Abstract
THIS, though not a bulky book, is a sort of miniature Encyclopædia of the subject. So far as we have read it it seems to have all the faults of the original (?) work to which Lardner's name was prefixed, with the important exception of the inaccuracies. These have been to a great extent removed, and the work has been brought up to date, but there is still the woeful want of order, or indeed of any guiding principle whatever which distinguished the former editions. It is a very curious mixture of good and bad, and cannot be called, in any sense, attractive to the reader. Numerous tables of experimental data are given, but they are in many cases carried to a number of places of figures quite beyond the present power of experimental science. Two, or perhaps three of the figures in the earlier places of each number are probably correct; the others give a show of minute accuracy which may altogether deceive the beginner. The treatment of the theoretical part is very meagre, but in the experimental part many curious facts not usually known are given. The book may be useful as a work of reference to those who are not in possession of Balfour Stewart's treatise, but we cannot say more in its favour.
Heat.
By B. Loewy (Lardner's Handbook of Natural Philosophy. Crosby Lockwood and Co., 1877.)
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Our Book Shelf . Nature 17, 43 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/017043a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/017043a0