Abstract
THESE are two treatises on descriptive physics, of which the second book is merely an abridged edition of the first. Each is divided into three parts. The first deals with mechanics, including hydromechanics and acoustics; the second with radiology, including heat as well as light; and the third with electricity, being subdivided under the headings of electrostatics, electrodynamics and electrotechnics. In speaking of the subject-matter as descriptive physics, in contradistinction to mathematical or experimental physics, we mean to imply that the books belong to the class of popular treatises containing a general description of the properties of matter suitable for ordinary readers, and illustrated by pictures of steam engines, barometers, siphons, Atwood's machines, pumps, batteries, water boiled by cold, electric telegraphs and all that sort of thing. It is rather amusing to find in the chapter on general dynamics in the larger volume, not only an account of the mechanism of the Funicular Railway up Vesuvius, but also a description of the crater and of the panorama from the summit.
(1) Curso Elemental de Física Moderna; (2) Elementos de Física Moderna.
By Dr. R. Pedro Marcolain San Juan. (1) Pp. 804, with 894 woodcuts; (2) pp. 492, with 608 woodcuts. (Zaragoza: Emilio Casañal, 1900.)
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(1) Curso Elemental de Física Moderna; (2) Elementos de Física Moderna . Nature 65, 53 (1901). https://doi.org/10.1038/065053c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/065053c0