Abstract
THIS little book is “designed for the use of schools, colleges, and candidates for University and other examinations.” In such a work it would of course be out of the question to look for novelty of matter: by the nature of the case, to praise the author's originality would be to cast a doubt on his accuracy; and, while inaccuracy would be inexcusable, no merit can be claimed for its opposite. Hence, in trying to form an estimate of a book like this, we are inevitably led to consider whether the subjects treated are arranged in a simple and natural order; whether the exposition of principles is clear and logical, the really fundamental matters being kept constantly and prominently before the student's mind, and special consequences and applications grouped about them in such a manner as to show distinctly their mutual connection and dependence: whether, in short, the book is scientific in treatment as well as in subject. We are sorry to say that, in these respects, our judgment of the work before us is by no means favourable. We should expect a student, instead of acquiring from it ideas which are capable of growth and expansion within his own mind, and being led towards the conception of the organic connection of all scientific truth, to conclude that science—or at least hydrostatics and acoustics—consists of a series of propositions which it is his duty to “get up” and write out on the first opportunity in answer to examination-questions. The least satisfactory parts of the book are the explanatory and descriptive portions, and especially the twenty-two pages at the end devoted to sound. The author says in the preface that “the whole contains all that is required on these subjects [hydrostatics and sound] for the B.A. and B.Sc. degrees of the University of London.” If this is true as regards the latter subject, it is more to the discredit of the University than to the credit of his book.
An Elementary Course of Hydrostatics and Sound.
By Richard Wormell. Fcap. 8vo, pp. viii. and 146. (London: Groombridge and Sons, 1870.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
An Elementary Course of Hydrostatics and Sound . Nature 3, 84 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/003084a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/003084a0