The Year Book of Facts in Science and the Arts for 1875

Abstract

THE present volume is a decided improvement on its predecessor, though it is yet far from being what we hope to see ere long—an annual record of science similar to the excellent American publication edited with so much ability by Mr. Baird. We are glad to observe that this year Mr. Vincent has embraced a wider range in his excerpts, though the newspaper reports of the papers read at the last British Association meeting seem to have been a little too heavily laid under contribution. But then one must remember what a godsend such reports must be to the editor of scientific scraps: two copies of each paper, a pair of scissors, and a gum-bottle, and the thing is done. It would, however, be an injustice to Mr. Vincent to leave our readers under the impression thai this book is carelessly edited. Extracts from our own columns, the Philosophical Magazine, the Comptes Rendus, the Chemical News, the Academy, and other journals are largely made, and on the whole a wise discrimination and some care have been shown in the selection and arrangement of these scientific jottings. There are, at the same time, some striking omissions which ought hardly to have been passed over. No reference is made to Mr. Crookes's Radiometer and his experiments thereon, beyond a brief report of a discussion on the subject at the British Association. Nor is there any notice of the new system of quadruplex telegraphy, designed by Mr. Winter, nor of the largely increasing use of duplex telegraphy, owing to the valuable modification of that discovery—which really made the system a practical one—devised and carried out some time ago by Mr. W. H. Preece. We commend the editor to the columns of the Telegraphic Journal for information on these points. There are also other omissions of recent experimental researches, but as we have already said, this volume is not without its merits, and doubtless many will be glad to make use of the quantity of broken-up information it conveniently conveys. We presume Prof. Osborne, on p. 72, means Prof. Osborne-Reynolds.

The Year Book of Facts in Science and the Arts for 1875.

Edited by C. W. Vincent. (London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler, 1876.)