Some Recent Works on Mechanics: A Treatise on Analytical Statics . By E. J. Routh. Cambridge, University Press. 8vo., Vol. I., pp. xii + 407, 1891; Vol. II., pp. xii + 224, 1892.; Traité de mécanique rationelle . Par Paul Appell. Paris, Gauthier-Villars et Fils. 8vo.,Vol. I., pp. vi + 549, 1893; Vol. II. pp. vi + 538, 1896.; The Elementary Principles of Mechanics . By A. Jay Du Bois. New York, John Wiley & Sons. 8vo., Vol. I., pp. x 4- 231, 1894; Vol. II., pp. viii + 392, 1894; Vol. III., pp. x + 296, 1895.; Dynamics . By P. G. Tait. London, Adam and Charles Black. 1895. 12mo. Pp. xii+361.; Elements of Mechanics . By Thomas Wallace Wright. New York, D. Van Nostrand & Co. 1896. 12mo. Pp. viii + 392.; Applied Mechanics . By John Perry. New York, D. Van Nostrand & Co. 1898. 12mo. Pp. viii + 678.; Ueber die Theorie des Kreisels . Heft I., Die Kinematischen und Kinetischen Grundlagen der Theorie. Von F. Klein und A. Sommerfeld. Leipzig, B. G. Teubner. 8vo. Pp. iv + 196.
R. S. Woodward · Science · 1898
once its purpose and test.In accordance with this view, it might prove simpler, as well as more honest and logical, to make any desired concessions to usage as exceptions rather than by introducing subsidiary rules of doubtful sanction, suoh as the fifty-year limit.We could then work with the ideal before us, and such differences as continued to exist would concern particulars merely.Many of tmhe points treated in the various codes are, relatively, matters of slight importance, and are doubtlesss capable of being settled for all except the most cantankerous by simple rules or by-laws whioh might accompany a general platform or code, since in many suoh matters usage furnishes the only criterion of judgment and no logical or moral principles are involved.Instead of being essentially complicated, however, nomenclature is in reality a very simple matter.Stability and uniformity are the prime requisites, and these can be attained under the binominal system by adhering t o the use of the oldest specific name without regard to generic reference, and by confining the application of a generic name to the genus in which its assigned type or first binominal species is included.The complicated and debatable nature of the various codes arises from the neglect of these principles or from attempts a t limiting their application, either for avoiding bibliographic labor or in the fnterests of usage. 0.F. COOK.