Abstract
THIS is the most recent volume of the well-known series of Text-books of Science published by Messrs. Longman. Mr. Glazebrook is already favourably known as an accurate experimenter and an able theorist in the subject of which this volume treats, and it is therefore unnecessary to say that the treatise under notice contains a large amount of authentic and interesting information on all branches of the subject. We must confess, however, to a certain feeling of disappointment after going through the book, arising chiefly from the fact that the author does not appear clearly to have made up his mind as to the class of readers to whom the book is to be useful. Those who have had any experience in real personal teaching of the artisans and students in science schools for whom the volumes of this series are stated to be intended, will soon perceive that Mr. Glazebrook has assumed an amount of mathematical knowledge and ability which very few of them possess. On the other hand results are occasionally assumed, the investigation of which would be quite within the reach of those university students who will probably form the larger part of the readers of the treatise. For instance, the investigation of the focal lines of a pencil refracted in a principal plane through a prism, and the condition of their coincidence in the position of minimum deviation, is settled by an βit may be shown,β although the analysis required is certainly not more difficult than much that is given in the book, and the point to be elucidated is of considerable importance.
Physical Optics.
By R. T. Glazebrook. (London: Longmans, 1883.)
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Physical Optics . Nature 27, 361 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/027361a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027361a0