Our Book Shelf

Abstract

WE are not often called upon to notice the fifth edition of a school text-book, but now that we have examined this one and compared it with our familiar third edition copy (issued in 1868) we are glad to be able to say that, though new editions have not appeared with the sensational rapidity of some similar works of late, yet with the steady advance in public favour there has been an evident desire on Mr. Puckle's part to bring up his work to the level of other treatises on the subject. Contrasting the two editions, we find there has been an increase from 343 to 379 pages, and not only has there been careful revision, but also an addition of very many articles of interest. It is to be borne in mind that no attempt is made to bring out a work which shall satisfy the requirements of a University man who is “reading high,” but the writer's aim has throughout been to write a purely elementary treatise on the lines of Dr. Salmon's “Conies.” Mr. Puckle rightly acknowledges his great indebtedness to this now classic work, and on the other hand it should be borne in mind that the first edition came out at a time when Salmon was not openly used as a College text-book at Cambridge. We are very glad to notice that Mr. Puckle has, in this last edition, adopted the notation of the general equation of the second order, according to Salmon. It is quite time that this notation should be adopted in all our text-books, for it is a needless burden upon the memory to get up the several conic formulae under different forms. A useful addition has been made to the number of worked-out exercises. A result of the book's having reached a fifth edition is that we have not noted any errata in the text.