Smith's Essay Research Articles

Brougham and Brown: a note

THE REVIEW by Graham Jones of Harold Smith's essay on The Society for the Di !fusion of Useful K nowle'dge / prempts an airing of a point which insinuated itself during recent exploratiDn 'Of Samuel BrDwn (1779-1839) and his Itinerating Libraries. It is, hew much was Samuel Brown and his scheme an influence upon Lord BrDugham's ideas as manifested in the S.D.U.K.; Smith did nDt discuss· the connection. That Brougham was interested in Brown's experiment in East Lethian is evident from his pseudonymous article in the Edinburgh Review, in October 1824, under the running-title 'Scientific educatiDn 'Of thepeDple', which later appeared as a pamphlet with the title Practical observations upon the education of the people, in 1825. In bDth wO'rks he referred to' Brown's Itinerating Libraries in East Lothian in connectien with the develepment of Mechanics' Institutes. Indeed, as well as prometing his libraries, Brewn was alse president, until his death, of the Mechanics' Institute at Haddington, the county town 'Of Earst Lethian. Brown's sen (and namesake) recorded in his brief biography of his father that Brougham '... made lengthened and minute equiries by letter, to' his father.2 Unfortunately thIS cerrespondence does not appear ta have survived although there are a few letters between them an ather matters among the Brougham papers in the Library 'Of University College, London. There may be, perhaps, some reverse influence as well because a few years after the S.D.U.K. had been launched, Samuel Brown preposed a scheme fDr a natianal Itinerating Libraries Society which would gain sufficient income threugh hiring 'Out itinerating libraries ta enable it t'O launch inta cheap publishing, as the S.D.U.K. had. A resulting phenDmenon 'Of self-perpetuatiDn wauld enable the Society ta spread itinerating libraries of its 'Own publications all ever the warld. The praposal was very detailed, supparted with actuariallike calculations, and appeared in a pamphlet by his brO'ther, William Brown, Memoir relative to itinerating libraries (Edinburgh, 1831).

Clinical experiences with a series of Smith's fractures.

The uncommon fracture of the distal radius originally described by Smith in 1847 has received surprisingly little attention. Apparently the hiatus in the literature extends from the time of Smith's essay to the contribution of F. Brian Thomas in 1957. 7 Incidence Most standard textbooks of orthopedics 1,8 indicate that the actual incidence of this fracture has not been accurately assessed. Thomas included 19 cases collected over a 3-year period. Some idea of how frequently the lesion is seen in a private orthopedic practice is provided by a recent tabulation of 20 years of fracture experience in a report by Emmett 2 and associates in which there were 448 Colles' and only 23 Smith's fractures in instances where the distal end of the radius was involved. The latter represents less than 1% of a total of approximately 11,000 fractures seen by this group during this period. Annually, 1,800 to 2,000

Gaspard Monge

The mathematical work of Gaspard Monge is of too advanced a character to be included in this series of biographical notes, but the other details of his career present many points of interest to the high school student. The account which follows is based chiefly on the histories of Ball and Cajori, and on Professor D. E. Smith's essay “Gaspard Monge, Politician” which appeared in Scripta Mathematica, and which was reprinted in The Poetry of Mathematics and Other Essays, Scripta Mathematica Library, Vol. 1.