Vis inertiae victa,[317] or Fallacies affecting science. By James
Reddie.[318] London, 1862, 8vo.
{184}
An attack on the Newtonian mechanics; revolution by gravitation
demonstrably impossible; much to be said for the earth being the immovable
center. A good analysis of contents at the beginning, a thing seldom found.
The author has followed up his attack in a paper submitted to the British
Association, but which it appears the Association declined to consider. It
is entitled--
_Victoria Toto Coelo_; or, Modern Astronomy recast. London, 1863, 8vo.
At the end is a criticism of Sir G. Lewis's _History of Ancient Astronomy_.
On the definition and nature of the Science of Political Economy. By H.
Dunning Macleod,[319] Esq. Cambridge, 1862, 8vo.
A paper read--but, according to the report, not understood--at the British
Association. There is a notion that political economy is entirely
mathematical; and its negative quantity is strongly recommended for study:
it contains "the whole of the Funds, Credit, 32 parts out of 33 of the
value of Land...." The mathematics are described as consisting of--first,
number, or Arithmetic; secondly, the theory of dependent quantities,
subdivided into dependence by cause and effect, and dependence by
simultaneous variations; thirdly, "independent quantities or unconnected
events, which is the theory of probabilities." I am not ashamed, having the
British Association as a co-non-intelligent, to say I do not understand
this: there is a paradox in it, and the author should give further
explanation, especially of his negative quantity. Mr. Macleod has gained
{185} praise from great names for his political economy; but this, I
suspect, must have been for other parts of his system.
On the principles and practice of just Intonation, with a view to the
abolition of temperament.... By General Perronet Thompson.[320] Sixth
Edition. London, 1862, 8vo.
Here is General Thompson again, with another paradox: but always master of
the subject, always well up in what his predecessors have done, and always
aiming at a useful end. He desires to abolish temperament by additional
keys, and has constructed an enharmonic organ with forty sounds in the
octave. If this can be introduced, I, for one, shall delight to hear it:
but there are very great difficulties in the way, greater than stood even
in the way of the repeal of the bread-tax.
In a paper on the beats of organ-pipes and on temperament published some
years ago, I said that equal temperament appeared to me insipid, and not so
agreeable as the effect of the instrument when in progress towards being
what is called out of tune, before it becomes offensively wrong. There is
throughout that period unequal temperament, determined by accident. General
Thompson, taking me one way, says I have launched a declaration which is
likely to make an epoch in musical practice; a public musical critic,
taking me another way, quizzes me for preferring music _out of tune_. I do
not think I deserve either one remark or the other. My opponent critic, I
suspect, takes _equally tempered_ and _in tune_ to be phrases of one
meaning. But by equal temperament is meant equal distribution among all the
keys of the error which an instrument _must_ have, which, with twelve
sounds only in the octave, professes to be fit for all the keys. I am
reminded of the equal temperament which was once applied to the postmen's
jackets. The coats were all made for the average man: the {186} consequence
was that all the tall men had their tails too short; all the short men had
them too long. Some one innocently asked why the tall men did not change
coats with the short ones.
A diagram illustrating a discovery in the relation of circles to
right-lined geometrical figures. London, 1863, 12mo.
The circle is divided into equal sectors, which are joined head and tail:
but a property is supposed which is not true.
An attempt to assign the square roots of negative powers; or what is
[sqrt] -1? By F.H. Laing.[321] London, 1863, 8vo.
If I understand the author, -a and +a are the square roots of -a^2, as
proved by multiplying them together. The author seems quite unaware of what
has been done in the last fifty years.