Notices of Books. 
415 
1878.] 
The merits of “ Ure’s Dictionary ” are so well known that we 
need do no more in the way of praise than to say that the present 
volume is not only on a par with the preceding ones, but is even 
superior to them, on account of the very numerous bibliographical 
references scattered through the book. 
Principles of Machine Construction, &>c. By the late Edward 
Tomkins. Edited by Henry Evers, LL.D. Vol. i,, text. 
Vol. ii. , plates. London : W. Collins, Sons, and Co. 1878. 
This work, which forms part of Collins’s Advanced Science 
Series, was left partly unfinished by the author, who died before 
its completion. His original design has, however, been fully 
carried out by Dr. Evers, who found he could not improve upon 
it. The first four chapters are devoted to a course of instruction 
in geometrical and mechanical drawing as applied to machinery, 
and are fully illustrated by nearly a hundred cuts and six quarto 
lithographic plates. The different kinds of motion and its trans- 
mission, the various forces, the materials of construction and 
their treatment, occupy the student’s attention during the next 
two chapters, the remainder being devoted to machines in gene- 
ral and their parts ; this portion of the book being illustrated by 
over two hundred and fifty woodcuts and more than forty plates. 
The plates in the accompanying Atlas, drawn by the late Mr. 
Tomkins, are well and clearly executed, and are sufficiently large 
and detailed to be used as drawing copies for advanced students 
in Science and Art Classes, to whose attention we cordially 
recommend these volumes. 
Free Evening Lectures, delivered in connection with the Special 
Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus, 1876. Published 
for the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, 
by Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly. 
The leCtures here published were of necessity somewhat popular 
in their character. As now presented to the reader they labour 
under the disadvantage of being unaccompanied by the experi- 
ments and objedts by which they were illustrated when originally 
delivered. Still they may be read by the general public with 
profit, and we trust not without pleasure. We must particu- 
larly call attention to the note appended to Mr. G. Carey Foster’s 
ledture on “ Electricity as a Motive Power,” in which the learned 
