies which suffer from devastating floods alternating 
with drought.” Thus far we are with the author ; the evils which 
he has enumerated might doubtless be obviated by a proper 
system of reservoirs to catch the rains when they fall ; of by- 
washes to carry the surplus part through towns and cultivated 
lands without occasioning devastation, and of conduits for the 
judicious distribution of the stored-up water in the dry season. 
To do these things is the work of the hydraulic engineer, and if 
he is to do them well he must not be required to work upon 
erroneous data. Two incidents in our modern domestic history 
—the Holmfirth and the Sheffield floods— confirm the author’s 
view that hydraulic science — at least in its practical applications 
— has not progressed amongst us as might be desired. Is it 
